Page 98 of Regency in Color

Chapter Six

The week passed too quickly.

With only six days left before Andie’s debut at the Waterloo re-enactment in Vauxhall, his family was the last thing he wanted to think about. He couldn’t close the theater on such short notice, so he’d left it in the care of Alessandra and Cosimo. They’d been with him since Naples, and they knew how things were run. Their own house was right next door, though they were rarely in it. He’d reluctantly handed over his keys, feeling like he was parting with a piece of himself.

He hadn’t seen Andie all day. She’d said she had some family obligation but promised to return on the weekend to see Lulu about her dress. The dress Lu had imagined for her was so elaborate that they’d hired a local seamstress to put the whole thing together, but his daughter wanted to make a few little adjustments of her own. At fifteen, she was a prodigy. If she kept it up, she’d have her own business by twenty.

Frank smiled at her from the opposite side of the carriage. They walked almost everywhere, so riding in the hired hack was an unusual experience for her. She watched the city roll by with her serious, all-seeing eyes, no doubt cataloging every lane. “Are you all right, Lu?”

She gave him a nod and a small smile.

“Nervous?” he asked.

“A little.” Her fine eyebrows drew together. “I knew Grandmother was a duchess, but what I don’t understand is why they want to see us now. Why not last year or the year before?”

It was around the time that Lulu turned five that Frank stopped wondering when they were going to visit and started feeling angry about it. There she was, the most precious little girl in the whole world, and they didn’t want anything to do with her. He hadn’t forgiven them for that. “It’s her seventy-fifth birthday. Your uncle Will thinks that’s important.”

“More important than fifteen?” she asked.

“Absolutely not.” He looked out the window, beginning to recognize the houses. He hadn’t been this far into the West End for years, but very little had changed. As the houses grew bigger, he wondered if Andie lived in one of them or somewhere closer to him. In all the excitement of the previous month, they still hadn’t called on her for tea. “I suspect they’re hoping I’ll come to my senses and marry some society girl.” Or that Lulu will become one of them. Frank cringed.

Lulu frowned. “You can’t do that. You have to marry Miss Archer.”

Frank sat up straighter, startled. “Why would you say that?”

“Because you’re in love with her,” Lulu said slowly as if he was stupid. “It’s all right; she loves you too. She makes this little noise whenever you come out wearing kohl.” She made a high-pitched squeak in the back of her throat. “Just like that.” She did it again.

“Is there anything you don’t notice?” He laughed in spite of himself, then sighed. “Nah, she’s too good for me.”

Lulu met his eyes, deadly serious. “No one’s too good for you, Dad.”

The carriage slowed as it turned onto his old street. Up ahead, there were so many carriages lined up outside the house that it would still be several minutes before they reached the door. Frank had loved the house growing up, but he hadn’t lived there since he was seventeen. Trying to take his mind off his nerves, he returned to the conversation at hand. “How would you feel about that? If Miss Archer took leave of her senses and came to live with us.”

“It only makes sense. She’s there every day, and she has an awfully long drive…” Lulu smiled hopefully.

Frank had no idea how she knew what she knew, but he’d long since stopped asking. “You’re right about that.”

As the carriage finally stopped, Lu gave his hand a little squeeze. “It’s going to be all right, Dad.”

Nearly moved to tears, he patted her hand back, trying to be strong. “It will. Listen, if your grandmother or anybody else says anything to upset you, you tell me and I’ll sort them out.”

Lulu nodded sagely. “You too.”

Frank grinned to himself. Most would find the idea of a child defending them laughable, but he knew better than to underestimate his daughter. “All right, poppet. Let’s go.”

* * *

The house was exactlyas he’d left it.

The décor hadn’t changed in thirty years. Every painting, vase, and candlestick was in its rightful place, just like Will and Marie greeting guests in the foyer. At fifty-four, Will had grown into the perfect duke, correct in all ways with a thriving estate and five children of his own. Frank had last seen Marie when she was only eighteen; she’d seemed so mature when he was a child, but now he realized she hadn’t been much older than Lulu was now. She barely acknowledged them before they made their way through to the banquet.

“Franz! Is that really you?”

His second brother, Gustav, was loitering near the pork pies with Fritz, his fourth. Both looked at him as if seeing a ghost. Frank joined them at the table and accepted a glass of sherry. He introduced Lulu before she wandered deeper into the party on her own, distracted by something.

Frank scratched the back of his neck. Anxious, he tried to focus on what they were saying. Now fifty-two and forty-eight respectively, they’d both had decades of adventures of their own they were eager to fill him in on. When he mentioned the theater, they grew quiet. “That’s brilliant, Franz, truly,” Gus said, not meeting his eyes. “We’d love to come see it, but…erm, you know.”

“The children,” Fritz interjected.