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Many a night we have discussed the difference between your wife’s brave, unceasing kindness and Fulvia’s less evident affection.

That is not to say that Miss Fulvia (as I am accustomed to addressing her) does not feel genuine affection for her mother, but her triumph in King Lear means that she has many claims on her time.

I’d like to share some information given to me last week as regards the canal running to the west of the estate …

* * *

LADY ELLA PEREGRINE

TO BEATRICE LLOYD, DUCHESS OF LENNOX

SENT FROM YORKSHIRE

January 16, 1815

Dear Bea,

Congratulations on your marvelous news! I hope that the newest family member didn’t make you too ill to enjoy Christmas treats.

The fact that Regina stomped out of the house made me very curious about whether she stomped back in for the holiday. It may be optimistic, but I would hope that hearing a month of UTs (Unkind Thoughts) did her good.

We will happily come stay with you next summer, baby in tow. Frankly, I cannot wait until this child arrives. Fiennes can’t leave the house because he is needed to haul me out of chairs.

This morning, my midwife kept her ear to my belly for a full five minutes and assured me that, though my belly is mountainous, she can only hear one heartbeat. The child must take after Fiennes, given the size and the kicking going on.

Addendum.

Dearest, I am picking this up after a week because the very day I began writing to you, the 16th, Charlotte was born just before the stroke of midnight!

Lottie has my hair and I’m afraid, poor scrap, that she has my temper too. She arrived in the world with a bellow of rage and has spent a great deal of the last week complaining.

Luckily, she loves the breast (like you, and most unfashionably, I am nursing her myself). Lottie also loves her papa. Fiennes can lure her to sleep with his deep voice. Yesterday I woke to find him reading her The Morning Post.

I get teary at the thought even now, but he gave me the most wonderful present in honor of Lottie’s birth. He had hidden it under the bed and pulled it out just as soon as I staggered out of the bath (you know precisely how I felt at that ungainly moment!).

Fiennes managed to find a portrait of my mother holding me as a baby, which my uncle had sold years ago. Mother is wearing the pearl circlet that I wore to my debut. So now I feel as if I have a little bit of her back, and I won’t forget her face again, which is a blessing almost as large as Fiennes and Lottie.

Of course, he recovered the circlet as well, and now he is determined to find a portrait of my father.

I truly feel as if I fell into a fairy tale, Bea. I found a knight in shining armor to rescue me from the garret and restore my family.

Not to mention giving me a new one!

I’ll leave it there, as I can hear Lottie bellowing from the floor above. I hope that you are well, and that your delicate condition, as they call it, is uneventful.

With great affection,

Ella

* * *

MRS. FULVIA WOODWARD, STAR OF THE THEATER

ROYAL AT DRURY LANE

TO HER MOTHER, MRS. ANNISE JARVIS

SENT FROM LONDON