“That’s the saddest, most boring thing I’ve ever heard, Sophia Brancelli. What has happened to your sense of fun? I swear you describe everything like old Mister Crockett, Papa’s solicitor. I want to dress you in exotic silks, feathers, and pearls.” Lydia stamped a foot in emphasis.
“That would be nice,” Sophie admitted, “but let’s be realistic. There will be no money for an expensive wardrobe until I have this ‘proper gentleman’ in hand, which presents a thorny dilemma.”
Her friend sat down with a sigh onto a plump, chintz-covered sofa and shook her head. “What a sad way to plan a Season of parties. I suppose all these ‘ensembles’ will be the same color so they’re interchangeable?”
“What a great idea.” Sophie giggled a bit. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She turned back to the table and continued leafing through the fashion magazine.
Lord Howick chose that moment to lean through the doorway into the room. “Good morning, Sophie, Lydia. Where is Lady Howick? Has she come down yet for breakfast?”
Even Lydia was speechless for a moment. They rarely saw Lydia’s father at that hour. He usually was up before everyone, at work in his study before setting off for meetings at Westminster.
“She’s probably resting in her room this morning, Papa.” Lydia gulped and added, “Have I done something…?”
“I don’t know. Have you?” He flashed his daughter a mysterious smile and ducked back out into the hallway.
Lady Howick took a final, long draught of cocoa and put the cup back on the breakfast tray before reaching to the side of her bed and tugging on a bell pull.
An immediate, sharp rap on the door startled her. She hadn’t expected someone to run up to her third-floor aerie that quickly.
“Come.” She gathered her shawl tightly around her shoulders and swung her feet onto the floor and into warm slippers.
She absorbed another shock when her son was the one who appeared. “Howick. Is something wrong?”
“No. Not that I know of. But with your granddaughter, one never can tell.” His quirky smile set her at ease. “Do you have time to talk?”
“Of course. Come sit by the fire.” She led the way to a small sofa at the foot of her bed piled high with soft pillows.
One of the housemaids had set a strong blaze in the fireplace before Lady Howick had awakened.
In the prolonged silence that followed, she studied her only surviving son. Her daughter stayed at their country home, never returning to town after she’d been released from captivity in Algiers. She rarely spoke to anyone, not even her mother, and above all, refused to speak of what she’d been through. They let her stay cloistered away from society by tacit agreement.
And then there was her sweet daughter-in-law, Lydia’s mother, who died in childbirth. Lady Howick sometimes wondered how much grief one family could stand and marveled at Howick’s strength in soldiering on and caring for all of them. He was still a vital young man. His only concession to the effects of age and his hard work in the House of Lords was a bit of silver in his beard. She’d hoped he would re-marry, but lately she’d given up, accepting that he was content. She suspected he kept a mistress but would never ask.
Finally, she broke the silence. “Pray, tell me what burden you’ve come to unload.”
He turned suddenly and the sunny smile of his childhood broke through. “No burden, Mother. I’m here to ask what I can do to help Sophie. We need to see her safely married, and I want to make sure she has what she needs. I just passed the sitting room and overheard Lydia trying to convince her to buy an outlandish wardrobe for the Season. Sophie is worried about spending too much of your funds. She’s trying to scrimp on what she’ll have made by Mrs. Bellingham’s modiste.”
“Howick, from whence has this sudden concern for women’s fashion come? You’ve never, in my recollect, ever taken an interest in fashion and fripperies.”
He stood and paced to the fireplace and back. “I understand why you might wonder at my motives, but I’ve always regretted not being there to save Lilianne and young Jamie that day at sea, not being able to stand up to the pirates and rescue them. And then when the ransom demands arrived… Thank God Admiral Pellew’s expedition was successful, and she’s now home safe. I suppose Sophie’s vulnerability with this kidnapping attempt brought those feelings back. I refuse to stand by and let her dreams be shattered by this stilted society’s opinions.
“I realize Lydia’s expenditures have to be taken in hand periodically,” Howick said with a smile, “but poor Sophie needs as much help as we can provide. I would be grateful if you could oversee their plans and make sure Sophie has what you think she’ll need. I’ll make up the difference, but, please, do not tell her where the funds come from. She would be embarrassed, not to mention the tongues that would be set wagging amongst those in thetonhigh in the instep.”
Lady Howick tried to ignore the aching wound in her own heart whenever she remembered the dark time when Lilianne had been taken hostage and her younger son had died trying to protect her. She sank back into the cushions and gave Howick a quizzical look. “I’m still a little confused by this much interest on your part. Are you sure there’s not more to this than just a throwback to the feeling of helplessness in your sister and brother’s situation?”
“This is different, of course, but Sophie’s future happiness depends on attracting the right sort of match.”
“Your own daughter is hopelessly deficient in the marriage market, and I’ve never heard you worry on her account…” The question on her lips remained mute.Why all the concern for Sophie?
“Don’t you remember when both of them were very young, even though Sophie and Lydia were barely a year apart, Sophie instinctively ‘mothered’ Lydia?” What Howick did not admit openly was Sophie’s capable caretaker air belied the kiss of Italian sun on her skin and the promise of warm, lazy afternoons drinking wine, remembered from his own youthful Grand Tour.
What Howick wasn’t saying was the way he’d watched Sophie grow from coltish adolescence into the breathtaking young woman she’d become while in exile with her father. Her transformation when she re-joined their household had left him a bit off balance. And then there was a certain person dear to his heart whose happiness also depended on Sophie finding her way.
Lady Howick hesitated for a time, deciding how much to reveal. “Only because of your concern, I’m going to tell you something I hope never comes out in society, something I’ve never revealed to anyone.”
“If there is that much secrecy to the tale, are you sure even I should be privy to the facts?”
Lady Howick rested her chin on the palm of her hand and stared out into the late spring snowstorm. “Yes, you should know, because the enormity of her inheritance could be a problem if she falls into the hands of the wrong man. You see, once Sophie comes into her inheritance, she can afford anything she likes.”
