Page 28 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
The following morning, Aunt Aurelia refused to come down again, even for church. Margaret went on her own.
“No Snowy today?” Arial asked, when they stopped to greet one another after the service.
“It was not one of our agreed events,” Margaret told her. “I do not know when he might call again.”
“He will,” Arial assured her. “A man doesn’t look at a woman the way Snowy looks at you and then just walk away.”
Margaret hoped she was right. “He said he will explain what is going on. Soon, he said. So, I know he intends to see me again.”
“What was his view about what Mr. Snowden said about you not seeing him again?”
“He said he thought Lord Snowden was a threat, but that he is ready for it. He believes Mr. Snowden is just doing his father’s bidding, which I think is true.” The surly Mr. Deffew was more Margaret’s idea of a villain. “Mr. Snowden always seems so cheerful and eager to please.”
Arial quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “One may smile and smile and be a villain.”
Not an uplifting thought, for how was a person to know whom to trust?
“The ‘odious officer’ smiled a lot, as I remember,” Margaret observed.
*
When she arrivedhome, it was to find that Aunt Aurelia had ordered the gig Margaret kept for household shopping, and gone out. To complain to her sour circle, probably. Still, it would only be for a short time more.
“You also had a visitor, my lady,” the butler said. “Lord Snowden. As you instructed, I told him you were not at home. Miss Denning had gone out before he arrived.”
“Thank you, Bowen,” Margaret said. She settled at her desk to write a letter to her steward at Malmsworth Towers, her principal estate. The dower house had to be prepared and staffed. It should already be clean and sound, at least. Servants went down from the main house once a month to take off the dust covers and give the place a thorough clean, and to report any necessary maintenance.
That being the case, she told the steward the dower house must be habitable by Wednesday afternoon, even if that meant sending in servants from the main house until new servants could be hired.
Aunt Aurelia arrived home and went straight up to her room, and thirty minutes later, a note arrived from Uncle Eustace. Before she opened it, Margaret guessed where her aunt had been, and sure enough, Uncle Eustace complained of her visit, opening his letter in typical fashion, without a salutation or any of the usual courtesies.
“I had a call from that sour old besom you insisted on letting into your house after your father died. Says you’re dallying with the hired help or next to it. I don’t believe a bit of it. And if it was true, it’s none of my business. You’re a grown woman and a countess in your own right. Get rid of the meddlesome baggage. That’s my advice. Come and see your old uncle some time, but don’t tell me what you’re doing. What I do not know will not hurt me. E. Webster.”
*
Snowy’s half-brother didn’tarrive at their meeting. Snowy waited for an hour in the private room he’d hired at Fournier’s before giving up and ordering a solitary meal. Putting together Ned’s failure to turn up with his visit to Lady Charmain and his implied threats, Snowy had to wonder whether the change of mind he’d thought he’d witnessed was just an act.
Or perhaps Ned just lost his nerve. Pity. Snowy regretted it more than he expected, which just went to show that it didn’t do to place trust in people.
He stayed away from the haunts of the ton on Sunday. Lady Charmain had performed superbly, and the rumors about the true heir were also doing their job. The next move was up to the lawyers, unless Snowden took the bait and went on the attack.
On Monday, ten minutes before the appointed time and dressed in his finest, he presented himself at the London home of the Duke and Duchess of Winshire. His early arrival was fortuitous as it took most of that time to be passed from the footman who opened the door, to the butler who sent a message for yet another footman to conduct him up the opulent stairs and along elegant passages to Her Grace’s private sitting room. He was announced just as the clock struck the hour.
“I do appreciate punctuality,” said the duchess. “Come in, my dear.” Snowy observed immediately that the room was like the lady herself: elegant and beautifully presented, but with a warmth about it that drew a person in.
Snowy took the chair she indicated, on the other side of a low table from the duchess herself. She busied herself with the tea makings and then dismissed all the servants, leaving the two of them alone.
“Being closeted with a young man without facing untoward accusations is one of the benefits of advancing age and high social position, Lord Snowden,” she said. “They are fewer than you might think.” She handed him his cup of tea.
“Your Grace is a beautiful woman,” Snowy told her, ignoring the way she had addressed him. He had a feeling she used the title to unsettle him and was determined not to show how well it was working.
“For an old lady.” The duchess’s eyes twinkled. “I have grandchildren, Snowden. You wince. If you plan to take the title, you had better get used to it.” With the precision of a needle, she added, “Do not think of it as your stepfather’s title, my dear. Think of it as your father’s, God rest his soul.”
The woman read his mind like a witch.Or like Lily.How his foster mother would laugh at being compared to a duchess!
“I will try, Your Grace.”
“Good. I knew your mother. You take your coloring from your father, but you and your brother share the shape of your mother’s eyes. You have a way of holding your head to once side just as she did, too.”
