Page 5 of Lady Graceless
The lead carriage carrying the duke slowed and stopped. Grace peeked out the window and saw her father hop out and stride over, standing between the two carriages carrying his daughters.
Patience hung out the window. “Are we almost there, Papa? What I mean is, are we almost somewhere?”
The duke nodded. “In another quarter of a mile, you shall see the secret I’ve held close. Keep your eyes wide open and prepare to be amazed!”
The duke hopped back in his carriage and the caravan set off again.
“Mrs. Right,” Grace said, “I feel certain you know where we are going. You will know what it is that our mama was so fond of.”
“If I did, I would not spoil the duke’s surprise for the world,” Mrs. Right said.
Valor slipped her hand into Mrs. Right’s and clutched Mrs. Wendover with the other. “Is it a scary surprise?”
“My girl, I have told you ten ways to Sunday that when you are by my side, naught can hurt you.”
“Oh that’s right, you do tell me that a lot.”
The discussion then fell to all the times Valor had been certain disaster was poised to strike but didn’t.
There was the time she became sure that the bull who ruled their farthest field had figured out how to unlatch the gate and would bide his time. When nobody was looking, he would free himself and trample them all. That bull had grown old and his only interest in life was grazing—he would not be inclined to gin up the energy to trample Valor or anybody else.
Then there were the endless amounts of times that she could not be convinced that the woman’s screams she heard in the middle of the night were just a fox’s cries. She had even consulted the vicar on the matter, who explained that a fox’s criescouldsound very like a woman frightened or suffering. Valor hinted to the vicar that she very much feared that it must be him torturing all those screaming women if he wanted to cover it up instead of rescue them. The duke had to step into the ensuing set-to and remind the vicar that he owed the duke his living.
Just three days ago, Valor had woken Grace with the sad news that they had a terrible ghost. That unearthly creature had kidnapped Mrs. Wendover and she was now likely lost forever. Valor had been very against going back to the scene of the kidnapping, but Grace had marched her back to her room. The stuffed rabbit had been in her usual lost location, which was under the bed. Valor claimed she had not been able to check there before imagining a kidnapping because everybody knows that under the bed at night is scary.
Faced with all these false alarms, Valor shrugged. “You will be sorry, though, when I’m right. I still don’t believe it’s foxes.”
Grace giggled and peered out the window. They had just gone down a lane hemmed in with tall trees. Very suddenly, the vista opened.
“Is that… is that the sea?” Grace asked, nearly breathless from the sight.
This caused Serenity and Valor to fling themselves to her side and look out the window.
“It’s so big!” Valor cried.
A tear rolled down Serenity’s cheek. “Who ever could have imagined such wonder and majesty?”
Both of her sisters were right. Though they had all known of the mighty ocean, though they’d all seen drawings and maps galore, though a painting of it tossing a mighty ship sat over their drawing room mantel, this… it was almost too much to take in!
A deep blue endlessness in either direction leading off into a horizon. The Netherlands, Belgium, and France were out there somewhere and they could not even see them, the sea was so vast.
The duke had hopped out of his carriage and called to Grace. “The carriages can go no further else they will not be able to turn round—we go on foot!”
They piled out of the carriage and hurried down the lane to the duke. Patience, Winsome and Verity were out of their carriage. The footmen had wasted no time either. Only Reynolds took his time and attempted to look dignified—the duke’s valet was a rather grim specimen in every situation.
Everyone followed the duke through a twisty tangle of a path that ended in stone steps leading down to a narrow beach.
Along with the majesty of the sea, they were now cognizant of a thing they had not seen from their prior location above the shore.
There was a boat on its side with waves crashing over it and two men staggering up the beach. Both men had their jackets off and were soaked through, so they had clearly been the crew of that boat. Despite being jacketless and wet, they both seemed to be dressed rather fine.
Particularly the gentleman on the left. He was tall and athletic looking. Even with his dark hair plastered to his head, he looked very dashing. The one on the right seemed to be having a breakdown of some sort—he was jumping up and down and shouting something. Grace began to wonder if he were the gentleman’s butler, as in her experience butlers were always so prone to hysterics.
They had all hurried down the steps and though Grace paid close attention to her footing she missed the last as it was covered in sand and she went down with a thud. This caused Charlie to trip over her and then Thomas to fall over Charlie.
“Causing another pile up, eh Gracie?” the duke said, helping her to her feet.
Grace did not answer, because of course she had. The two gentlemen were staring in their direction and she hoped they’d not seen how it happened that three people had fallen down.
