Page 54 of Lady Graceless
“I do not like this at all and I’ve told Lady Margaret my views. I think she will agree with me.”
Grace paused. “Valor, what exactly have you told Lady Margaret?”
Valor jumped off the bed. “Sometimes I feel like you are not really listening, Grace. I told her that you liked Lord Dashlend ever so well and how could it be that you stayed in the house anyway. You see? How can you be happy without going anywhere.”
“You said all that?” Grace said, rather horrified that Lady Margaret might repeat any of it to Lord Dashlend.
Valor patted Grace’s hand. “Iwroteall that. I’m glad you were really listening this time, well done. I hope that means I won’t have to repeat myself. Now, I have to track down Nelson—I think he’s taken Mrs. Wendover somewhere.”
Valor skipped out of the room. Grace sank down into a chair. They really had better start monitoring Valor’s missives—last season she’d scolded Mr. Stratton terribly, including the wish that he was wrapped in chains and drowned in a lake. Now she was informing Lady Margaret about other people’s feelings!
GRACE HAD PLANNEDthat they would get to the park at four o’clock, and very sensibly had the idea that they had to start getting ready at two-thirty. A half hour should have been sufficient, though Grace knew it was not realistic, and she had casually mentioned the time they expected to be there to Lord Dashlend. She would not like to miss him on account of her sisters’ failure to leave the house on time.
As it happened, her practicality served her well. Verity could not find her pelisse, Winsome wondered if she was lying about it and then later hid it from her, Grace had her hair done twice by Mrs. Right before she was satisfied with the results, Serenity went back and forth on the idea of whether Nelson should come with them, finally deciding that he should, Patience spent her time going in and out of the house waiting for the carriages to arrive, and, not unexpectedly, Valor lost track of Mrs. Wendover. It took quite some time to locate the stuffed rabbit, as Nelson had become very attached to it and had taken to hiding it in various locations in the house.
As all that activity swirled around him, the duke merely read a book in the drawing room, occasionally laughing over the confusion. He often noted that as the father of seven daughters, he did not ever expect to leave the house in a timely manner. A more foolish person might be crying with frustration by the second time Verity lost track of her pelisse, but the duke would have been surprised if she didn’t.
They finally did set off though, and so many were they, as of course Mrs. Right would come too, they went in two carriages.
Grace was in a carriage with the duke, Patience, and Verity. Mrs. Right supervised the other carriage with Valor, Serenity, Winsome, and Nelson.
“So what’s it to be, Gracie, are we to coincidentally bump into Dashlend?” the duke asked.
“How should I know, Papa?” Grace said, though she knew her father understood the truth of it.
“Running into a gentleman in the park is a very common thing, Papa,” Verity said.
“Is it?” the duke asked, with one brow raised.
Verity shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“If we are to see him,” Patience said, “I do hope it does not take hours to find him. Riding in the carriage is not as interesting as riding round the dales on our ponies, shooting at things.”
“Yes, well, probably best we leave off that for a while,” the duke said. “That rascally neighbor of ours claims his sheep get upset about all the shooting. I don’t know why—none of the creatures have ever been hit.” The duke paused. “They haven’t been, have they?”
“Certainly not,” Patience said. “We would never hurt a sheep. We only shoot in the farmer’s direction, and we always go wide. He and his sheep are in no danger whatsoever.”
“Regardless, he’s got the vicar’s ear about it. He keeps telling the fellow that our Mrs. Right went so far as to tack a cotton wolf’s head near his gate to frighten his flock. I do not know if she did or she didn’t—I only hope she did!”
“She did,” Verity said.
Patience snorted. “It took him ages to find it, but the sheep saw it at once.”
All through the family chatter, Grace kept her eyes open and looking out the window for Lord Dashlend.
“Montclave,” the duke said. “What do you do here?”
“Good afternoon, Your Grace, Lady Grace,” Lord Montclave said. “I am just out exercising my horse. How propitious to encounter you.”
Grace turned her head to find the baron walking alongside her father’s window while Patience and Verity gave him the once over.
“If you say so,” the duke said.
Grace pressed her lips together. Baron Montclave would not be accustomed to her father’s unique way of being in the world. He would not understand that he was teased.
“Baron Montclave,” Grace said, “these are my sisters, Lady Patience and Lady Verity.”
The baron bowed from his saddle. “Lady Patience, Lady Verity, charmed.”
