Intolerable Civility

Chapter Twenty: A Family Reunion

When the second remove was cleared away, Lady Balley stood and Cate followed her lead. She was not surprised when Lady Balley led the way back upstairs to the bedroom, without stopping in her private sitting room for her customary after-dinner cup of tea. Nor was she disappointed. At one time, when she was about fifteen or sixteen, she had delighted in being asked to stay for tea with her mother. It had felt very adult and intimate. But Lady Balley only ever wished to talk and never to listen. If Cate ever presented a unique opinion, it was sure to be met with blunt scorn or—worse still—a snide little laugh under Lady Balley's breath then otherwise ignored.

No. Solitude, exile was much more comfortable.

Lady Balley stopped at the door after Cate entered the room. "Where is the key?"

"David took it. He does not like me being locked in." Cate was still tipsy, and it made her daring. "He says it is disrespectful."

"Disrespectful!" It was only scorn this time. "That man is not the gentleman I thought he was."

"I don't know why you ever thought so," Cate said. "He does not dress the part. He wears the wrong frock coats. I used to hate it. I don't mind so very much now. I am beginning to suspect the clothes a man wears matter less than who the man is wearing them."

"You prattle nonsense. You are drunk. You will not leave your room. I will not have you speaking with Sophia and Paul. They do not know you are here." Lady Balley pulled the door almost to a close. "I will have a servant in the passage, so do not try to deceive me."

The door shut. Cate sighed heavily then started unlacing the awful dress her mother had set out for her. When she was in her chemise and corset, she felt like herself again, albeit cold. She left the dress in a drab pile on the floor and went to check on Luke. He was sleeping in the cot as she had left him. She rearranged his blanket to be more snug then went to the mirror and started to undo the many pins of her severe chignon. The wind tapped at the window. It would be another damp, cold night, Cate thought. The wind tapped again. Then it began to whisper.

"Cate! Cate!"

Cate swore and dropped her hairbrush. She pulled back the curtains. A ghostly figure stood on the other side of the window, white nightgown flapping in the breeze.

"Let me in!"

"Sophia!" Cate put a hand to her leaping heart. "You— you idiot! What are you doing out there?"

"Let me in!"

Thankfully, Lady Balley had not thought to remove the key from the window lock. Cate unlocked it and pulled her youngest sister into the room. The wind raced in with her. Cate hastily shut the window again so that Luke would not get cold.

"What are you doing!?" Cate hissed, mindful to keep her voice low in case a servant was listening outside. "You could have fallen and killed yourself!"

"At most I would break a leg," Sophia said. "Besides, I'm very careful. No one's ever found out. I've seen the most interesting things, crawling along the window ledges. I know how you made the baby."

"You certainly did not see that!"

"I mean by example, the example being Mrs Lake and Lord Eildon. I can tell you, I am in no hurry to get married now. Though it answers why Mr Lake is always so bad tempered."

"You must not say such things! It is wicked!"

"Mrs Lake is wicked," Sophia said calmly. "I am not. Where's the baby? I've wanted to see him for ever so long." She made a beeline for the cot and scooped Luke into her arms. "Oh, he's beautiful!"

Luke woke blearily and began to cry. Sophia froze.

"What do I do?"

"You give him to me!" Cate carefully took him back and shushed him. "I didn't think you even knew I had a baby. Luke wrote that they had kept it hidden from you and he did not dare explain."