Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A s it turned out, Daphne and their mother were currently not at Townsend House, but at Hamilton Place, where a Countess had invited them over for tea. Minerva, having yet to make her bow, was happily left to her own devices at home and it was she that Phoebe first came upon after she scaled the garden walls.
“I still cannot believe what you just did!” Minerva gaped at her in shock. “You actually went over the walls? Like a burglar?”
Phoebe wrinkled her nose. “You make me sound like some sort of filthy criminal…”
“Well, you could have used the front door.”
And risk having Charles find out about my excursion?
Phoebe just shrugged her shoulders and smiled weakly. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“If Mother finds out about this—”
“Please do not tell Mother! She will kill me if she finds out!”
Minerva cocked her head to the side, her inquisitive gaze probing her sister. “Why did you do it, anyway? Go over the wall like…like…” she trailed off as her gaze dropped to Whiteson, who was purring happily in Phoebe’s arms.
Phoebe glowered at her sister. “I shall have you know that Whiteson is my one faithful companion in all of this.”
“But, Fi, he is a cat ,” Minerva pointed out.
“Which is precisely my point,” Phoebe replied primly. “I was desperate for human interaction, Minerva. Charles is cooped up in his study all day, busy with…well, whatever it is that a Marquess must constantly be busy with—”
“Business,” her sister supplied with a rather sage nod. “Father always claims that it is business keeping him in his study.”
“Well, business, then,” Phoebe pouted.
Minerva looked at her and sighed helplessly. “And here I thought that I was the lost cause in the family…”
“You are not a lost cause, Minnie.”
Her younger sister smiled at her, but she could tell that it was edged with a slight pain.
“We all know that it is Daphne who is the perfect debutante.”
“We cannot all be perfect debutantes.”
“True,” Minerva grimaced. “And I fear that one day, it shall be my turn and I shall make a complete mess of everything…”
Phoebe simply smiled as she sipped at her tea. Whatever it was that her sister feared, it cannot possibly compare to the circumstances that led up to her marriage to Charles, tempting scandal and all.
She was fortunate that he stepped up to marry her and save them all from ruination.
“You are not going to make a complete mess of everything,” she reassured her sister gently. “And Mother will be with you every step of the way. With her, you need not fear anything at all.”
Minerva wrinkled her nose wryly. “I daresay that the good Lady Winterbottom still scares me.”
“Darling, Lady Winterbottom scares just about everyone,” Phoebe shuddered slightly.
“But enough about Lady Winterbottom,” her sister grinned. “All afternoon we have been together, and you still have not said anything about that husband of yours!”
Phoebe felt her heart hammering in her chest as her younger sister leaned forward, her eyes gleaming in excitement. She knew that Minerva might be a little shy and awkward in social situations, but she still expressed a great deal of interest in the world, if only to watch it through the eyes of her sisters.
“What is there to tell, really?” she murmured. “He is a good man.”
Minerva wrinkled her nose again—a habit that their Mother had often advised her to forsake.
“A good man? That certainly does not say much about him,” she muttered. “You used to have a great deal to say about him. How come you are at a loss for words now that you are married to the man?”
But what could she tell her sister without giving away her current marital woes?
Should she tell Minerva how stunningly handsome her husband was? How the sound of his voice sent little shudders down her spine and into some uncharted territory?
Should she tell her then how he had not come to her bed ever since they had been married? That, shockingly, he had not even attempted so much as a kiss?
However, she was spared from having to recount her humiliating failure to seduce her husband just the night prior, when Minerva spoke again.
“I suppose it can be embarrassing to talk about the private affairs between men and women,” her younger sister told her apologetically. “Do not worry—I shall not ask it of you again.”
Phoebe smiled weakly. “I did not take offense—not really. I just…” she trailed off when they heard the doors closing and the voice of the youngest Townsend sister wafting excitedly into the garden, punctuated only by the stern reminder of their Mother to exercise more ladylike restraint.
Such words were lost on Daphne, however, when she spied her two older sisters having tea out in the gardens, with Whiteson curled at Phoebe’s lap, dozing regally as if he was the Queen’s own pet.
“Phoebe!” she exclaimed, running towards them, her eyes shining bright with excitement. “I did not know you were coming over to visit! Oh, you could have told us earlier—everyone was just asking about you!”
Phoebe supposed that with the controversial circumstances surrounding her marriage to Charles, there would be a significant number who would like to know more details about it. Since Charles was already a known recluse, it was a foregone conclusion that they would have to source their information elsewhere—like the youngest of the Townsend brood.
“I…I suppose they were,” she muttered with a weak laugh.
“Do not worry, for Mother and I managed to get them off our backs,” her youngest sister laughed gaily. “I am sure they were most disappointed, but of course, they dare not show it, for fear of appearing exactly like the gossipmongers that they are!”
“Daphne!” Lady Townsend admonished her youngest daughter. “I thought I taught you better than to talk in such a manner!”
“Oh, but it is only Fi and Minnie!” Daphne pouted.
“And do not pout so—it is most unladylike!”
Daphne sighed and dropped into the seat between her two sisters. “Ladylike this and ladylike that ,” she groaned. “I could not fathom how I was ever excited to make my bow!”
Minerva smiled and patted her younger sister’s shoulder in a consoling manner. “There, there, dearest. We all know how you enjoy their attention, anyway.”
“Truer words have never been spoken,” Lady Townsend laughed. She bent down and pressed a soft kiss to Phoebe’s cheek. “It is so good to see you again, my dear. I do wish you had sent word earlier to let us know you were coming.”
Phoebe shot Minerva a look to warn her sister against divulging the nature of how she came about to visit. The middle Townsend sister nodded subtly in acknowledgment.
“I missed you, too, Mother,” she murmured instead, and seeing the beginnings of Daphne’s pout, “And my sisters, too, of course.”
“If you missed us as much as you claim to, you could have told me!” she complained.
“Very well then,” Phoebe teased her. “Perhaps I should just leave and send word of my next visit—”
“Don’t you dare, Phoebe Townsend!”
“ Montgomery ,” she corrected her youngest sister.
“Indeed,” Lady Townsend agreed, with a loving smile aimed at her eldest daughter. “But…you are sure that everything is all right with you, my dear? Your husband is not giving you much difficulty, is he?”
Phoebe had thought about confiding in her mother, but then she shook her head and with a smile, she told her mother, “The Marquess is a good man, Mama. I am quite fortunate to have married him.”
Daphne let out a giggle. “See how proud she is of that fact?”
“And why should I not be?”
“Indeed,” Daphne nodded sagely. “The Marquess of Wentworth was considered quite the catch before—well, before you caught him.”
“Why do you make him sound as if he was some fish in the river?”
Lady Townsend could only shake her head at their antics. As soon as Phoebe reassured her that all was well with her at Wentworth Park, her mother finally left her with her younger sisters.
“Fi!” Daphne burst out laughing as soon as their mother had left. “Only you could ever put it that way. Imagine that—the fearful Marquess of Wentworth compared to a fish! In any case, where is that husband of yours anyway? I had thought that with his marriage to you, we would finally see more of him…”
Phoebe pursed her lips. “Well, that is one of the reasons I actually came by.”
“Oh?” Daphne pursed her lips and leaned forward. “I sense you are about to say something absolutely shocking…”
“Shocking? Nothing of that sort, I assure you.” Phoebe waved her hands in front of her defensively. “I only thought that since, well, since you have had such success with your coming out, I was wondering if…ah…if you could teach me how to, um, interact with my husband.”
She looked towards Minerva, who just sipped at her tea with a neutral expression that begged to be left out of this particular conversation.
Daphne, however, smiled with an arched eyebrow. “Oh? I never thought we would be having this conversation ever , sister dear.”
“And here we are now,” Phoebe muttered wryly. “But if you are only going to laugh at me about it, then I will have to go back to Wentworth—”
She sat up as if to leave when her youngest sister burst out laughing.
“Oh, do sit down! I was merely jesting!” Daphne giggled. “Of course, I will help you—well, to the best of my meager abilities, that is…”
“What meager abilities? Minnie tells me that your suitors have all lined up from Father’s study to the front door!”
“ Minerva ,” Daphne informed her primly. “Was exaggerating, of course.”
“Well, in any case, you have been the Townsend sister with the most success to date…”
Daphne shook her head, tutting. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Fi.”
“It will with Daph,” Minerva muttered, to which their youngest sister shot her a brief glare.
“I will pretend not to have heard that,” she told Minerva. She turned towards Phoebe. “Well, I cannot say that I am an expert, but these are the things that have worked for me…”
As her sister’s voice dropped to a low whisper, both Phoebe and Minerva drew closer to hear from Daphne and her words of wisdom. Phoebe, in particular, made note of all the things her sister said, committing them to memory.
She knew she should have brought her notebook, but it had been a moment’s impulse that had brought on this visit and she was a tad bit unprepared.
Besides, it was her particular penchant for noting everything in her notebook that got her into this mess. She was not so keen on repeating that same mistake.