Chapter Three
The fates were smiling on Felicity two days later when she accompanied Angelina to Gunter’s.
A table sat empty near the shop windows, affording them a view of Berkeley Square and the various pedestrians passing by.
They were comfortable, entertained, and experiencing the famous tea and ices shop at its best.
Angelina had not stopped smiling since their arrival. Mother looked utterly terrified, as she had from the moment the traveling coach had dropped them in London. Felicity was able to worry less about her mother’s displeasure because she took such delight in Angelina’s happiness.
“This is just as lovely as I’d hoped,” her sister whispered, eyeing their spread of victuals with excitement. “And to see everyone passing by and the park in the distance . . . I feel almost as though I am having a ride through Hyde Park as well.”
A ride in Hyde Park. Felicity made a mental note. She already knew her sister longed for that very traditional part of the Season, but to hear her mention it again reinforced the need to make that arrangement soon.
“William Carlisle is in Town,” Felicity told her sister. “He likely has a carriage. Perhaps he would take us for a ride during the fashionable hour.”
“After your display,” Mother said, “I have my doubts he will wish to be seen with any of us.”
Angelina turned to Felicity with a look of alarm.
Felicity assumed her most unconcerned expression. “I was, perhaps, more familiar than I ought to have been when I first saw him. Old habits are difficult to shed, after all.”
“And we haven’t seen him very much since he first left for Eton,” Angelina said. “It is sometimes difficult to remember how much older he is now—how much older we all are.”
“You are nearly twenty years old,” Felicity said. “Ancient, really.”
“I can take some comfort in knowing I am unlikely to grow even more ancient.” Angelina had the sometimes relieving, sometimes disconcerting tendency to jest about her illness and the expected outcome.
Mother always seemed to appreciate it. She would smile and squeeze Angelina’s hand. Though Felicity wasn’t entirely certain why, that response always surprised her. She would have assumed Mother would not have found the macabre humor to her liking.
“Some of us simply choose not to acknowledge the passing of the years,” Mother said. “In case you are unsure, I would far prefer you avoid growing ancient by refusing to count beyond nineteen.”
“I would prefer that as well,” Angelina said.
“As would I,” Felicity added with emphasis. “And I would also prefer if I were permitted to eat all six of these petits fours and not share a single one with either of you.”
She reached for the tiny confections.
“I have seen woodcuts of pugilist bouts,” Angelina said. “I feel I am quite capable of fighting you over this.”
“At your advanced age?” Felicity asked doubtfully.
Amid their quiet laughter, a shadow fell over the table. All three looked up at the same time.
“William.” Felicity didn’t catch herself quickly enough to prevent the slip in propriety. “Mr. Carlisle,” she corrected too late.
Mother, predictably, looked utterly mortified.
“Ladies.” William dipped his head, then turned his full attention to Angelina. “Miss Banbury. I was so delighted when your sister told me you had come to Town as well. It is, indeed, a pleasure to see you again.”
“And I you. Lindsworth has been lonelier without you these past years.”
His eyes dropped, and his mouth pulled, not in anger or frustration, but in what looked like sadness. “I have missed Lindsworth. We had a great many happy days there, didn’t we?”
Angelina’s smile was tender. “We did, indeed.”
“Do join us,” Mother said, indicating the empty chair at their table.
“I believe I will.” He sat with every indication of pleasure.
“I should warn you,” Felicity said. “Angelina has threatened us bodily if we take more than our share of the petits fours. If you prefer your bones unbroken, I suggest you not set your heart upon overindulging.”
With a silent laugh, he looked at Angelina once more. “You wouldn’t pummel me over a dessert, would you?”
“I most certainly would.” She lifted her fists in an impression of a pugilist, though the picture was rendered less than threatening by the weakness apparent in the shaking of her arms.
“I shall have my obituary sent to the Times forthwith, though I intend to leave out any information about the cause of death. One mustn’t go to one’s grave having been brought to that state over pastries. How humiliating.”
Felicity had all but forgotten how humorous William could be. The three of them had spent a good amount of their childhood laughing together at each other’s ridiculousness. He would make a very welcome addition to the miniature Season that Felicity was attempting to provide for her sister.
They spent a pleasant quarter hour speaking both of childhood memories and the diversions of London. William was quick to redirect the conversation at any suggestion of his taking up residence at Carlisle Manor. Did he prefer London so very much?
“Which of London’s amusements have you indulged in thus far?” he asked them after yet another diverting of the topic.
“We walked in the garden square a few times,” Mother said.
That was hardly a pleasure unique to Town.
Felicity took up the topic. “We visited a dressmaker and are each to have a new, fashionable gown made.”
“Excellent,” William said. “What else?”
“We are enjoying tea at Gunter’s,” Angelina added. “I have always wished to do precisely this.”
“What else have you wished to do?” His gentle tone told Felicity he had not forgotten the state of Angelina’s health.
“Several things,” Angelina said. “We thought perhaps to go to Hyde Park and join the crush there, but I haven’t enough stamina left today for anything else.”
William looked at Mother. “Would you object if, on some future day when Miss Banbury is feeling well enough, I offered to fetch your daughters in my carriage for a ride in the park during the fashionable hour?”
Mother’s brow pulled. “Felicity is not out. We would not wish to give the impression that she was.”
He nodded. “I appreciate your care for propriety. I assure you, her being in the carriage for a ride, along with her sister, will not give the impression you fear.”
Relief touched Mother’s eyes. “We do not wish anyone to think we are scandalous or worthy of being cut.”
“If it would set your mind at ease, I can use the carriage that seats four and you can come as well.”
Mother shook her head. “I do not believe that will be necessary. Both girls together in an open carriage will not be seen as inappropriate. If you feel no one will assume we have permitted a younger sister to be out before the elder is married, then that eases my concerns.”
“You need only have your father send word when you are feeling equal to a drive,” William told Angelina. “I am entirely at your disposal.”
“Thank you,” she said. “It will truly be a dream come true.”
He shook his head. “You might change your assessment after you experience my stodgy driving. I am not one of those Corinthians who drives neck or nothing.”
“My only requirement is that you not overturn us,” Angelina said.
“That I can promise you.”
Mother monopolized Angelina’s attention after that, discussing the appropriate clothing choice for a drive in the park, whom she might see, and how to appropriately address those she might speak with.
Felicity leaned toward William. With her voice lowered, she said, “Thank you for your generous offer. Riding in the park with Father would have pleased Angelina, but riding alongside a dashing young gentleman will certainly be closer to what she had envisioned before . . . before this illness.”
“She is more hale and hearty than I’d expected based on what you said before.”
Felicity sighed. “She hides it well, but look at her eyes. You can see the illness there.”
“It is certain, then, that she will not recover?”
“Quite.”
True regret touched his face. She had known William as a convivial boy. She was pleased to be meeting the compassionate gentleman he had become.
“Thank you, also, for inviting me to join your drive. I so wish to be part of Angelina’s time in London.”
“Of course,” he said. “And I meant what I said when last we met: if there is anything else I might do to assist your efforts at bringing your sister a bit of joy, do tell me. I wish to help.”
“She mentioned last evening that she wished to attend a ball. I cannot imagine she would have the energy for a true crush, and I do not think she could actually participate in the dancing, but I would love for her to go to one. Can you think of any balls that might not exhaust her, ones that we might manage to secure an invitation to?”
He didn’t immediately respond. His mouth pulled to one side. His eyes narrowed though he didn’t appear to be looking at anything in particular.
“If any come to mind, do let me know. I am too unacquainted with London Society to have the first idea.”
“There is one at the end of the week that fits your description,” he said. “I know the host relatively well. I believe if I ask, they will be quite happy to include your sister and parents.”
She nodded despite her disappointment. How she wanted to be there for Angelina’s longed-for ball, but she understood.
She was not yet out socially. To attend a ball would be an impermissible flouting of Society’s rules and expectations.
Mother would never allow it. And Felicity didn’t wish to cause difficulties for her sister during so delicate and important an undertaking.