Chapter Eleven
Poppy followed Henrietta into Pansy’s bedchamber through the connecting door that linked their two rooms. She hopped on the bed in her nightdress, her hair in her nighttime plait, as their maid helped Pansy into her own nightdress.
“I’ll advise the both of you, not that you will pay any mind,” Henrietta said, “to not stay up too late with your talking.”
Poppy laughed at the very idea. There was so much to talk about, of course they would be up late.
“We have to compare notes, Hen,” Pansy said. “I have spent the evening talking to Lord Burkhart and Pops has spent the evening speaking to Mr. Lelander. We must discuss what has been said.”
“Of course we must,” Poppy said. “Neither of us could hardly sleep unless we knew what the other had experienced. Think of what a day we have had! It all began with the rescue of Miss Millthorpe from her frightening situation.”
“The gentlemen were so brave,” Pansy said.
“Indeed they were,” Poppy said. “Except for being terrified to clear up the teapot and the set of cups. They were not so brave about that.”
Pansy laughed. “Miss Millthorpe warned them to be careful of her cups because they were a set. It struck fear into their hearts. We’re more used to it.”
“Aye,” Henrietta said, “the lady has her own brand of fright when she likes it. ‘Tis the mark of an experienced governess.”
“Then when we came back home, there was nothing to do and nowhere to go,” Poppy said. “It was lovely to be trapped in the house. We talked all the day long.”
“Lord Burkhart was determined to turn my pages at the pianoforte after dinner,” Pansy said. “Even though he knows I do not need him to. I outright told him that. He said he’d hoped it was so. Also, he accidentally brushed my shoulder several times.”
“Brushed your shoulder?” Henrietta asked in a rather condemning tone.
“Well, he accidentally brushed it once,” Pansy admitted, “and then I put my shoulder in his way two other times.”
Poppy laughed. “For myself, two times when Mr. Lelander reached for a biscuit on the tea tray this afternoon, I reached at the same time and our hands brushed. I did it on purpose and I think he knows it.”
“The two of you are rather brazen,” Henrietta said, shaking her head.
“Personally,” Poppy said, “I could not help it.”
“Nor could I,” Pansy said. “We are weak in the face of handsome gentlemen, Hen, that is all there is to it.”
The maid tutted and said, “Make certain these sorts of things go no further unless and until something firm has been said."
"What do you think, Pans?” Poppy asked. “Will Lord Burkhart speak to you?”
“I am counting on it,” Pansy said. “I would positively die if he leaves and has said nothing.”
“I feel just the same,” Poppy said. “I would weep terribly over it. I cannot believe I will ever encounter another Mr. Lelander.”
Pansy’s hair was in its plaits and she was in her nightdress. Henrietta straightened the room and made to depart. “Not too late talking, mind. You’ll only complain to me that you are tired in the morning.”
Both sisters laughed. Perhaps they would complain, but it was impossible to sleep without talking.
“Pops and I will cozy up in front of the fire and cover ourselves in blankets and talk over all our feelings.”
“After we’ve examined our feelings backward and forward, then we can both sleep.”
Henrietta pursed her lips, a habit she had when she was disapproving, but she said no more about it and left them to their own devices.
They did just as Pansy had suggested, both of them pulling a quilt off their beds and sitting in the cozy padded chairs in front of Pansy’s fire.
The chairs had been rescued from the attics and re-padded and re-covered in a deep aubergine velvet.
They were old wingback chairs that had once lived in their father’s library that were now far more padded than they’d started out in life.
It no longer snowed out of doors, but an icy wind blew the snow around to such a degree that it almost appeared to be snowing. There was nothing so comfortable as a quilt and a fire in such circumstances as these.
So situated, the sisters had a wide-ranging conversation circling round the things Mr. Lelander had said to Poppy and the things Lord Burkhart had said to Pansy and of course the accidental touching that had gone on.
Mr. Lelander’s hand had been warm when Poppy touched it. Lord Burkhart’s arm had felt powerful against Pansy’s shoulder.
Mr. Lelander had talked to Poppy a great deal about how comfortable his house was.
Particularly the library on a snowy day.
There would be biscuits and tea galore on a snowy day.
She was also to know that the dominant gander in the gaggle of geese that called his pond home was named Longshanks for his terrible temper.
For some reason, Longshanks had a soft spot for the viscountess and liked to follow her around when she walked near the pond.
The viscountess said Longshanks imagined he was in charge of her and followed her round to see that she did not get herself into trouble.
Lord Burkhart had spent his own amount of time talking to Pansy about his house.
Aside from the Great Dane, Enigma, it had additions in the form of wings, forming a cross.
According to Lord Burkhart, if one got turned round and was not certain where they were, it was best to look out a window at the view, and the sun’s position could help too.
Nevertheless, it was very usual for a person new to the house who had recently joined the staff to go temporarily missing and then reemerge, unable to say exactly where they’d been.
It seemed both gentlemen had worked to make their circumstances sound as interesting as possible.
“Do you think he will ask you, Pans?” Poppy said.
Her sister nodded. “I cannot know for certain, but I feel he might. Do you think Mr. Lelander will ask you?”
“I think he might,” Poppy said. “And if Lord Burkhart asks for your hand and Mr. Lelander asks for mine…”
“It will be the loveliest and most terrible thing that has ever happened to us.”
“Can we really go forward, knowing we would be just miles away from one another but—”
“But our houses were enemies.”
“Pans, we are in an impossible situation. We are either to break our hearts over gentlemen or break our hearts over a sister.”
“It is an awful thing. We ought not be forced to choose one over the other.”
“I do not think we can do it. What would happen when we had children? They would be cousins who were never to know one another? Think of all we’ve said about how close the cousins were to be?”
“Our children must know one another,” Pansy said. “We have planned it for years. What would we even tell them? By the by, your cousins live just six miles away but you must never see them because they are your enemy?”
Poppy nodded. They had indeed made extensive plans on this particular subject.
Their children, which they blithely assumed they would have, were to co-rule a new Inviolate Kingdom, just as Poppy and Pansy had ruled their own in their younger years.
They had been queens and she and Pansy were agreed that children must have the opportunity to be queens and kings of their own special place.
Even now, Teddy had been king of the kingdom until Bertie had turned up and demoted him to trusted advisor.
In the past, they had spoken of what to do if they did not live so nearby one another. Letter writing was to begin at the earliest possible moment and no Christmas season was to ever be spent apart. The very idea that they would live nearby and have no contact…
Pansy sighed and pulled her quilt tighter round her. “I know you are right. We could never be happy if we could not freely see one another. And then when children came it would be far worse. We should be miserable.”
Poppy said, “We would begin to resent our husbands, I think. It seems impossible to imagine just now, but I really think we would.”
“That stupid Roses war,” Pansy muttered.
“That stupid, stupid war,” Poppy said.
Very suddenly, Pansy’s door opened. Miss Millthorpe stepped through it. “Why on earth are you two sitting up at this time of night?” she asked.
“We are being sad,” Poppy said.
“Can you not be sad in your beds?” the governess asked.
“No, we needed to be sad together,” Pansy said.
“May I ask what has caused the devastation this time?” Miss Millthorpe said, crossing her arms.
“You will think it is like all those childish freaks we used to have,” Poppy said. “But it is not. This is a very grown lady sort of devastation.”
“We cannot wed where we like, else we never see each other again and our children do not know one another.”
“You see how impossible that would be,” Poppy said.
“Are you saying that you have been asked? Both of you?”
Both of them took that moment to redden. Poppy said, “Neither of us, but we feel we will be.”
“We feel strongly that we will be.”
“What have I always said about predicting the future without sufficient information?”
Together they said, “Only very dull people assume things when they do not know the facts.”
“Just so. Now if you will take advice from a more experienced person, and by that I mean myself, put all of this out of your minds and go to bed. The morning will make things brighter. Or at least more clear. Do not cry until you positively have something to cry about.”
With that, the lady turned and departed, closing the door behind her.
Poppy and Pansy sat in silence, considering Miss Millthorpe’s words, as they listened to her footfalls on the stairs.
Poppy wrinkled her forehead. “Do you hear that, Pans?”
Pansy leaned forward. “Miss Millthorpe does not go up the stairs, she goes down the stairs. Why would she go down the stairs?”
“And she was not in her nightclothes. Why is she still dressed at this time of night.”
“Yes, it’s very late. And how did she just happened to pass by our door?”
A sudden thought occurred to Poppy. “You do not think she means to return to her house? You know how stubborn and independent she can be.”