Chapter 2
Chapter two
Valeraine was reading in the sitting room, surrounded by her three sisters: Alyce, Merna, and Selaide.
She browsed The Dragoneer’s Journal, a newssheet which she liked for its reliable handle on gossip (and because it was managed by their dear uncle).
It was then Valeraine stumbled upon the information that would change all of their lives.
This was the opportunity Longbourn needed.
Valeraine’s fingers tingled as she snapped the newssheet down from her face, and announced to the room, “There is to be a new nest, not five miles from here.”
Selaide, the youngest, reacted the strongest. She abandoned the embroidery project she had been poking at and turned in her armchair to look at Valeraine. Her large, innocent eyes widened, then she peered speculatively. “Who is the master of the nest? Is he single? Will he hold balls?”
Valeraine scanned the article for answers.
Merna, the second youngest sister, had read The Dragoneer’s Journal earlier that day.
Though she hadn’t felt it necessary to share this monumental news with the family, now she seized the chance to demonstrate her knowledge.
She didn’t even bother looking up from the novel she was reading as she intoned, “It is a Mr. Louhan Nethenabbi. The same clan that has enlarged shipping across the ocean through —”
“Yes but does he bring a wife with him?” Selaide pressed.
“Will he be active in the derbies?” She stood from her chair, casting the embroidery on the ground and sending her auburn ringlets around her face swinging.
Frustrated with the scholarly focus of the conversation, she plucked the newssheet out of Valeraine’s hands.
Valeraine gave a cry of protest, but the newssheet was already being carried across the room.
Selaide gave a huff of disgust as she noticed that Valeraine had been reading Lady Scaleheart’s column (the least imaginative writer in the Journal, in Selaide’s opinion). Selaide turned the pages to find the society gossip section, and exclaimed in short order, “He is single!”
At this moment, their mother entered the room, as if summoned by this momentous pronouncement. She snatched the newssheet out of Selaide’s hands, and began reading herself.
“A bachelor is coming to establish a nest!” she proclaimed, as if this was fresh news. “It’s so close to us as well; he’s buying the old manor by Oakham Mount. You know the one?” Mamma said to Selaide, who was hanging on her elbow.
Without pausing for a response, Mamma continued her recapitulation: “It is a Mr. Nethenabbi, from the rich Fellarik house, of course. He plans to name the nest Netherfield. And! He is bringing a mature dragon to race. There will surely be many balls, and we will of course be invited as his neighbors.” With this, Mamma turned a plotting look to Alyce, the eldest.
Alyce had been peacefully listening to the hubbub from the sofa, sketching some landscape in her notebook. Her thin lips held a soft smile, delighted by the antics of her sisters.
Mamma mused, “We will have to order a new gown for you, dear. Something that will show off your fine waist…”
Selaide had had enough of being sidelined. She squealed, “I need a new gown, too.” She snatched the paper from Mamma, who relinquished it easily to her spoiled youngest.
Mamma approached Alyce, planning her attack. “It will have to be done up in the latest style, with a Fellarik flair to appeal to Mr. Nethenabbi.”
Selaide grabbed Mamma’s arm.
Mamma continued to Alyce, “You will be the most beautiful lady at the ball, shining above all the rest. When the Master of Netherfield sees you, he will fall in love, and what a fine match it will be.”
“I need a new gown, Mamma, for the ball,” Selaide said.
Mamma finally turned to Selaide, and said placatingly, “You can have the gown Alyce will no longer be using, dear. You — all my daughters — are so beautiful that you shine in any dress.” She then speculated, looking at Valeraine (the second eldest), “Perhaps we will also get you a new gown, in case Mr. Nethenabbi admires you more than your sister.”
In the midst of Selaide’s protests at this further unfairness, Merna left the room before she could be sucked into the maelstrom of Mamma’s schemes.
Valeraine’s mind was all a whirl. A grand dragon house as their neighbor? There would be so many more derbies, so many more balls to attend. And, her courageous heart whispered, with that new nest would come possibilities of trade.
“Mamma,” Valeraine asked, “Did the paper say how many eggs Mr. Nethenabbi would be bringing with him?”
Mamma, glad for any excuse to ignore Selaide’s tantruming, seized on this question. “I’m sure they’ll bring at least a few. They are establishing a whole nest, after all.”
“They? Who else is coming?”
“It mentioned some sister,” Mamma replied, “to hatch-mother the eggs. Of course, once Mr. Nethenabbi falls in love with one of my beautiful daughters, he will not need his sister to play at being mistress of the nest.”
Valeraine ventured, “Surely Nethenabbi might appreciate help from Lelantos to burn the weeds from his fields. He will only have the one adult dragon he is bringing, nest-tetchy and irritable at being so far from its home.”
“Oh, Val, he will not be impressed with our Lelantos,” Mamma said. “But perhaps after he has wed one of you, he could be persuaded to buy the dragon? Yes, it would make a fine gesture of goodwill between our houses to take the old beast off our hands.”
Valeraine pressed on, “If he has no dragon to work in his own nest, Lelantos could be of actual help. In tilling and harvesting, even in hauling materials for the new nest building. With that kind of deal, we could trade for an egg and —”
Mamma dismissed the idea with a flap of her hand.
“It will be much simpler to install one of you as the mistress of Netherfield, will it not?” Catching a brilliant idea, Mamma said, “I will send your father to call on the Nethenabbis at once, to invite them for tea. There are other eligible women in the neighborhood, after all, and we must gain an advantage by making their acquaintance first.”
Valeraine took a steadying breath. She said, levelly, “I must go help in our nest.” She left the room, not waiting for Mamma to acknowledge her excuse.
If she had stayed, listening to Mamma plan to waive their house’s potential and settle for only a marriage, she would have said something regrettable.
What Valeraine needed now was to talk with someone who would see the Nethenabbis for what they could be: the chance for Longbourn house to rise from its dilapidation.