7. Chapter 7
A s Ames and I entered the dining room, I paused.
Brant, Collins, Davis, and Everett were almost finished eating. And, worse, their table manners were abysmal.
Freemont sat in a chair, and the footman stood at attention near the sideboard, his face devoid of emotions but his body posture full of judgment. Even he knew that the Welby brothers were lacking in formal etiquette.
They didn’t pause to rise when I entered the room and approached the table, but kept eating the roasted duck, vegetables, and the bread that Mrs. Pontipee had baked. The food smelled delicious—but it was almost gone from the serving dishes on the table.
I cleared my throat.
Brant glanced up at me but then returned his attention to the food.
“Don’t you have the decency to wait for us?” I asked them.
Everett lifted his gaze from the leg of meat he was chewing and frowned.
“You don’t even know what I’m talking about, do you?” I stared at them.
Ames walked around me to the head of the table. “The food must be good.”
I placed my hands on my hips again and asked, “Do I need to ring the gong to get you to stop?”
That made each of them pause.
I took a deep breath. I would address their poor manners later. First, I needed to tell them the most pressing news. “Ames has agreed to allow me to host a house party this summer, and I plan to invite several of my American friends.”
Their eyes widened and Everett dropped the duck leg onto his plate.
“However,” I said, my hands still on my hips, “I will need full cooperation from all of you. Not only to get the castle ready, but to learn all the necessary manners and etiquette my friends will expect from you.”
“Manners?” Collins asked.
“Etiquette?” Everett wrinkled his nose.
“Dancing,” I said, “and flirting and parlor games—”
“Dancing?” It was Davis’s turn to cringe. He had a book lying on the table next to his dinner plate.
“We will start with table manners,” I told them, nodding at the footman, who came to the table and held out the chair for me. “You rise when a lady enters the room and wait to sit until she is seated.”
They all stared at me.
I lifted my hands to indicate that they should rise.
Slowly, one by one, they did.
After the footman pulled the chair out for me, I took a seat and gently removed the folded napkin from my spot at the table before laying it on my lap—pausing when I noticed that they were all still standing.
“You may take your seats now,” I said, feeling like a governess or a scolding mother. I had no desire to be either one to my brothers-in-law, but someone must teach them.
They sat and watched me.
I took off my long white gloves, deliberately taking my time, and set those on my lap, as well.
Finally, I looked up. “From now on, you will enter the drawing room after you are dressed for supper, and you will wait there until everyone arrives. Once Mrs. Moore strikes the dinner gong, I will invite all of you to follow me into the dining room. After you find your seats, you will wait until I pick up my silverware and take the first bite. Then, and only then, will you begin your meal.” There was so much I needed to teach them, but I would have to take my time and not treat them as children.
“Now.” I looked at Davis. “Please put your book away. You should bring nothing to the dinner table, except yourself and a pleasant attitude.” I sent a look at my husband across the table.
He simply watched me.
Davis moved the book and set it on his lap.
I turned to Everett, who sat closest to me. “Please pass the duck.”
He did so, his movements choppy and uncertain.
I took a piece of duck and set it on my plate, then I took some vegetables from a tray near me and placed carrots and potatoes next to the duck.
When I was ready, I lifted my fork and glanced at them.
They were still staring at me.
But it was Ames’s handsome, slightly amused gaze that almost made me lose my composure.
I speared a small potato with my fork and placed it in my mouth, nodding at the rest of them to continue eating.
It took a moment as they looked at each other with hesitation—and then they began to eat again.
“Tonight, I plan to write invitations to several friends,” I told them, “but starting tomorrow evening, we will begin dancing lessons in the parlor after supper.”
Davis and Everett groaned.
“Ames, Collins, and I have had lessons,” Brant said, “when we were younger—before—”
He didn’t finish his sentence, yet I knew what he meant.
No one wanted to talk about their father’s murder or their mother’s imprisonment.
“Then this will be a refresher course for you,” I said, letting my gaze fall on Ames. “I expect you to attend, as well.”
“Me?” He frowned. “What do I need dancing lessons for? I already have a wife. And if I recall, you didn’t complain about my dancing in London.”
I couldn’t complain—he’d been a magnificent dancer. “Then perhaps you can help me teach them.”
He scowled.
Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Everett asked a little awkwardly, “Who will you invite?”
“I’m not yet certain who is staying in England this summer, so I will send out several invitations. I believe we could comfortably host four or five young ladies, along with their chaperones.”
“Will any of them be the women who were at your wedding breakfast?” Everett stumbled over his words, obviously uncomfortable.
I studied his face, wondering if one of my friends had caught his interest. “Yes. Did you meet any of them? Did one of them catch your eye?”
Everett’s ears turned red as he moved his food around his plate with his fork.
“I knew it!” Collins said, punching Everett on the shoulder, laughing. “Which one? You’ve mentioned Miss Harrington’s name several times since then. It’s her, isn’t it?”
“Ruth?” I asked, smiling. She was one of my closest friends and had been in the ballroom with me at Lady Sheffield’s when Ames had approached. Funny, vivacious, and charming.
Everett refused to look at me, but he punched Collins’s arm in retaliation and told him to be quiet.
Collins grabbed his arm, still laughing. “I knew it,” he said again.
“What about Miss Danby?” Everett shot back at Collins. “I saw you staring at her. You’ve mentioned her a time or two yourself.”
It was Collins’s turn to look embarrassed, but he wouldn’t relent on Everett. “You’re trying to distract us. You don’t want anyone to know you’re sweet on Miss Harrington.”
Despite being the smallest Welby brother, Everett pushed Collins so hard, Collins lost his balance and fell off the chair, crashing to the floor.
I yelped as Collins jumped up and threw himself at Everett, causing another chair and brother to go flying.
“Stop!” Ames commanded as he stood.
But the brothers continued to wrestle on the dining room floor.
My eyes widened as Brant resumed his meal as if nothing was happening, and Davis watched with mild interest, holding his book, as if he was afraid it might be in danger.
“Do something,” I begged Ames.
Freemont remained in his seat, looking as if he was sleeping, but the footman stared in wild-eyed shock.
“Boys!” Ames thundered again, moving around the table. “I said stop!”
They finally listened as Everett straddled Collins, who was lying under him, and both looked at Ames.
“We have a lady in the castle now,” Ames said, warning in his voice and face. “If you’re going to wrestle, take it outside.”
“No,” I said, truly appalled. “There will be no more wrestling. Anywhere.”
All five Welby brothers looked my way, disappointment on several faces.
“You heard her,” Ames said, nodding at his brothers on the floor. “Now get up and straighten your chairs.”
Collins and Everett grumbled but did as Ames had commanded.
A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of Everett’s mouth.
“You’re bleeding,” I said to him.
He touched his lip and pulled back his hand, a surprised look on his face. With a shrug, he used the back of his sleeve to wipe it clean.
I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing.
Turning these boys into proper gentleman might be harder than I realized.
From across the table, Ames gave me a look that could only be described as self-satisfied, as if to say, I told you so .
By the time supper ended, I was ready to be alone in my room to write invitations and work on my manuscript. It had been a long and arduous day, and I had a feeling tomorrow would be no different. Was I foolish to think I could teach the Welby brothers everything they would need to know in a month?
After the sun disappeared and darkness fell over the moors, the gentle breeze had picked up, and now it whistled around the castle and shook the windowpanes with surprising force.
Molly had helped me out of my evening gown and into a nightgown.
She had taken the pins from my hair and braided it, tying the end with a blue ribbon, then she had laid a fire for me in the hearth and taken herself to bed.
Now that Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Pontipee were sleeping on the third floor in the female dormitory, Molly had moved her things up there.
Another gust of wind rattled against the windows and made a shiver run up my spine as I dipped my pen into the inkpot and set it to a piece of stationery.
The room was shrouded in shadows, with only the soft glow from the fireplace and the candelabra to banish the dark as I sat at my writing desk.
Without Molly nearby, loneliness overwhelmed me again.
My husband’s bedroom was on the other side of the door, yet I would never cross that threshold without an invitation.
And even then, the thought of it made my heart gallop.
Was he even in his room? Or was I all alone in this wing of the castle tonight? He hadn’t come up with me after supper, and I hadn’t heard him in the hall.
As the wind blew, another shiver overtook me and I lifted the shawl off the back of my chair to wrap it around my shoulders.