The Fearless Miss Dinah by Laura Rollins
Chapter Twelve
“Well, we really must go now,” the elderly woman across from Dinah said, standing and motioning for her two daughters to do the same. “It was so nice to finally get to stop and talk a bit with you, Lady Stanton.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” Dinah said, also standing. She kept her smile up until the woman and two young girls stepped out of the parlor and into the corridor.
Then her smile fell, and Dinah collapsed back onto the settee she’d been occupying this past hour. Visits to a new bride were expected, so she wasn’t surprised that many women who’d never bothered to speak to her before now chose to spend a quarter of an hour in her company. But who knew they could be so exhausting?
She hazarded a glance at the early afternoon sunlight coming in through the windows. Wasn’t it time yet for at-home visits to be done?
The door opened and Dinah heard the telltale sound of a footman’s steps. She groaned inwardly, even while sitting up straight once more.
“Lady Blackmore, Lady Lambert, and Mrs. Dunn.”
Blast.
Dinah lifted her chin and pasted on the most exuberant smile she could muster. It wasn’t as though she didn’t love her sister and cousin. And Lady Blackmore was the closest thing Dinah had to a mother. In any other circumstance, she would have been delighted to visit with them.
However, if there were ever women of her acquaintance that she didn’t wish to know the exact nature of her relationship with her husband, it was these three women. Was it not these three women who had most ardently insisted Dinah keep better company while in Town? They’d expounded, more than once, on the error of her ways. No doubt, now, they saw her unenviable situation as the direct result of foolish decisions made by a naive chit.
In a way, they were right. Her current situation was the result of her own decisions.
But Dinah would never regret doing what was necessary to save Adele. More still, she would never regret what she’d had to do to help Mr. Harding stop smugglers and make England safer.
The only thing she did regret was that she wasn’t permitted to ever explain to her family.
Eliza—now Lady Lambert—greeted Dinah with a big hug. “Oh, it feels like an age since we last saw one another.”
“It has felt rather strange,” Dinah agreed, hugging her sister back with equal fierceness. “Living in this big house, with no sister or cousin telling me what to do all day long.”
They all laughed, and Eliza pulled back, giving Rachel—now Mrs. Dunn—space to give Dinah a hug next. “How are you holding up? Married life is a hard adjustment, even when . . .” Rachel’s voice trailed off, her lips pursed tight. “Well, you know.”
Even when a man and wife were in love. Dinah grasped Rachel’s meaning well enough.
Dinah opened her mouth to respond. She could always confess. Tell them everything.
But no, that would put Mr. Harding and his work in danger.
Her family understood her union with Henry was not a love match but a marriage of convenience. She would let it rest with that.
“Come now,” Dinah said, choosing instead to lighten the mood. “You cannot honestly believe I’m as badly off as all that. Have you seen the size of this home?”
Lady Charlotte Blackmore finally had her turn offering a hug, even as Dinah continued to speak. “The lawn in the back would make any member of the haut ton jealous, I’m sure. And wait until you try Chef’s finger cakes.” The four of them sat, Eliza and Rachel on chairs across from Dinah and Charlotte next to her on the settee. “Henry is always finding fault with the man’s cooking, but I have never tasted finer food anywhere.”
“You are to be envied, then,” Charlotte said. “My son has been asking for me to come visit him again. My grandson will reach his first birthday soon and they wish to hold a small celebration for the dear boy. Of course I will be going; nothing could keep me away.”
They all smiled, and Dinah even laughed softly. After all, it was Charlotte’s insistence that she go see her son and daughter-in-law the moment she’d heard her grandson had been born—and before her son could travel to retrieve her—that had landed her on the road, held up by highwaymen, when Dinah’s father had rescued her.
“All the same,” Charlotte continued, “the cook at Sunbend House is . . .” She paused, blowing out a long slow breath. “Regrettable.”
They all laughed some more. Gracious, but it felt good to laugh again. Dinah hadn’t done much of that as of late.
A maid walked in with a fresh tray of tea and finger cakes, and for a few minutes, nothing more on the subject was said while Dinah poured and everyone admired the beauty of the small cakes and the lovely smell of the tea.
“You were not in the wrong,” Eliza said after a bite. “This cake is quite remarkable.”
“Perhaps someday, after Lord Fitzwilliam returns, Christopher and I will steal your cherished Chef away from you.” Currently, Rachel and her husband split their time living with her parents in their small country house and at Curio Manor with the Dowager Fitzwilliam while her son, Lord Fitzwilliam, was in the East Indies securing Christopher’s newly inherited fortune. It was a life of constant moving and uncertainty, and yet Rachel, who’d never cared for change before, was undeniably, incandescently happy all the same.
“Of course,” Rachel continued, “if I did that, I would undoubtedly eat more cake than was good for any one person.”
“Not to mention you’d earn the ire of your favorite cousin,” Dinah added. There was no chance she would ever let Chef Voss go, not even to Rachel.
“I don’t know,” Eliza said between bites. “These cakes might be worth all that plus more.”
Dinah laughed, as did the others.
“I’m afraid you’ve ruined me, dear,” Charlotte said after finishing off one of the finger cakes quicker than any of them. “I shall never be happy at Sunbend House again.”
“Does Lord Blackmore not mind the cooking?” Dinah asked.
“If he doesn’t, surely his wife does,” Rachel added.
Charlotte cast her gaze heavenward. “I considered asking if they wished for me to help them find a new cook. My dear daughter-in-law is a sweet thing but is quite overwhelmed at the moment with a new baby. And though my son dotes on her, he is a man and sometimes rather stupid. But every time I think about bringing the topic up, I’m sure of what will happen. I’ll say something like ‘My dear boy, now that your household is growing, do you not think that Cook could use some additional help in the kitchen?’ And he’ll respond with something such as, ‘I’d never considered it before. I’ll ask the housekeeper if Cook is overwhelmed or not.’ And then the housekeeper will of course say all is well and that will be the end of that.”
Charlotte helped herself to another cake, shaking it gently at all of them as she continued. “My other option is to speak directly to my daughter-in-law, Susan. ‘You have so much on your hands now,’ I would say, ‘why don’t you let me help you find a new cook who can do the Blackmore name justice?’ She would reply with something like, ‘Does the cooking here truly bother you that much? I am so very sorry. I will see to a change immediately.’ Which sounds like a victory, but actually she would go straight to my son, and then he would come find me and say, ‘Why did you bother Susan with this? Don’t you know she just had a baby and is still recovering?’ And then, we’d simply have the same conversation as though I’d approached him on the subject first.” Charlotte sighed and leaned back.
“Sounds rather like a hopeless cause,” Dinah said.
“I’m afraid so,” Charlotte agreed. “Think of me while I’m gone, will you, ladies? Eat your lovely cakes and drink your perfect tea and know that I desperately wish I was doing the same.”
Dinah leaned over, resting her head momentarily on Charlotte’s shoulder, speaking in a fake solemn tone. “I shall eat an extra piece of cake in your honor every day you are away.”
“Thank you, dear,” Charlotte said with a smile. Then she paused. “Though, truth be told,” the older woman’s voice changed, becoming more weighted, “I will worry for you as well while I’m away.”
The mood in the room shifted. Dinah instantly became aware of her family’s collective concern for her—but instead of comforting her, it felt a little more like swallowing salt water, sharp on the way down and unpleasant long after.
“I am well,” Dinah said, looking more at her tea than the women around her. “There is no reason to worry over me.”
Eliza, Rachel, and Charlotte all exchanged glances.
Dinah pursed her lips. Apparently, they’d not stopped talking about her choices simply because she was married now.
“Truly, though?” Rachel asked after a moment of silence between them.
“We know you, Dinah,” Eliza added. “Don’t pretend around us that you are happy with having been forced into this marriage.”
Tears bit at the back of Dinah’s eyes. But she blinked several times, willing away any signs of crying, and smiled more brightly. “Henry and I may have had a rocky beginning, but that doesn’t necessarily ensure a horrible life together.” Over the past several days, she and Henry had spoken often to one another, and always affably so. There was no love. No deep, abiding affection between them.
But nonetheless, Dinah didn’t want the pity of these women about her, no matter that they were family.
“I am determined to make the most of my current situation,” she said.
Charlotte placed her tea back on the low table in front of them. “Good for you. Get in there and show Lord Stanton exactly what sort of a woman he’s been blessed to marry.”
“Show him your zeal for life,” Eliza said.
“Show him how big your heart is,” Rachel added.
“Show him,” Charlotte said, taking hold of Dinah’s chin and turning their faces toward one another, “that you are a Mulgrave; and Mulgraves don’t back down from a challenge.”
Dinah had to blink several times over to keep the tears at bay.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Then she was wrapped in the hugs of all her family.
They were right. She could do this. She would show Henry that no matter his thoughts on love, she wasn’t one to turn tail and run. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was in this forever.
Henry may consider himself a decisive man—but he’d never come up against Mulgrave stubbornness. And no man faced such a force and remained unaffected.