He was mixing rum punch at the sideboard.
"Popper! Popper!"
The butler turned around. "Yes, my lady?"
"Send a footman to Squire Thestle immediately, if you please. Do beg him the courtesy of joining us for supper, he and his lovely wife. And Roland, if he's at home." She turned back to Eleanor, smiling. "Sir Roland would be perfect for you, dearest. He has a Roman nose. Yes, and a Grecian chin."
"Perhaps you could turn him to currency and trade him on the Exchange," Anne remarked. "Villiers, how kind of you to finally decide to greet us. You appeared frozen in your place, as if you had turned into a Roman statue yourself."
"I was struck dumb by your beauty," Villiers said, bowing.
Eleanor just stopped herself from rolling her eyes.
"My lady," Popper was saying in some distress."! am not sure... in Lady Marguerite's absence—"
"For goodness sake," the duchess burst out. "You'll forgive me, dear Lisette, if I observe that a strong hand is needed in training this household." She rounded on Popper without pausing for breath. "I do hope that you are not questioning Lady Lisette's direct order? We will, naturally, wait for supper until the squire and his family arrive. I am not hungry, although I trust your cook can bring us something to nibble on."
Eleanor was hungry, but she took a sip of her rum punch instead. It was surprisingly good, rather sweet and fruity. She had always thought men drank fiery drinks, meant to straighten the backbone.
Popper had a noticeably wild-eyed look, but he trotted into the hallway. "That looks very good,"
Lisette said, noticing Eleanor's glass. "What is it?"
"Rum punch," Anne said. "It's utterly delicious, which is why gentlemen tend to gulp it all themselves. Here, darling, you may have mine. I haven't even touched it. Villiers, you know none of us can match you at chess, and besides, it's such a deadly boring game that we would fall over with fatigue if you started a match with one of us. Do you know any other games, perhaps something all of us might play?"
"No," Villiers said. He wasn't the sort of man who could be easily flirted with, Eleanor noted.
Anne didn't seem to notice. "I expect we have at least an hour before the squire arrives," she observed. "We could have an interval of improving conversation." Her tone made it clear that she'd rather jump into a lake.
"I know exactly what we should do to amuse ourselves," Lisette said. "What do you propose?"
Villiers asked, bending solicitously toward her. Eleanor drank some more of her rum punch. "We'll play knucklebones!" Lisette said, smiling at him.
There was a moment's silence. "Knucklebones?" the duchess asked. Her tone was not friendly, but Lisette was oblivious.
"You might know it better as dibs," she said happily. "It's no end of fun." She waved at a footman and a moment later was holding a pile of knobby bones and a small wooden ball.
Eleanor peered at the bones with some interest. It went without saying that her mother had never allowed a game so unsanitary and altogether common in the ducal nursery.
"Now," Lisette said, "we must make ourselves comfortable. Of course we need to be able to toss the bones properly, and that means a wood floor. Perhaps I should have that big rug taken up." She looked over at the remaining footman as if about to order him to get to work on the spot.
"Not tonight," Anne said. She looked distinctly amused. "There's plenty of bare floor; we are standing on some at this moment. But where do we sit, Lisette?"
"On the floor, of course," Lisette said.
"On the floor," Anne repeated. "Of course." Without hesitation, she gracefully sank to the ground, and beamed up at them from the wide circle of her skirts. "Do join me."
The duchess cleared her throat with a sound of utter disbelief.
Eleanor didn't want to sit on the floor. Her side panniers were likely to spring into the air and throw her skirts over her head. On the other hand, she didn't want to align herself with her mother, especially given that Villiers was apparently finding the whole idea charming.
At least, that was what she gleaned from the laughter in his eyes. Naturally, he said nothing. Lisette, meanwhile, had dropped to the floor, scattered the bones, and was now practicing throwing the ball in the air and catching it.
"Knucklebones is a game for children," the duchess pointed out.
Lisette's mouth drooped. "I know. I do wish we had children in the house."
"But we do have a child in the house," Villiers said.
Lisette blinked up at him. "They all went home."
"My son is here."