“Your mother is charming, as you well know.”
“Yes, but you are accustomed to an atmosphere of quiet and peace.” He seated her at the elegantly laid table before she had a chance to make a riposte.
James assumed his seat at the head of the table, with Laura seated on his left and his brother-in-law, Mr. Salstone, facing her. Salstone was a sandy-haired man who sported a twirled guardsman mustache and muttonchop whiskers so ridiculously wide that Laura had difficulty not staring at him.
His wife, Patricia, seated beside him, resembled her mother, but she lacked Tessa’s vivacity, and her eyes were a faded blue rather than Tessa’s unusual silver color, so that she looked like a poor copy of the original.
As the first course was served, Laura took the opportunity to study the other diners. James’s brother Claude was seated beside her, and the youngest, Walter, was farther along beside the maligned Cousin Maurice. Neither brother greatly resembled James. Like Patricia, their eyes were blue and their hair more brown than black. Claude had a sullen set to his mouth. Walter, nodding along in a bored way as Cousin Maurice talked to him, kept sneaking glances down the table at James and Laura. Once, when Laura caught his gaze, he glanced down hastily.
Laura suspected that Mr. Netherly was one of the “swains” James had mentioned hanging about his mother. Tessa seemed to devote most of her arch glances at him. The other person at the table, Claude’s wife, Adelaide, lived up to James’s description, her smile almost constant and her voice soft and sweet. Indeed, in all her ribbons and flounces, with her porcelain skin and fluffy blond hair, she looked like a confection herself.
“Lady de Vere.”
It took Laura a moment to realize that James’s sister was addressing her. A faint flush rose in Laura’s cheeks as she said, “Yes, I’m sorry. I am still unused to my new name.”
“Of course,” Patricia responded with a narrow smile. “I don’t believe we have met before, have we?”
“No, I think not. I’m sure I had my come-out before yours,” Laura replied.
“Then you do not visit London during the Season?” Patricia went on doggedly.
“Rarely.”
“My wife prefers the solitude of the countryside,” James told his sister, putting a faint emphasis on the first two words.
“But do you not miss the balls? The plays?”
“Not the balls, but I do enjoy the theater.” Laura smiled. “And the museums.”
“Oh. How . . . unusual.”
“I am sure you would find it so,” James agreed. “Laura is peculiarly given to things of the mind.”
“Now, James, don’t tease your sister,” Tessa inserted with the ease of long practice. “I believe Laura often visits her aunt in London, don’t you, dear?”
“Sometimes,” Laura agreed. “But I preferred to stay at home to help my father.”
“Yes,” Patricia’s husband said in the languid, faintly arch drawl affected by upper-crust young gentlemen. “Your father is a . . . barrister, isn’t it?”
“No,” Laura replied evenly. “My late father chose to devote himself to medicine, much to the disapproval of his family, who, like many aristocrats, find helping people quite beneath them.”
Beside her, James, who had stiffened at Salstone’s disdainful tone, relaxed slightly, letting out a chuckle, and Walter hid a sputtering laugh behind his napkin. Even Claude smiled. Patricia’s husband was apparently not liked by any of the de Vere males. Unfortunately, from the look on Patricia’s and Archibald’s faces, Laura suspected she had made enemies of them both.
Tessa once again entered the fray. “I rarely speak ill of people.“ That brought another quickly hidden smile from her sons. “But I must say, Laura, that I have never really liked your father’s family. Your cousin Evesley seems a selfish, unimaginative man.”
“Evesley?” Archibald cast a sharp glance at Tessa. “The Earl of Evesley?”
Tessa nodded. “He’s Laura’s cousin. I pity poor Mariah, having to put up with him. Of course, she was determined to catch him. Her family hadn’t a penny; everyone knows her great-grandfather gambled it away. Still . . . I’m sure she never dreamt Evesley would live this long.”
Archibald swung his gaze to Laura. “The Earl of Evesley is your cousin?”
“Of some sort. His father and my grandmother were cousins, I believe. I’m not sure what that makes us.”
“It makes you the all-important relation to an earl, doesn’t it, Archie?” James gave his brother-in-law a smile devoid of humor. “And how is your father, the baron?”