Lyons Gate

CHAPTER 34

Hallie sent a blinding smile out to the table at large as she said to her father-in-law, “You wish to know about the Isle of Wight, sir? Hmm. Well, yes, I have it-Ventnor is quite picturesque. It lies on the southeastern coast, I believe. I have sent the duke and duchess of Portsmouth a watercolor of Dunsmore House to thank them.”

Corrie said, “I didn’t know you did watercolors, Hallie.”

“Well, I do, actually, but I didn’t do this one. There simply wasn’t enough time. I commissioned it from a young man we found painting on the beach.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t have time?” Hallie’s father asked, his fork still over his plate, an eyebrow up. “I found two weeks more than ample time for me to do everything I wished in London.”

“You forget, Alec,” Douglas said. He snapped his fingers. “At certain times in life, time goes by that fast.”

Baron Sherard said, grimmer than any reaper, “Not when we’re speaking of my daughter, it doesn’t. Whenever I thought about her with your damned son, knowing what damned sons are like, since I was one once, my belly cramped.” Alec sent a look of acute dislike to his new son-in-law.

Lady Lydia announced, “I never had a honeymoon worth speaking of.”

“I don’t speak of mine either,” Angela said.

“When we finally had a honeymoon,” Alex said, beaming at her husband, “I believe we spoke French the whole time.”

The earl rolled his eyes.

Lady Lydia snorted. “Always after my boy, you were-still are-don’t think I didn’t know what you were doing when I was visiting on Wednesday, laughing behind the estate room door. It’s a disgrace.”

Hallie sat forward, all earnest, her eyes on her father’s face. “Two weeks on the Isle of Wight is nothing like two weeks in London, Papa. There was so much to do-”

“Like what?” her father asked.

“Well, like eating and sleeping now and again, and watching the sun rise, not to mention the sunsets.”

Douglas caught his wife’s eye, then smiled at his new daughter-in-law. She looked glorious, she glowed, her eyes were bright, she sparkled, she was complacent. And she couldn’t seem to stop laughing. What she was, Douglas thought, was a pleased woman. As for his son, Douglas realized Jason looked content, perhaps he even looked at peace. He wondered if Hallie was pregnant yet. He wouldn’t be surprised.

Corrie, far more innocent than she’d ever believe, said, “I visited the Isle of Wight only once, as a child. Uncle Simon got vilely seasick, so he swore he wouldn’t ever leave his dinner in The Solent again. You remember, Hallie, The Solent is what they call the strait in the English Channel between Southampton and the Isle of Wight.”

“Of course I remember. Hmm. We didn’t leave from Southampton, did we, Jason?”

“No, we left from Worthing.”

Corrie said, “Is the bright red house still on the hill overlooking the harbor?”

“Red house, you say? Jason, do you remember a red house? On a hill overlooking the harbor?”

Jason looked perfectly blank.

His twin said, “That’s all right, Jase. What’s a red house in the big scheme of things? What did you do besides visit Ventnor?”

Jason continued to look perfectly blank.

“We went down on the beach,” Hallie said, and raked her fork along the tablecloth just like she was raking sand. She paused and her hand trembled. Jason knew exactly what she was thinking.

He cleared his throat, couldn’t think of a single word to say. His mother obligingly said, “Oh, you mean the beach off the right side of the promontory, not fifty yards from Dunsmore House? Did you swim?”

“Yes,” Hallie said. “we were there most nights, except when it was raining.”

“Nights?” Lady Lydia asked. “My dear child, you and your precious new husband went swimming in the evenings?”

“Oh yes,” Hallie said, beaming. “There was no one about after the sun went down so we-oh dear, never mind that. Fact is, we did plan to swim one day after we’d eaten a lovely picnic lunch on the beach beneath a lovely tree, but then-” In a flash of inspiration, Hallie said, beaming at her mother-in-law, “We were invited to Lord and Lady Lindley’s house twice. Very charming people. Weren’t they, Jason?”

“I believe they were. Yes, of course they were. Lord Lindley admired you, perhaps overmuch as I recall.”

“What about Lady Lindley? I believed she would try to bite your neck she got so close to you. Not to mention those three girls who attempted a very old tried and true stratagem-”

“The wedge,” Corrie said.

“Yes, they tried a very nice wedge to get a clear path to you.”

“What did you do?” Corrie asked.

“I executed what I now call my counteroffensive. Jason, do you remember when I asked you to look at that particular painting on the drawing room wall?”

“Yes, you nearly had me walking backward a good six feet as I recall.”

Hallie nodded. “That’s it. It quite flummoxed them. Their wedge vanished, they fell into disarray.” She frowned. “However, this one young lady was determined but I whisked him off to a waltz.”

“I like that counteroffensive,” Corrie said. “I’ll try it when James and I attend our next party.”

Alex said, “Hallie, other than Lucille admiring my son’s neck, didn’t you find she has exquisite taste?”

“Well, the inside of her armoire-it smelled quite fragrant, but that’s not important, now is it?”

Alec Carrick choked.

Hallie’s mother-in-law leaned over and smacked him between his shoulder blades.

James said, “Mother, why should Hallie have remarked on Lady Lindley’s taste in particular?”

“She sings beautifully, her voice has much the same rich tone of Hallie’s. But it’s louder, much more volume.”

“But what does her voice have to do with her taste?” Angela asked.

Douglas said, a dark brow raised, “She manages to shatter a crystal glass at each of her concerts, so I’ve been told.”

Alex said, “The goblet she broke when we were last there was made specifically for her by the Waterford artisans.”

Jason said, “Lady Lindley did sing for the group, so I heard later. Hallie and I didn’t happen to be in the drawing room at that particular moment to witness the goblet shattering. Grandmother, what are you and Angela fighting about this evening?”

Angela said, “She is more selfish than my one and only husband who would stick out his hand for a plate of food, never looking away from his bloody Greek textbooks.”

“He was a very learned man,” Alec Carrick said. “He was also a demanding tyrant.”

“Hear, hear,” said Angela. “I do wonder sometimes where he resides now.” As she spoke she lightly tapped her slipper against the floor. “I will not speak more about my husband, his spirit is still too near. You will not believe this, my dear,” she continued to Hallie, “but this withered old bat”-she waved a hand toward Lady Lydia-“allows that in certain lights, she just might look younger than I do, and here I am young enough to be her daughter, almost.”

“Ha!” said Lady Lydia. “Unlike her, I still have beautiful hands, elegant hands, look at my hands, lovely blue veins, so close to the surface. They’re of remarkable beauty, don’t you agree, dear boy? My sweetest Hallie?”

“I was remarking to my wife that you had extraordinary veins, Grandmother.”

Alex marveled at the meaty insults, all given and accepted in high good humor. She wondered what her mother-in-law would say if she called her a shrunken old bat.

“You’re both amazing,” Hallie said, looking from one to the other.

“My dearest girl,” Lady Lydia said, “tell this woman you don’t want her at Lyon ’s Gate now that you’re married and sharing so many lovely activities about which I have little or no memory at all. Tell her that she’s to come and live with me. I’ll give her a bed in the attic.”

“You don’t have an attic in the Dower House, Lydia. Your memory is like this lamb chop, nearly all chewed up. Were I to consider moving in with you, I would want that lovely yellow room that faces the back of the house, overlooking the garden Hollis oversees. Then I should want to take over the gardens, plant dill and thyme.”

“I don’t like dill,” Lady Lydia said, then leaned close to Angela. No one could make out what she whispered.

Corrie said to her mother-in-law, “Such wonderful insults and they’re all for show. Were she to say them to me or you, she’d mean each and every one. Whereas this one”-Corrie turned to Hallie, an eyebrow arched-“walks in the house, says something absolutely ridiculous to her, and she’s charmed. You can do no wrong, Hallie, and it galls me. Mama-in-law and I are forced to listen to her sing endless praises about you, how Jason is so very lucky to have you for his wife. It’s quite provoking.”

“I’m lucky to have you, Hallie?” Jason said. “Hmm, do you really think so, Grandmama?”

Lady Lydia looked up and blinked. “Oh, my dearest little Hallie. She is doubtless an angel, unlike Corrie here who behaves like a hoyden-imagine, I watched her slide down the banister to fall into poor James’s arms. They both went to the floor, playing and laughing, certainly not something to happen in the entrance hall of a nobleman’s estate. But the truth is, Hallie and Corrie are the lucky ones.”

Hallie said, “Thank you, Grandmama-in-law. I have wit. I like that. And since I’m new and fresh, don’t you think I’m worthy of Jason, ma’am?”

Lady Lydia eyed Hallie from her lovely braided hair atop her head to her lovely thin nose to her low-cut evening gown that framed breasts Lady Lydia couldn’t remember ever having that high up on her chest. “Yes,” she said, “you are worthy. For the moment. My birthday is next month.”

Corrie said, “I gave you a lovely marquetry table for your last birthday, but you never said a single word about my being worthy of James.”

“I am still thinking about it,” Lady Lydia said.

Corrie wanted to tell her not to think about it too long or she just might finally croak. She said, “By the way, Hallie, did you and Jason see anything at all of interest on the Isle of Wight during that long two weeks you were there?”

There was silence the length of the dinner table, then perhaps a giggle from one of the women. Was that Lady Lydia?

James said, “You are one to talk, Corrie. We spent nearly a month in Edinburgh and yet you don’t even remember much about the castle. You hemmed and hawed when the twins asked you about it.”

“That,” Corrie said, “was different. It rained all the time. We couldn’t go out very much. Don’t you remember? I sprained my ankle-”

Jason asked, “However did you sprain your ankle, Corrie?”

James said quickly, “Neither of us remember. It’s not important. I told her not to hurl herself-well, never mind.”

“Listen, James, I do remember the castle. I remember very clearly how you carried me into that tunnel that led to the dungeons-”

James’s eyes dilated.

“Oh goodness, James, let me fan myself.”

James waved his napkin in her face. “Well, the tunnel was nice and private, not a soul around.”

“Oh yes,” Corrie said and gave him a smile to curl his toes. She turned to her sister-in-law. “You haven’t yet answered my question. Did you see anything at all of interest during your very long fourteen days on the Isle of Wight?”

Hallie never looked up from the lovely asparagus spears in the middle of her plate. “Well, now that I truly think about it, Corrie, I must say no. Jason, can you remember anything we saw that was of any interest, for longer than say, eight minutes?”

“Longer than eight minutes? No, I don’t believe so. For the most part, we admired the architecture at Dunsmore House.”