Spinster and Spice (The Spinster Chronicles, Book 3) Page 7

  “Oh my,” Kitty gasped, eyes somehow wider. “And now?”

  Izzy shrugged. “Well, now he loves to ride, so it was worth the effort. He is destined to be my favorite brother.”

  Kitty nodded thoughtfully, lowering her eyes. “Well, Sebastian is also more than ten years older than me, so it was not as though there was much opportunity to play even when he was home from school. I doubt he would even want to, being a boy his age with a sister my age.”

  “I am sitting right here, you know,” Sebastian broke in, looking between the two of them. “And I’ll have you know, I did play with you, Mouse.”

  Izzy glared over at him in exasperation. “Excuse you, Mr. Morton, but you were not listening, and so you can have no response. If this becomes a problem, your sister and I will excuse you from the room.”

  His eyes narrowed at her, and she mirrored his expression and position, waiting.

  Kitty made the softest scoffing sound known to man, and Izzy saw her clamp on her lips once again.

  Sebastian caught it, too, and his expression softened.

  It had never completely occurred to Izzy until that moment just how concerned he would have been for his sister under these circumstances, how much he wanted her to be comfortable, and to be the girl he knew her to be for others as well. This task was almost as much about him as it was for her. Rather than make everything more daunting, it actually made Izzy more excited to take it on, and more determined to adopt Kitty Morton as her friend and see her well-situated in society.

  “Fine,” Sebastian grunted as he returned to his book. “I will say nothing, hear nothing, and do nothing.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Izzy chirped, turning back to Kitty with a grin. “Your sister and I are well on our way to becoming friends.”

  Kitty returned her smile softly, but there was real delight in it.

  Sebastian had no response, and both girls looked over at him.

  He dutifully stared at his book, though his eyes never moved across the page. Then he looked up and feigned surprise. “Oh dear, were you addressing me? I was not listening, as I promised.”

  Kitty rolled her eyes, which made Izzy laugh heartily, and Sebastian grinned, then went back to his book yet again.

  “Now,” Izzy said, turning serious again, “I do have to ask you one question, Kitty. Are you musical?”

  Kitty’s eyes widened and another timid smile appeared. “I suppose…”

  Izzy laughed once. “That is not an adequate answer, dear. Let me rephrase it. Are you accomplished musically?”

  Again came the timidity. “I suppose.”

  “Do you enjoy music?” Izzy tried for a third time, playing at exasperation.

  Kitty giggled softly and tucked a dark ringlet behind her ear, her cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. She lowered her eyes and plucked at the green sprigged muslin she wore. “I love music,” Kitty murmured.

  Izzy smiled and waited for Kitty to meet her eyes again. When she did, Izzy nodded in approval. “In what area?” she pressed. “Vocally? Pianoforte? The harp?”

  “Pianoforte,” Kitty admitted, still slightly pink. “I never perform, though. Not even for Sebastian. I couldn’t, it’s too terrifying.”

  “I quite agree,” Grace replied as she entered again with Charlotte, who bore the tea tray herself. “I was forced to practice for my family starting at age twelve, and I can promise you, I am not sufficiently accomplished to this day to perform, so you can only imagine what I put them through.”

  Sebastian rose at once to go to Charlotte, but she shook her head at him. “No, you don’t, Mr. Morton, you sit back down in that chair like a statue and let the girls have a chat. I can manage my own tea tray.”

  That seemed to ruffle him, and he blinked, but then looked at Izzy, who stifled laughter. He eventually smiled and sat back down, nodding at Charlotte, then smiled further when she handed him a cup of tea.

  Charlotte truly was extraordinary.

  Kitty had a moment of appearing flustered now that the others had returned to the room, but she still smiled at them, which was an improvement.

  “Charlotte is not at all musical, you know,” Izzy pointed out as Charlotte took a seat in a chair to Izzy’s other side. “She is very accomplished in other respects, but she never performs musically.”

  Kitty looked over at Charlotte in surprise. “No one asks you, Miss Wright?”

  Charlotte flashed a quick grin, then tucked it back into a more reserved smile. “No, indeed. They know better. My talents lie in other areas, Miss Morton. I envy your musical abilities, though. It would be delightful to have a skill you can appreciate for yourself and your own enjoyment rather than simply for the admiration of others.”

  “Enjoyment for myself is all I have with my playing,” Kitty murmured shyly, smiling just a little.

  “And that is all you need find in it,” Izzy told her. “Personally, I have no talents that others can admire with ease. My playing is only moderate, my singing is less than admirable, and I cannot draw anything identifiable.”

  The other girls laughed, while Kitty looked torn between concern and amusement. “I am sure you are too modest,” she managed.

  “Oh, no, Miss Morton,” Grace corrected with the utmost gentleness. “You will soon learn that Izzy is never too modest. She is perfectly modest enough. It is quite a task to match her in goodness.”

  Izzy blushed at once and looked at Kitty with wide eyes. “Kindly ignore the flattery of my friends, they are too kind.”

  “I am never too kind,” Charlotte pointed out with a toss of her hair. “It’s never in my interest.”

  “And kindly ignore Charlotte whenever possible,” Izzy added, keeping her focus on Kitty.

  Kitty giggled and bit her lip quickly, then released it as she sighed. “I am so afraid of attention,” she confessed, her voice sounding a good deal stronger than she had earlier in their conversation. “I always have been.”

  Such a confession seemed almost monumental, given her shyness, and Izzy took it as a massive step in the direction she needed to take the girl.

  She leaned forward and took both of Kitty’s hands. “I think you will find, Kitty, that most of the girls in Society have those exact fears. I know I do.”

  “Really?” the girl asked with an innocent eagerness.

  Izzy nodded twice, her heart swelling. “Really.”

  “I am well aware that I do,” Grace added with a sheepish smile. “I hate being on display beyond anything.”

  They all instinctively looked at Charlotte for her response. Charlotte shrugged and smirked a touch. “I have no such concerns. I don’t have much by way of talent to put on display, so I don’t know what they’re all looking at, but that is all they seem to do.”

  Izzy snorted softly and rolled her eyes, and even Kitty seemed amused and somehow delighted with Charlotte’s ways.

  They would have to watch for that. Heaven knew, Kitty Morton did not need to admire Charlotte Wright as any sort of example for her behavior.

  “I don’t want you to worry about Society and attention and performing just yet, Kitty,” Izzy said with a brief squeeze of the girl’s hands. “That will come. What I want is for you to feel comfortable in your own self, and with us. I know what it is to be shy and intimidated by the prospects of London and gentlemen and everything else that gets built up in our minds and in tales. I know we have just met, Kitty Morton, but I already like you very much indeed, and you will not be alone for one moment in all of this. I promise.”

  Kitty’s lip quivered very slightly as she smiled in return. “Thank you.”

  She seemed so small and childlike in that moment there was no course but for Izzy to lean forward and hug her. “Believe me, it will be a pleasure, dear.”

  “Sebastian told me you’d be good for me, Izzy,” Kitty half-whispered back, “and I think he could be right.”

  Izzy swallowed a lump and found her eyes wandering over to Sebastian in his chair only to find that his eyes we
re on her, and a proud, gentle smile graced his lips.

  Their eyes locked, and in his she found gratitude, pleasure, and something that caused a tickling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

  And she had to smile back at him.

  She couldn’t help it.

  “Well,” Charlotte broke in, breaking the moment, “that was a beautiful moment, girls, but Kitty really must be in need of some tea and a biscuit or two.” She poured tea for her, shaking her head. “Tell me how you like it, dear, I always put in too much sugar for anybody else’s taste.”

  “Anything will be fine,” Kitty told her, almost laughing at her own response.

  Charlotte gave her a bewildered look. “With tea? Oh, darling, no. You do not need an opinion on many things in this world, but the way you take your tea? You must be very, very firm there, shy creature or not.”

  Izzy snickered, delighted at Charlotte and Grace’s treatment of Kitty, and pleased beyond measure to have these women in this room, and in her life.

  And then there was Sebastian.

  He watched his sister as she debated her answer, waiting.

  “One sugar,” Kitty finally responded in a very small voice, smiling still. “And a little cream.”

  Sebastian’s smile deepened at that, and he glanced at Izzy. Somehow his smile changed yet again, and she watched as a slow exhale moved his chest, his eyes still on hers. Then he returned to his reading, perfectly at ease now.

  Izzy couldn’t say she was perfectly at ease as she returned to the conversation with the others.

  But she was close.

  Chapter Six

  A long walk can do wonders for a body, if not the soul. Provided, of course, that one does not come across unpleasantness upon the walk. Then it really could be a waste of time, energy, and one’s hem.

  -The Spinster Chronicles, 3 May 1816

  “I had no idea that London was a place such as this.”

  Sebastian looked up from his desk to his sister, standing in the doorway of his study. She was wide-eyed, as she constantly seemed to be these days, and her hair was still loose about her shoulders. She looked so much younger than her eighteen years that it made him ache inside.

  But he forced a brotherly smile and sat back in his chair. “What did you expect, Mouse? What did you think London would be like?”

  Her brow furrowed slightly, and she leaned against the door. “I don’t know. I always thought of London as an exciting, whirlwind of a place, with people of every station and style filling it. A place of romance, adventure, and culture…”

  He chuckled wryly, raising a brow. “And it isn’t?”

  Kitty’s eyes met his, and she smiled sheepishly. “No, of course it is. But… it is all to such a higher degree than I’d imagined. And I have yet to attend a ball, concert, or real event this Season.” She shivered suddenly. “It’s all rather terrifying,”

  She ducked her chin and rubbed at her arms, again reminding him of the child she had once been.

  He hated seeing her so vulnerable.

  “I should have kept Mrs. Ramsey on,” he said on an exhale, shaking his head as he stared at his sister. “She would have kept you comfortable and at ease, and you might not be so terrified of London as a whole.”

  Kitty’s head shot up and her eyes widened further. “Oh, no! I did not mean… Sebastian, Mrs. Ramsey wanted to retire and stay with her daughter. She could not be my companion and chaperone forever, you know. And I was destined to be uncomfortable in London no matter who was with me.” She smiled a little and gave a small laugh. “I cannot even venture to the ruins on the estate at Lindley alone without some trepidation.”

  “But you go there all the time,” he reminded her. “I have fetched you from those ruins so many times…”

  “Yes, but there is always a bit of fear when I ride out to them,” she insisted, looking almost impish at the admission.

  Sebastian shook his head, smiling fully now. “A bit of fear I can live with.” He sighed softly and tilted his head at his sister. “I hope you aren’t too scared of London now, Kitty. Or of the people here.”

  “Oh, I’m quite terrified,” she informed him without batting an eye. “But I adore Izzy, Sebastian. I am so grateful you asked her to help me.”

  There was no helping the heat that burst within his chest then, and could he have smiled further, he would have done so. But he tempered it instead into a satisfied grunt and folded his arms loosely, if only for minimal protection.

  “Indeed?” he inquired as mildly as humanly possible.

  Kitty seemed not to notice the awkwardness in his tone and nodded repeatedly. “Yes! Oh, Sebastian, she is so kind. She put me at ease almost at once.”

  He wanted to laugh in delight, but it was completely against his nature, so he settled for a barely-restrained smile and a nod of response. “Good. Good, I hoped she would suit you. And what of her friends?”

  “Charlotte is as terrifying as London itself,” Kitty admitted bluntly, her lips curving on one side. “But I liked her, once I grew accustomed to her. She is very pretty, and I think she would help me in different ways than Izzy can.”

  “No doubt,” Sebastian said, hoping his sister would not wish to explore that particular idea too far.

  Kitty looked down at her slippers as she twisted them absently into the rug. “And Miss Morledge is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. So refined and accomplished…”

  Sebastian cleared his throat softly. “How do you know how accomplished she is?”

  His sister glanced up at him with all her natural timidity and then some. “It was clear.”

  “I didn’t see it.” He shrugged without concern. “I will grant that Miss Morledge is very refined, but none of her accomplishments were on display over tea. She could be a dreadful dancer.”

  “Is she?” Kitty demanded, as much as Kitty ever demanded. “You have been here, you surely will have seen.”

  He twisted his lips and shook his head once. “No, dear, she is not dreadful. She is quite graceful, and polite, and almost as kind as Izzy, if I understand things right.”

  Kitty groaned and slumped against the door further still. “I will never manage to be half so accomplished or graceful. Or so beautiful.”

  Sebastian groaned and pushed himself up from his chair, trying for the gentlest of scolding looks. “Catherine Morton, do you believe for one moment that Grace Morledge would wish to be a standard to measure yourself by?”

  She blinked slowly, then lowered her eyes once more. “No, she would not.”

  “Do you think someone like, say, Isabella Lambert would do so?” he pressed.

  “No, Izzy most certainly would not.”

  He smiled, though his sister couldn’t see it.

  Izzy wouldn’t.

  Izzy wouldn’t need to.

  Izzy was…

  His smile faded slightly as he pondered the unfinished statement. What was Izzy? Who was she?

  Why was she a spinster, with or without a capital S?

  It had never occurred to him to be curious about her in any extreme regard until now. He had known that she would be perfect for Kitty after only a few moments of speaking with her privately, but anyone with a certain degree of kindness and understanding would have done as well. Why, he could have hired another companion for his sister, and one that was not close to fifty years beyond her own age, as Mrs. Ramsey has been.

  But it hadn’t occurred to him to do any of those things.

  He’d only wanted Izzy.

  He’d wanted? What a presumptuous idea!

  “Do you believe Izzy will be able to assist you enough before the Season, Mouse?” Sebastian asked, jerking his attention back to his sister, who was now watching him with a curious look. “Does her nature suit you well enough?

  Kitty’s expression melted into a mixture of surprise and delight. “Of course! She is very gentle, and I feel as though she is an elder sister to me, though we really have only met the once. I cannot imagine anyon
e else being so perfectly suited for me.”

  He’d been rather afraid of that.

  Why, he couldn’t say.

  “Very good,” he managed, sitting back in his chair and going back to his work.

  It was not often that Sebastian was glad to be away from Lindley, much preferring the solitude of the country to the bustle of London, but for the first time in recent recollection, London was preferable.

  Lindley, it seemed, had found Kitty’s departure the adequate time to create needs for repairs and strife with its few tenants. According to the letter from the estate manager, it was all too fortunate that Kitty and Sebastian were in London for the foreseeable future so as to avoid the difficulties at Lindley for the present.

  Which also meant that Sebastian could not easily ride off to Lindley, or really even Bedford, if he tired of London and all it had to offer.

  More’s the pity.

  Not that he had any great desire to leave at this time, but he did tend to feel more comfortable if there were options available to him.

  No, indeed, he rather did want to be in London now, and it was not because of Sterling or Henshaw, or even Kitty.

  Kitty…

  He glanced up once more to see her yet standing there, not quite staring at him, but not exactly looking at anything else.

  “Kitty?” he prodded, setting his pen aside.

  Her eyes darted up to his, and she smiled a little. “Have you ever walked Hyde Park, Sebastian?”

  He frowned a touch. “Walked it, no, though I have ridden through it on occasion. Why do you ask?”

  “Izzy is coming today, and she suggested we walk Hyde Park.”

  Sebastian nearly jumped up from his seat and managed to slam his thigh into the underside of the desk as he did so, the sound ringing through the room. With a muffled groan of pain, he straightened completely.

  “In the middle of winter?” he forced out through clenched teeth.

  Kitty was close to laughing, he could tell, but she contained it. Barely. “It’s really very mild, Sebastian. Bedford is much colder.”