to forward this to you from his address, since I’m not sure where you’ll be
.
It was a fair question, since Evelina was returning to London at a time of year when everyone else had left for the country. She had only come back now to advance her college scheme and—to be utterly truthful—because she longed to be away from her grandmother for a little while. Otherwise, there was little to do in London in August—at least for the fashionable.
High Society gathered in the early spring for the Season—which hit its full stride around Easter, when the debutantes were presented to the queen—and dispersed once the weather grew hot. Right now, the fashionable set was in the North, since August 12 was the official start of the shooting season and the sport was considered superior in or near Scotland—which explained the next few paragraphs of Imogen’s letter.
Naturally, I’m dying to see you! We are up here at Maggor’s Close, which is a country estate dedicated to the murder of grouse—which began on the Glorious Twelfth and shall no doubt escalate to other feathered victims as the month rolls on. The place was recently purchased by Mr. Keating and the dining room features a great many stuffed stag heads (although, since it’s used for hunting grouse, shouldn’t there be rows of little bird heads on the wall?). I think it is gloomy, but Papa professes to admire it greatly
.
Evelina stopped reading, a bitter taste flooding her mouth. She knew that Jasper Keating had more money than Midas, so a hunting estate wasn’t a surprising purchase—but his guest list was. The smart part of her knew it shouldn’t havebeen, but her idealistic side wanted to deny the twisting calculations that had made Lord Bancroft his admiring house-guest. However amiably they behaved in public, Jasper Keating was Lord Bancroft’s bitter adversary—after all, it was his treasure that Lord B had been stealing. Keating must have felt secure in the price he’d made Bancroft pay for his deception, if he had the scheming viscount under his roof.
And it had been a steep price indeed—Lord Bancroft had more or less given Keating his only son and heir. Tobias was a talented inventor, just the sort of genius Keating needed in his steam-driven empire, and Tobias had stepped into the breach to save his family’s honor. It was a decision Evelina had to applaud, and yet she hated it down to her boot heels. Tobias had only just started to become his own man when circumstance had snatched his freedom away, robbing him of the opportunity to forge his own future. Suddenly shivery, Evelina returned to the letter, dreading what she would read next.
But this is getting me no closer to my real purpose for writing. I have all kinds of fascinating news, so much that I can’t begin to set it down in a letter. I asked Papa if you might spend some time with us again, now that everything has settled down. It is beautiful here, but we are short of company, and I desperately want to see you again. Mama would like you to come as well—I think she misses your calm good sense, since none of her children has any. Therefore, being the great schemers we are, we played our trump card. Mama and I convinced Alice Keating, who remembers you fondly, to add her voice to the chorus and, as she is our host’s daughter, Papa could not very well refuse. So you are officially invited, my dear. Please, please say you’ll come!
Evelina’s breath caught, an ache catching under her ribs.
So Alice is there, too
. She had liked Jasper Keating’s red-haired daughter when they first met. Alice was every bit assmart as her father, but there was one insurmountable thing that kept her from ever becoming a friend.
Evelina had been on the brink of an engagement with Tobias but, as part of the bargain Tobias had made to save his family, he would be marrying Keating’s daughter instead. Grandmamma Holmes had found the betrothal announcement in the papers barely six weeks
.
It was a fair question, since Evelina was returning to London at a time of year when everyone else had left for the country. She had only come back now to advance her college scheme and—to be utterly truthful—because she longed to be away from her grandmother for a little while. Otherwise, there was little to do in London in August—at least for the fashionable.
High Society gathered in the early spring for the Season—which hit its full stride around Easter, when the debutantes were presented to the queen—and dispersed once the weather grew hot. Right now, the fashionable set was in the North, since August 12 was the official start of the shooting season and the sport was considered superior in or near Scotland—which explained the next few paragraphs of Imogen’s letter.
Naturally, I’m dying to see you! We are up here at Maggor’s Close, which is a country estate dedicated to the murder of grouse—which began on the Glorious Twelfth and shall no doubt escalate to other feathered victims as the month rolls on. The place was recently purchased by Mr. Keating and the dining room features a great many stuffed stag heads (although, since it’s used for hunting grouse, shouldn’t there be rows of little bird heads on the wall?). I think it is gloomy, but Papa professes to admire it greatly
.
Evelina stopped reading, a bitter taste flooding her mouth. She knew that Jasper Keating had more money than Midas, so a hunting estate wasn’t a surprising purchase—but his guest list was. The smart part of her knew it shouldn’t havebeen, but her idealistic side wanted to deny the twisting calculations that had made Lord Bancroft his admiring house-guest. However amiably they behaved in public, Jasper Keating was Lord Bancroft’s bitter adversary—after all, it was his treasure that Lord B had been stealing. Keating must have felt secure in the price he’d made Bancroft pay for his deception, if he had the scheming viscount under his roof.
And it had been a steep price indeed—Lord Bancroft had more or less given Keating his only son and heir. Tobias was a talented inventor, just the sort of genius Keating needed in his steam-driven empire, and Tobias had stepped into the breach to save his family’s honor. It was a decision Evelina had to applaud, and yet she hated it down to her boot heels. Tobias had only just started to become his own man when circumstance had snatched his freedom away, robbing him of the opportunity to forge his own future. Suddenly shivery, Evelina returned to the letter, dreading what she would read next.
But this is getting me no closer to my real purpose for writing. I have all kinds of fascinating news, so much that I can’t begin to set it down in a letter. I asked Papa if you might spend some time with us again, now that everything has settled down. It is beautiful here, but we are short of company, and I desperately want to see you again. Mama would like you to come as well—I think she misses your calm good sense, since none of her children has any. Therefore, being the great schemers we are, we played our trump card. Mama and I convinced Alice Keating, who remembers you fondly, to add her voice to the chorus and, as she is our host’s daughter, Papa could not very well refuse. So you are officially invited, my dear. Please, please say you’ll come!
Evelina’s breath caught, an ache catching under her ribs.
So Alice is there, too
. She had liked Jasper Keating’s red-haired daughter when they first met. Alice was every bit assmart as her father, but there was one insurmountable thing that kept her from ever becoming a friend.
Evelina had been on the brink of an engagement with Tobias but, as part of the bargain Tobias had made to save his family, he would be marrying Keating’s daughter instead. Grandmamma Holmes had found the betrothal announcement in the papers barely six weeks
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