“Oh, please! Oh, please!” cried the younger ones.
“Only because it is Clover’s birthday,” he said, finally, to cheers of “Huzzah!” “We shall see about the tree. We are a house of mourning, you will remember that!”
“Oh, yes, sir!” the younger girls squeaked, hopping around the table in a pseudo-reel. Clover beamed, so angelic it made the room glow.
CHAPTER 21
In the library, among the warm golds and browns of the book-lined walls, Clover took charge of the decoration making. She set Delphinium, who was good with pencils and colors, to watercolor bits of stationery, and Hollyhock and the younger ones to winding and knotting yarn into balls. Even Lord Teddie set to work, sweating over knotting the ornament strings to perfection. Over mugs of steaming cider, and the King’s slightly bemused expression at them as he penned a speech, the library echoed with laughter and warmth, and everyone felt an aura of holiday cheer.
Everyone, except Azalea. The crafting would keep the girls from dancing, and it both pleased and worried her. Shaking, Azalea kept pricking herself on the needle she used to thread the dried berries. Finally, after drawing blood from her thumb, she excused herself and ran upstairs.
It was late now. Fear curled in her stomach as she rubbed her handkerchief against the passage.
Please, she thought to herself as she pushed through the passage. Please…please…let Mother be all right….
Azalea rushed through the silver forest and arrived at the bridge, shawl wrapped so tightly around her shoulders she felt them pulse. Equally tightly she grasped the handkerchief, her one comfort. It was magic. It, perhaps, kept Keeper from doing anything really terrible. She remembered, once, how he had flinched at it.
In the pavilion, Keeper paced, a flat silhouette against the silvers.
“Ah!” he said, without stopping to bow. “Good evening, Princess. So Her Highness feels inclined to grace me with her presence tonight. Come for a dance?”
Azalea kept her mouth shut and her feet planted on the bridge.
“Where are the rest of you?”
“It’s…Clover’s birthday tonight,” she managed to stammer.
“And the night before?”
Azalea dug her fingers into the silver weave.
“Come now,” said Keeper. “I am only curious. You have never missed dancing before.”
“The…King read them a story, and…they fell asleep.”
“How sweet.” Keeper leaned against the arched doorframe. Twined throughout his fingers was the scarlet embroidery thread. Azalea stared at it, the red burning green into her vision. “Especially since you all hate him so much. Oh, don’t flinch like that, my lady. You think I haven’t seen it in you?” Keeper’s long fingers wound around the thread, twisting it and pulling it into weblike shapes. “If it is any comfort, I hate your father as well.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“Do I have to? I hate him because he is the Wentworth General. I’ve thrived on that hate. Hate, in its own way, is a virtue.”
Azalea cast a furtive glance at the willow branches behind her. She scrunched the handkerchief even tighter in her hand. “Mr. Keeper,” she said. “Please. About Mother—you won’t…that is, if you could—could maybe cut—”
“Perhaps,” said Keeper, cutting her short. “Go back, and bring your sisters tomorrow. Do not miss another night. And then, we shall see. You have been looking?”
“I hardly have a choice.”
“No, you hardly do. Goosey.”
The needle, dangling from the end of the thread, flashed in the pale light. Azalea cowered against the swirled railing of the bridge.
“Go now. Bring them back tomorrow, and dance your little dances. You will not miss another night.” His voice was dangerously smooth.
Against the pale mist of the pavilion, Keeper held up the thread, a knitted web shape between his hands. In reticulated scarlet string, it read:
3 days.
“Masterful!” Mother was laughing, her bubbled laugh that put everything at ease. Her hair was askew, as always, the mussed look making her even more charming. “You’re better than me! Up, up, up. Very good! Ladies’ cloaks, in the library, gentlemen’s hats—”
“In the entrance hall. Yes, I remember.” Azalea smiled, too, and pushed herself to her feet, the crinolines and silks of her ballgown settling about her.
“Brilliant. The gentlemen will be mad for you. Dance with every single one and find out which one you like best.”
Even the milk-turning feeling from talking of her future gentleman didn’t feel so curdled, not when she was with Mother, who made everything better, like treacle in a pie.
“I wish you could come,” said Azalea.
“Your father will be there.”