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need. It gives her an odd sort of pleasure. You
    are quite wise to indulge her.”
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    “Is it an indulgence to pack for a trip?” Sophia remarked
    languidly. “A most peculiar perspective. Of course, I do suppose
    she could buy whatever she needs when she arrives. Where are
    you bound, Lord Cranleigh?”
    As annoyed as she was with Sophia at the moment, Penelope
    did find she agreed with her completely. Who ever heard of pack
    ing being an indulgence? Edenham, for all his glorious looks,
    might be a bit trying on occasion. She might well need to begin
    packing for their wedding trip now, to save him the annoyance
    of her doing it under his own roof. Yes, that seemed a stellar plan;
    she’d begin as soon as she returned home.
    “I am not completely certain, Lady Dalby,” Cranleigh said,
    looking slightly less forbidding than usual. In fact, he looked very
    nearly embarrassed. “As you may or may not be aware, I have
    spent time abroad ship in the China Trade.”
    “Lord Cranleigh, I am aware of it,” Sophia answered. “In
    deed, you have quite the look of a seaman about you, which is
    nearly fatally dashing, as I’m sure you must know.”
    Cranleigh, remarkably, looked almost flushed. Why, was he
    blushing ?
    “Amelia has said something very much like,” Cranleigh said
    in a hoarse undertone.
    “Have you met our uncle Timothy?” Iveston asked Sophia. “He
    runs his four ships out of New York. We see him rarely, for obvious
    reasons, first and foremost being that he is so often upon the sea.”
    “How gracious you are, Lord Iveston, for surely you could
    have argued that the most obvious reason was that he was an
    American colonial in revolt against his king,” Sophia said pleas
    antly. “It is so refreshing to see the bonds of family hold, even
    against the backdrop of war. But, to answer your question, I met
    Mr. Timothy Elliot only once, in New York, as it happens, and
    his lovely wife, Sally, was kindness itself. Is she well, do you
    know? I imagine the duchess must miss her profoundly.”
    50 CLAUDIA DAIN
    Of course, Penelope was eating it all up with a spoon. Their
    Upper Brook Street house was on let from the Elliots, who had
    it from the Hydes, which was hardly a coincidence. If one were
    going to lease a house, certainly it was wise to do so with a
    house that belonged to a duke. Sally Elliot and Molly Hyde were
    sisters, that much she had just learned. She knew the families
    were somehow related, but until now, had not puzzled out how.
    “If she does, she does not speak of it,” Cranleigh said. He did
    have the habit of speaking for Iveston, which was clearly some
    thing of a necessity. Iveston might be a bit slow in the head; it
    would certainly explain why he was so rarely out in Society
    and why he rarely spoke when he was. “There is an Elliot ship
    due any day now, and quite unexpectedly, Amelia has declared
    that she is for a sea voyage. I can but oblige her.”
    Sophia smiled at Cranleigh in considerable warmth and said,
    “Unexpectedly? You are too modest, Lord Cranleigh. I do ap
    plaud you, however. Any man who obliges his wife only rises in
    my estimation.”
    “I should think so,” Edenham said with a good-natured smirk.
    “What sort of woman would you be to not react so? But it is not
    always in a woman’s best interest to be obliged. I have been in
    structed that following such a course, over too long a stretch of
    ground, leads to coddling, which is never to be desired.”
    Oh, Lord, but he was going to be a torment to her good
    nature.
    Sophia laughed in Edenham’s face. Penelope was secretly and
    enormously delighted. Oh, to be married and widowed so that
    she could then do whatever she wanted!
    “Instructed? By whom, I should like to know?” Sophia de
    manded.
    “By my mother,” Edenham said solemnly, though his brown
    eyes were twinkling suspiciously.
    “Oh, very well then. I’m certain your mother had her own
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    51
    good