“I have met her once, yes,” he informed his sister, “and she is a kind woman. She is Izzy’s mother, and I believe felt a desire to offer hospitality to you as Izzy is an unofficial sponsor for you.”
Kitty looked up at him as the carriage approached the house, her bright blue eyes wide, but her expression scowling. “I hear the scolding you are not giving me, you know.”
“Good,” he grunted. “I did not want to get into particulars.”
She scoffed quietly, but her lips curved into a wry smile.
Sebastian chuckled and kissed his sister’s brow. “You’ll be fine, Mouse. And you look lovely.”
Kitty brightened at that. “Truly? I had Molly try a new style with my hair today. Charlotte thought it would suit my face, so she lent me the hair combs.” She turned her impeccably curled and plaited hair to show him the amethyst encrusted silver combs that flawlessly matched her gown.
He smiled at the sight. “Perfect, Mouse. You look so much older than I think you should, but it does suit you very well.”
“Yes, well, I am still a girl of ten in your eyes.” She giggled and linked her arm through his. “I will never be old to you.”
“Never,” he vowed. He peered out of the window as the carriage stopped, then glanced back at Kitty. “Are you ready?”
She bit her lip, then shook her head. “No. Can we leave now?” She offered the barest hint of a smile.
He wasn’t sure if it was a smile of hope or in jest. Either way, his answer was the same.
“Come on,” he told her, tugging her gently.
They disembarked and made their way to the house, where the door was flung open before they could ring the bell, and Collins welcomed them in with more warmth than Sebastian had ever seen in a butler before.
Their coats and other things were taken, and they followed him to the drawing room.
He heard a soft muttering and glanced at Kitty only to see her lips moving at an almost frantic pace as her eyes grew rounder with each step.
“What are you saying, Mouse?” he teased under his breath.
“I’m running through the Lambert family names,” she told him absently. “Izzy wrote it out for me in an attempt to make me feel better.”
Sebastian bit back a smile and nodded in thought. “And did it?”
They reached the parlor and everyone within who had been sitting rose. Even Sebastian, who was not usually intimidated easily, felt his palms begin to perspire.
“No,” Kitty whispered through a forced smile. “No, it did not.”
Sebastian would have smiled had he not currently been on display.
Izzy was suddenly rushing to them and curtseyed quickly. “Mr. Morton, Miss Morton, welcome to our home. Let me introduce you to the rest of my family.” She smiled at them both, and he suspected she would have been beaming had she not restrained herself for Kitty’s sake.
She led them to the others in the room, and Sebastian bowed at least three times as he was introduced to two brothers, two sisters-in-law, a sister, a brother-in-law, and their hosts, Izzy’s parents. It was all a blur to him, and he doubted he would remember their names or specifics about them, apart from her parents.
He was partly distracted by his concern for Kitty, though she seemed to be faring well enough, and partly distracted by Izzy herself. Her gown was an elegant shade of green that contrasted with her hair in a fascinating way, and her eyes seemed greener for it. The copper tones in her hair glinted in the candlelight of the room, and her smile seemed to create more on the faces of the others.
As formal as the introductions had seemed, it only took him a few additional minutes to realize that that would be as far as the formalities would extend.
Georgie waved at them all, and Kitty smiled a true smile for the first time. Tony met eyes with Sebastian, and he felt a sense of relief at having a friend and ally here.
Aside from Izzy, of course.
But he could hardly ask her to take sides against her family, should the need arise.
“Izzy,” her oldest brother called as she finished the introductions with their parents, moving the pair of them over to Georgie and Tony, “stop being so proper and relax. Mr. Morton could surely use a drink, and Miss Morton might wish for one as well!”
Sebastian watched as Izzy’s face colored, though she smiled with what seemed to be real amusement, and she rolled her eyes before moving to the sideboard.
He ought to intercept her, ought to tell her no, that he could get it himself…
“Dinner is served,” Collins intoned, seeming to appear out of thin air.
Izzy stopped in her place, then changed direction to come back towards them. She widened her eyes at Kitty and Sebastian even as she smiled, which made him relax slightly.
He couldn’t possibly have corrected her or her family in their own home, and it certainly was not the same as her being asked to fetch a drink in her cousin’s home, but… There was something unsettling beginning to stir within him, and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it.
Mr. and Mrs. Lambert led the way into dinner, followed by their sons and their wives, Izzy’s younger sister and her husband, and Georgie and Tony. Sebastian followed with Kitty, though he looked at Izzy, unsure if he should be escorting her instead.
She shook her head quickly, obviously knowing his thoughts. “It’s fine,” she whispered, smiling with ease. “Go on.”
It was deuced awkward to be followed by one’s friend in her own home, but he supposed there was nothing for it. Formal processions were difficult businesses.
The dining room was well furnished, with all the finery a family of station could wish for without any of the excesses that would put off visitors or shy girls already terrified of being present. There didn’t seem to be much order to how they would all be sitting for dinner, despite the formality of their entrance, and Georgie was quick to take the seat beside Sebastian while Tony acted as a buffer between Kitty and Mrs. Lambert, who sat at the end.
The gentleman who had to be husband to Izzy’s sister sat to Mrs. Lambert’s left, next to Sebastian, surprising him.
Where was…?
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Lambert gasped, eyes wide. She looked down the table twice, then up at Izzy, who stood helplessly in the room without a seat or place setting.
“Oh, not again,” one of the Lambert brothers said, tugging at his cravat.
Again? There was a habit of forgetting place settings?
Mrs. Lambert’s face pinkened and she wrung her fingers together in obvious discomfort. “Izzy, dear, would you mind terribly going to eat with the children? We’ll fetch you when we’re finished here to rejoin us.”
Sebastian stared at the woman for a moment, then turned to look at Izzy, who matched her mother’s discomfort to the same shade of pink.
Surely she wasn’t suggesting…
“Not at all,” Izzy replied, though her smiled was the picture of a forced one.
“Aunt Faith,” Georgie protested at once. “Do let me, won’t you? The children…”
Mrs. Lambert shook her head. “Oh, don’t be silly, Georgie, you’re our guest.”
“Georgie’s a guest?” the oldest brother scoffed without politeness. “Since when?”
Georgie turned to glare at him fiercely. “Shove it, David, or I will crown you with your own dinner plate.” She turned back to her aunt, her look pleading. “Aunt Faith…”
But Mrs. Lambert was firm, shaking her head once more. “Izzy is fine, dear, I promise. Izzy doesn’t mind, and she adores the children.”
“That wasn’t exactly my concern,” Georgie muttered so only Sebastian could hear her, her gaze darting to Kitty, who watched the whole thing with panicked eyes.
Izzy smiled a very thin, very tight smile, as she turned to leave the room, glancing at Kitty with some apprehension. Then her eyes met Sebastian’s, and her forced smile suddenly became much closer to natural, no doubt trying for reassurance.
It did not convince him.
To be cast out of her own dining room because there weren’t enough place settings? It was ridiculous, surely an additional chair and place setting could have been brought out, especially for a family dinner.
He looked around to see if anyone else would bring up the obvious lapse of judgment, but only a stewing Georgie by his side and a resolutely blank-faced Tony seemed affected by it.
And then there was Kitty…
“Don’t worry, Miss Morton,” Mrs. Lambert told her as they all sat, “you will be perfectly comfortable with my daughter Catherine beside you.”
“I doubt that,” Georgie grumbled as Sebastian helped her into her seat.
Sebastian flicked a wan smile at her before taking his own place. “Is she really so bad?”
Georgie glanced at him slyly, a ringlet near her ear dancing in time with her earring. “Not at all. She’s far tamer than Charlotte. Catherine is simply not as likable. You’ll see.” She cleared her throat and smiled at her cousins, before whispering, “Her husband is quite wonderful. You’ll like him.”
“I’d rather just talk with you, if it’s all the same,” he replied in the same tone, smiling at Izzy’s sister, who was no doubt classically prettier, but did not have quite the same charm.
Georgie gave him a half wink and patted his knee before looking past him. “And how are the children, Mr. Northfield? I dare not ask Catherine, I know how she describes things.”
“Well, I don’t know where Izzy would have got to,” Mrs. Lambert huffed as the gentlemen rejoined the ladies after dinner. “I sent for her ages ago.”
Catherine shook her head slowly, frowning. “To abandon poor Miss Morton like this.”
“I think being forced out of her own dinner might have something to do with it,” Georgie mused, not bothering to lower her voice.
Anna Lambert bit her lip on a laugh and looked to her sister-in-law Jane, who did not react fondly.
Sebastian would count Anna in his favor for that, while Jane was obviously the more ridiculous of the set.
Which was strange, as she seemed more formal than ridiculous, but she had married a Lambert brother, so clearly, she was not so very proper.
“Think we can escape with her?” Tony inquired very low behind him.
If only.
Kitty sat beside Georgie without speaking, though she no longer looked as terrified or panicked as she had earlier. Tony’s sitting by her and engaging her in conversation throughout dinner seemed to have gone a long way to setting her at ease. Lord only knew how she had done with the ladies, but Georgie seemed fiercely protective of her now, so that would suffice.
But it was Izzy that he had wanted for Kitty. It was Izzy whose temperament would suit. It was Izzy who had already made great strides with Kitty’s comfort. It was for Izzy that they had accepted this invitation.
It was Izzy he had wanted to see.
And Kitty, of course, had wanted to see her. There was just something about Izzy that made him comfortable, that put him at ease, and made him want to smile. Did make him smile more often than not, it seemed, and for a man who was known for his reserve, that was certainly something. Not that he was unpleasant or disinclined to jovial things or expressions, he simply… wasn’t prone to them.
It was far too soon to say, but it was entirely possible that Izzy could change all of that.
And he did not want to be in here with her family talking of everything and nothing in all politeness.
Collins suddenly appeared in the doorway and bowed to the group. “Miss Lambert is in the children’s parlor, madam. She will be here momentarily.”
Mrs. Lambert smiled in response, and there was something very matronly and almost proud in that smile, and Sebastian wondered at it. Despite having sent her daughter to eat with the children rather than sit with the guests, her mother knew her well enough to know exactly what Izzy was up to, and she loved whatever it was.
Curious.
Catherine had no such expression. “What is she doing in there, Collins?” she demanded with an exasperated look at Kitty, as though the girl should have agreed with her. “We have guests!”
“Catherine,” her mother murmured softly, but with warning.
“I believe she is telling the children a story, Mrs. Northfield,” Collins informed her formally. “As they are off to bed soon, she acquiesced to their request for one.”
The family in the room all seemed to make the same sound of acknowledgement and understanding, while Tony, Kitty, and Sebastian all looked resolutely clueless.
Georgie took pity on them all. “Izzy has a gift for making up and telling stories to the children. It’s become a bit of a tradition whenever they are all together.”
Kitty looked at Sebastian in surprise, but smiled at the revelation.
He tried to smile back but couldn’t quite manage to.
His imagination was already up in the children’s parlor, watching Izzy tell a story to her utterly rapt nieces and nephews. Their eyes would be wide and fixed on her, their bodies eagerly canting towards her, desperate for more. Izzy would drink it all in and channel their energy back into the telling, using her hands in broad gestures, her voice taking on new qualities with each character, dipping for effect and drawing the children further and further in…
He could see it all so clearly that the story was almost audible to him.
How could he know something so perfectly so soon?
He swallowed once and tried to engage with the room again, but it was utterly impossible. His mind was too filled with other, more engaging things, and it would be enough if he could maintain a polite, listening façade.
It should be enough; not many of them had engaged Sebastian in conversation at dinner, aside from Mr. Lambert, who seemed poised to be his favorite member of Izzy’s immediate family. Even now, he was sitting in the corner of the room in a chair that was clearly well-loved, watching the conversations around him rather than participating in them.
Rather as Sebastian was prone to do at this moment.
“Do you remember that story Izzy told the children at Christmas?” Anna asked of the room, smiling warmly. “Something about a puppy, wasn’t it?”
For the first time that evening, Jane laughed and nodded. “A puppy and a kitten roaming about London on Christmas. The boys couldn’t stop talking about it.”
William laughed as well. “Sophie still asks for Petunia Puppy and Kitty Kitten before bed. Anna and I try, but we just cannot tell it right.”
Kitty was as engaged in this conversation as he imagined the children were in Izzy’s story. “What was the story about?” she asked them, forgetting to be shy and afraid.
David chuckled and sipped his port before responding. “None of us are quite sure, but the animals are roaming about London and somehow they save Christmas.”
“That sounds enchanting,” Kitty said with a smile. “The children must love it.”
“Oh, they do,” Catherine assured her, partly in amusement, partly in annoyance. “And they seem to remember every detail, so our attempts at retelling always falls short. We can never get it right.”
“Only Izzy,” David cried, mimicking the children. “Only Izzy, Papa!”
“Izzy knows,” William continued in the same tone. “Izzy can tell it right!”
Sebastian found himself smiling despite his previous disinclination. His sister, on the other hand, was beaming in a way that surprised him.
“Oh, I would love to hear her tell one,” Kitty said with some longing, clasping her hands in her lap.
“Tell one what?” Izzy asked as she came into the room, her complexion rosy and filled with light. “I hope you haven’t been deceived by my family into thinking that I’m somehow an actress or possess an abundance of wit.”
“No worries there,” David muttered with a playful look.
Izzy rolled her eyes and sat beside Kitty with a huff. “Remember what I told you about brothers, Kitty? This is exactly what I mean.”
“What did you
say?” her brothers asked in chorus.
“Oh, please, you lot,” Catherine groaned dramatically. “What will the Mortons think of us?” She turned to the pair of them with wide eyes. “I do apologize for them, truly.”
Tony looked at Catherine with a frown. “You don’t care what I think of you all?”
“Not even a little bit,” she shot back, making him and the others laugh. “You’re in the family, Tony Sterling, so you’re stuck with this.”
“Pity he’s actually stuck with Henry and Lawrence as family,” William commented with a screwed-up face of distaste.
“I beg your pardon!” Georgie protested with a laugh, failing at mock outrage.
Kitty looked up at Sebastian in bemusement, and he knew her thoughts exactly.
This was clearly an insane family, and yet there was a charm to them. Something engaging and filled with love, even if they were not quite sure what to do with Izzy and her goodness, and while he could not say he necessarily felt drawn to them, he would admit to having his eyes opened.
And it was strangely refreshing. The only families he had ever seen, aside from Tony’s brother and stepmother, had been very formal and almost distant.
This was completely opposite.
What might Kitty have grown into had their family been more like this? What would he himself have become?
“Mama,” Izzy suddenly said, turning to her mother with wide eyes. “Did you see that it has begun to snow again? It seems to be falling quite hard.”
Sebastian straightened and glanced out of the window himself, his mind shifting completely. The carriage would need to be called as soon as possible, and he should be able to take Kitty home without too much difficulty. Their home wasn’t too far, and he doubted the weather was bad enough to truly affect anything. It was London, after all, not Northumberland.
“Well, I suppose my sister and I must return home, then,” he announced, trying to sound politely forlorn, which wasn’t much of a stretch for him. “We mustn’t let the snow pile up.”
Spinster and Spice (The Spinster Chronicles, Book 3) Page 10