"Fiiiiinally!"
Grayson Wingrave, Duke of Chatsworth, looked up from the paper he was reading to toss a curious glance at the tall blonde man sitting behind the desk in front of him. Andrew Blackwood, Viscount of Hadwick and the future Earl of Ravensburgh however, was concentrating so intently on the piece of paper before him that he missed the look entirely.
"What's about, Blackwood?" Grayson questioned his friend, as a moment passed and Blackwood remained silent.
Looking up from the missive with his signature lopsided smile, Blackwood set the paper down with an enthusiastic slap on the desk.
"My father has decided it is time for Amelia to be foisted on proper society and has called the lass home for the season."
Grayson's eyebrows rose at the news.
While he and Blackwood had been friends since their short pants days in Eton, he had never met the illustrious, Lady Amelia. Grayson had been invited to visit the Ravensburgh's at Hadwick Hall as a young lad on school breaks but had never made it as his father insisted that he spend his breaks at Chatsworth Manor or one or their other vast estates becoming entrenched in the ways of estate management.
And while Blackwood's father had visited his son regularly at Oxford and even in London - since the death of his beloved wife, Lady Sarah - the Earl had stopped inviting guests to Hadwick Hall. Which would not have mattered much if the goal was the meeting of Lady Amelia as she had been sent to France at the request of her mother's relations soon after her mother's passing. A request the Earl had not wanted to grant but felt compelled to in the memory of his departed wife.
"How did he manage to pry her away from your French relations?" Grayson questioned. "Weren't they particularly tenacious in their attempts to keep her in France?"
Blackwood frowned at the question. Grayson knew from stories Blackwood had shared that it was true that Amelia had been in France much longer than either Blackwood, or his father, had anticipated. With Lady Sarah's mother making every excuse to keep the girl close.
"Father supposes that because Amelia so closely resembles my mother, that it is hard for Grandmother to relinquish her back to England. She hadn't seen her daughter in years before her passing, and Father assumes that having little Amelia around is almost a second chance at having time with her departed daughter," Blackwood sighed.
"Yet when James Blackwood calls his daughter home, there is little choice but to answer the call," his friend said with pride.
James Blackwood, Earl of Ravensburgh was a force to be reckoned with. Having the same impressive height and fair looks his son had inherited and keen insight in estate management, it was universally acknowledge among the ton that the Earl of Ravensburgh was a coveted ally.
It was only the death of Lady Sarah that seemed to shake the impenetrable Earl. Lady Sarah's death had been hard on both Blackwood and his father. The former adored his wee mother while the latter near worshipped her. It had been said the Ravensburghs was a love match. And if there were small rumors here and there they were chalked up to jealous, bored biddies.
"When are they to arrive," Grayson asked.
"Father will be arriving in London on the morrow and requests I accompany him to meet Amelia's ship the following day."
Grayson was curious to meet his friend's young sister. Blackwood adored the little girl and it was clear from her letters to her brother that the adoration was returned.
When they had shared quarters in school, Blackwood would read letters from his sister aloud as the girl had a particularly amusing way of describing what should have been the rather dull days of a girl in the school room. Instead, it seemed the wee girl found ways to terrorize all of Hadwick Hall's staff and half the village. The friends would laugh till tears formed in their eyes over some of her "adventures".
While Lady Sarah was alive, she despaired of her daughter's mischievous ways. Being a respected matron of society for her reserve and propriety, it drove the Countess to distraction that her little mirror refused to behave properly. And while it was clear that Lady Amelia drove her mother to distraction, it was equally as clear that the wee girl had her father wrapped around her tiny fingers.
Before Lady Sarah's death, during every visit the Earl regaled Blackwood and his young friend with tales of Amelia's triumphs, as he called them. When the Master Dance Instructor had gotten irritated with her distracted ways and rather rudely scolded the lass, Lady Amelia had taken the critique in stride, saying nothing but tainting the man's brandy with Bouncing Bet. The Earl and boys had howled with laughter as the Earl described the poor man's rather extreme case of intestinal irritation.
London had gotten boring of late, Grayson thought. It seemed it was due for the shake up Lady Amelia was certain to bring.
