Elizabeth Meyette - [Love's 01] by Love's Destiny Page B

tradition.
    The front door opened and a slender, dark–haired woman appeared, followed closely by a tall, blonde man. Each held a parcel as they stood on the bottom step awaiting the coach.
    When Jonathon opened the door and stepped out, the woman jumped into his arms laughing gaily. She had the same warm, brown eyes and thick lustrous brown hair as his, although hers gleamed with auburn highlights. She resembled Jonathon, but her features were delicate, her movements graceful. The man with her shook Jonathon’s hand, and then pulled him close and embraced him, patting him heartily on the back. Then they all turned expectantly toward the carriage.
    Andrew hopped out first; Jonathon reached up to assist Emily. As she emerged from the coach, she heard the woman gasp softly.
    “Joanna, David — may I introduce the newest members of our family: Andrew and Emily Wentworth.”
    Joanna’s eyes revealed a mixture of surprise and amusement. She held out her hand with David’s and said warmly, “Welcome to Brentwood Manor.” Then, a bit hesitantly, she handed a parcel to Emily and said, “We have a gift for you.” David handed a parcel to Andrew.
    Emily and Andrew unwrapped their gifts; there was a moment of absolute silence.
    In her hands Emily held a beautiful doll with a china head and a watered silk dress. Andrew held a hand-carved sailboat. Emily’s eyes rose to meet Joanna’s; she did not know quite what to say. Joanna’s mouth turned up in a half-smile.
    “We were expecting you both to be quite a bit younger,” she grinned.
    In that moment everyone burst out laughing and the tension was broken. Joanna hooked an arm through Emily’s.
    “Come in, you all must be exhausted and hungry,” she said, and the ladies led the way in.
    Their shoes echoed on the highly polished hardwood floor as they entered a high-ceilinged, airy hall. Turning right they came to the parlor. Flowered wallpaper of soft blue and white decorated the walls above the dwarf wainscoting, and Scotch carpet gathered the furniture cozily about the room. A beautiful bronze-skinned servant brought in a tray of tall, cool drinks and sweet cakes and set it on a mahogany drop-leaf table beside Joanna. Emily sat on the settee holding the doll in her lap.
    “I am so sorry about your father’s death. Jonathon has told us what a wonderful man George Wentworth was,” David said kindly.
    “Thank you,” Andrew replied.
    “From Jonathon’s letter, we were expecting children,” Joanna explained, giving her brother a slight frown, betrayed by the twinkle in her eyes.
    “Oh, the doll is beautiful, and I shall always cherish it,” Emily smiled.
    “And the boat is carved splendidly. I would like to learn that craft myself,” Andrew added.
    “David did that, Andrew. I am sure he would be happy to teach you,” Joanna replied. “Now, how was your voyage?”
    They spent an amiable afternoon getting acquainted, and all the doubts and fears Emily had wrestled with melted under the warm and sincere friendship of Joanna and David. She began to relax and found herself enjoying the conversation. Finally Joanna rose and offered to show them to their rooms.
    They ascended the broad staircase in the central hall and turned to the right. Emily’s room was spacious and cheerful, decorated in dusty rose and cream. The canopy bed curtains and window curtains were of rose chintz with darker rose brocade drapes pulled back on either side of the windows. An ivory bedspread decorated with crewelwork done in dusty rose and deeper pink lay across the four–poster bed, and a fireplace with a carved marble mantel matching the one in the parlor faced it. Emily’s things had already been put away and Joanna left her to freshen for supper.
    Emily sat on the bed and looked around her new room, in her new home. She thought she should be feeling terribly lonely and resentful right now, but instead there was a tickle of anticipation that one would expect to feel when setting out on