The LadyShip by Elisabeth Kidd Page A

would see the ad vantages to Lucy if she were to be brought into society— Elinor knew he would, as soon as she had explained it all to him. If only he would come home soon!
    So she put off her plans for Lucy until Ned returned and she could consult him—something she could not bring her self to do by letter—and in the meanwhile, Lucy was edu cated for her future role without being told precisely what it was.
    “You behave as a lady should,” Elinor reassured her, pressing home the importance of so conducting herself be fore The LadyShip’s more distinguished clients. “That is more important any day than your name and birth. Besides, we must find you a beau at least a little more eligible than poor Mr Griffith—who you must own takes no encourage ment at all!”
    Lucy laughed at that. The languishing looks that the vic ar’s young Welsh cleric had bestowed on her ever since he first came to the parish and looked up from the collect one evening to find Lucy gazing attentively at him, had become another joke between the sisters. Lucy did not wish to encourage Mr Griffith, she insisted, but how could she not, when mere civility was enough to set him sighing?
    “I tell you what it is,” Elinor said. “You are too consider ate of everyone but yourself!” She then hugged her sister, realising that she may have been too insistent again. She did not wish Lucy to begin avoiding her for fear of being pre cipitated into some scheme she did not care for. “But I would not have you any other way, darling, believe me.”
    Lucy took vague comfort from these words, and because the kitchen was resuming its activities, she parted from her sister then, Elinor going off to see if any guests had yet been booked for the night. Mrs Nash returned to inspect the huge sirloin of beef she was preparing. George and Willy, the two ostlers, came in seeking relief from their chilly duties and a quick dinner.
    When Elinor next looked in to assess the progress of dinner for an overnight party of five on their way to Bristol, she also found Rose and Petra in a bustle, carrying bowls of steaming soup from the deal table where Flora was ladling it out. The roaring kitchen fire re flecting brightly off the polished copper pans hanging from the walls, and the Christmas greens Lucy had already begun to hang up among them gave off a homey aroma. All was cheerful efficiency again as The LadyShip settled back into its customary routine.
    But the day was not finished yet. Boney was found ex hausted in the garden, having sustained a leg wound in a battle with one of the stable cats; a German traveller was dissuaded from purchasing the black varnished hall clock, to which he had taken a stubborn fancy, only when Evans told him with a straight, even wooden, face that it was contrary to English law to display such clocks anywhere but in a public inn; and Elinor won a spirited dispute with her wine merchant, who had, until he was brought to a realisation of his error, demanded an extortionate eighty shillings for a dozen of white champagne.
    “And we’re not even at war with France anymore!” Eli nor complained afterwards to Lucy. “I told him that if we wanted to pay London prices, we could move to Lon don.”
    “But then you would not be purchasing expensive wines for The LadyShip,” Lucy pointed out reasonably.
    Elinor laughed. “No, nor for any other inn! Do you think we should remove to London, darling? We could open a coffee-house, or take in mending—it must be quieter there.”
    “Yes, but not nearly so interesting!”
    Elinor was thus cajoled back into her usual optimistic frame of mind—blissfully unaware that a final storm was brewing even then belowstairs.
    Teddy, the young boots, had been sent for to look after two gentlemen in the overnight party. But Teddy had had a long day and, having fallen asleep behind the pantry door, was not to be found. George was despatched to search him out, being thus torn from his comfortable dinner and