let that be a lesson to you, my future Lord Trevlyn. It’s usually best to hold one’s tongue.”
“I don’t want to be Lord Trevlyn, I want to go home.”
Surprised, she said, “But I thought you liked it here.”
“Yes, I do like it. Grandfather has been wonderful to me, but I...” Patrick bit his lip. He appeared to be on the verge of tears. “I miss Mama, and Darragh, and all of them. I want to go home.”
Patrick’s tears started to flow as Evleen, fancy ball dress and all, knelt and took him in her arms. “Twill be all right, little brother,” she crooned as she rocked him, “we must not give up. Mama wants you to stay, remember? Her last letter said she’s much better. I, too, want to go home in the very worst way, but we’ll stay and see this through, won’t we?” Patrick nodded, wiping tears away. “And we won’t let the English get the better of us, will we?”
“No, Evleen, we won’t.” Patrick smiled through his tears. “If I stay, you must stay.”
“Of course.” She forced a bright smile. “And I shall marry a very rich and ever-so-titled Englishman, just as Mama said.”
Patrick eyed her with suspicion. “Mama said you should never love an Englishman. You wouldn’t, would you?”
“Of course not. Are you daft?”
As Patrick smiled, relieved, Evleen asked herself, how does the child know? Uncanny, how he sensed the doubt that had begun to cloud her thinking these past few days, and especially since Thomas’s kiss. But that was nonsense. She knew what she had to do, and she, honorable woman that she was, would do it.
* * *
“You look pretty, Evleen,” said Amanda who had just entered Evleen’s bedchamber.
They were about to leave for the ball. Evleen looked down at the mud-colored gown and knew she didn’t look pretty at all. She hated this gown. Worse, Celeste, occupied with the sisters’ demands, had no extra time, so Evleen had been compelled to do her hair herself. Adequate could best describe her up-swept coiffeur, she thought with dismal certainty.
“You look pretty, too,” she said to Amanda. And indeed, the girl looked charming in a lavender lace gown, her hair caught up in a mother-of-pearl comb.
Amanda shook her head. “Charlotte and Bettina say I’m too fat.”
“Not at all.” Evleen had heard with her own ears the outrageous manner in which Amanda’s sisters constantly criticized her. Truly, she wasn’t fat. She simply wasn’t as scrawny-looking as her mother and sisters. She was very pretty, in fact, and if she hadn’t been so browbeaten all her life, she could easily be popular and sought-after. “You’re not too fat. You’re just right, and you mustn’t let others convince you otherwise.”
Amanda remained unconvinced. “I wish I could be more like you, Evleen. You are so beautiful. And you have such spirit, and you always seem so sure of yourself.”
“Perhaps on the surface.” Evleen sighed, thinking of the enmity directed at her from the elder Trevlyns. “Underneath I worry as much as anyone. I must be on my best behavior tonight. Heaven help me if I do anything wrong.”
“You won’t.” Amanda regarded her with admiring eyes. She noticed Evleen’s empty hands. “But where is your fan?”
“I don’t have a fan. It’s chilly tonight. I shall have no desire to stir up a breeze.”
Amanda giggled. “Silly, you don’t carry a fan to really fan yourself. I noticed you didn’t carry one at the rout, but tonight you absolutely must have one for the ball.”
“Well, I don’t. I shall go without.”
“You can’t.” For once, Amanda appeared to take a firm stand. “The fan is a most important fashion accessory. I shall loan you one of mine and I shan’t take no for an answer.”
Without another word, Amanda left and shortly returned with a satin-lined fan box made of finely polished wood, filled with fans. “Take your pick, although I think the lace-and-ivory is the perfect match.”
“If I must, I must, but it still seems silly.” With reluctance, Evleen selected the small, lace-and-ivory fan. “They’d be laughing their heads off in County Clare if they saw me waving this around.”
“You don’t just wave it, you must learn the language of the fan,” said Amanda, ignoring Evleen’s complaint. “If you carry it in the left hand, thus, that means ‘desirous of an acquaintance.’ If you carry it in the right hand, that means—”
“Never mind,” Evleen interrupted with a smile. “I shall do my own speaking tonight, and not through a fan. Carrying it will be