“And what do you think?” insisted his sister.
“I think he does not care for my friendship. It is more likely that we shall stay mere acquaintances.”
“All the better. At least he will not roam around here with no call.”
Ralph sat next to Melody and picked her diary from the bed.
“Give it back!” she told him instantly.
The brother handed her the thing that was so important to her, and the photo of her and her father fell out of it.
“Oh dear! I had forgotten about our trip to Paris.”
“And I remember everything,” said Mary with nostalgia.
“Our mother’s and my daguerreotype did not come out well. I could not stay long in one position,” Ralph laughed.
“You never listened to our parents at all,” his sister said in reproach.
“You almost have not changed, Melody.”
“Just my appearance.”
“You are strange. We used to be close, we used to play and walk together. And now you sit at home like an old maid. Always clinging to your mother’s skirt.”
Melody looked at her brother, as if she wanted to retort, but thought better of it and said nothing.
“So are you going to tell me who he is?” Ralph persisted.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know it.”
“I will not,” answered his sister.
He went down to the sitting room and found his mother and Countess Melshem there.
“Son, you come just in time!” exclaimed Mrs. Fellows. “Be so kind as to go to the kitchen and ask them to bring us tea and cucumber sandwiches.”
“But they have just cleared up after our brunch.”
“That is why we keep servants, my dear, to serve and clean when we demand,” the guest retorted.
The young man said nothing to that, just nodded disapprovingly and proceeded into the kitchen.
When the tea table was set, the two ladies continued the discussion they had started in Melshem Hall.
“I assure you, my friend, he will be glad to marry Georgia!” said Rebecca Fellows. “It is just that he is modest and wanting in initiative. But he is certainly in love with your daughter. What else can explain the fact that no girl in the county was graced with his attention?”
“Perhaps you are right, Becky, but I still want happiness for my Joe. She loves Ralph with all her heart, yet she will not humiliate herself in front of him for the sake of mutuality.”
“Believe me they will make a wonderful couple! Imagine the headline in local newspapers, ‘A promising grandson of Esq. Fellows and a beautiful daughter of Earl and Countess Melshem are to be joined in the most outstanding marriage in Derbyshire’…”
The guest rolled her eyes and smiled contentedly.
“Yes. It will indeed be a wonderful marriage. They are both so beautiful and excellent in society. We should discuss the size of dowry. But I am going to leave it at the mercy of our husbands.”
“I agree,” Mrs. Fellowes was delighted and took a sip of tea.
“What about your Melody?”
“Melody?”
“Does she ever intend to become Lady Melshem?”
“Oh, Fanny, when it comes to her I am not sure of anything,” raising her hands to the sky, Rebecca started complaining. “She does not welcome any local young men’s attentions; she even stays at home most of the time. I am afraid that one day she will announce that she is leaving for the monastery.”
“Your daughter is too pretty for a monastery. Do not allow her to break your dreams!”
“But what can I do? She does not even speak to me sometimes. I do not know what’s on her mind and heart. The only person with whom she shares her secrets is Henry. However, he will never disgrace himself by discussing them with me.”
“George also avoids this topic. But I know that his feelings are hurt. Once he even aggravated Joe to the point that she slapped him on the face.”
“Why?”
“Because he had offended Melody.”
Rebecca Fellows appeared unpleasantly surprised, but she did not try to find out how her friend’s son could hurt her daughter. In a quarter of an hour, she walked the countess to her carriage and then went to her husband’s study to tell him about the plans on their son’s marriage.
Chapter V
“What did you decide for me?” exclaimed Ralph at dinner. “I do not want to marry Georgia Melshem or anybody else!”
“But, son, she will get three thousand as her dowry!” his mother said joyfully.
“She is a good match for you, as well as for us,” said Lord Fellows sternly. “You have lived at our expense enough. You did not even complete your studies at Oxford that your grandfather paid for.”
“I explained the reason,” the young Fellows strained through his clenched teeth.
“No, you did not. We received a letter from your Dean, informing us that you had been involved in the incident, tarnishing the reputation of the university, and that you could not continue your education. He did not state the name of the second participant. The only thing your mother and I were able to learn, is that the incident had been hushed up before it could seep into newspapers.”
“My dear, let us not talk about that,” his wife stepped in. “If Ralph does not want to tell us, you should not make him.”
“You all told me then that my brother was ill, so he could not study,” mentioned Melody casually. “So what was his illness exactly? The cunning, cowardice or laziness influenza?”
“That is enough!” said Ralph angrily. “Have you even heard that our parents are going to marry me?”
“Yes, to my best friend,” smiled his sister.
“Whom I do not love!” stated Ralph.
“I do not love George either, but that did not stop you from showing him my naked body.”
The parents froze in amazement with their mouths open. They looked at their daughter, then at their son unable to squeeze out a single word.
“It is not what you think!” Ralph tried to soften the accusation. “Melody was not intimate with George.”
“But how did he see her naked?” asked his mother barely able to keep from crying.
“It was a demand of your beloved countess’s son, Mother!” tartly replied Melody.
“What? It cannot be so.”
“Yes, it can. On that very day when he called Ralph to a duel.”
“But they made friends!”
“Not quite, Mother,” the young Fellows joined in. “My friend insisted that his only condition to cancel the duel was… Melody.”
“Henry, say something!” Rebecca broke down. “Our family’s honor is in question!”
“Children, did it happen on Tuesday?” the head of the family joined the conversation finally. “When I, too, by accident, saw… I saw you, Melody?”
“Yes, Father,” confessed his daughter.
“Oh, lord! My nerves!” cried Mrs. Fellows. “Do not tell me that you saw our daughter naked too, Henry?”
“Yes, I did,” was the answer.
His wife fainted