But there was, a well-set-up man in a tunic of blue with silver piping. Adele hadn’t hired servants to replace those who’d left with the Rolfes. The deed to Chatsworth Minor had been waiting for Adele in a message locker at Harbor Three, along with the—expected and unnecessary—summons to see Mistress Sand at her earliest convenience, day or night.
“Yes, that’s the house,” Adele said.
The doorman, seeing Adele coming up the street, stepped back and rapped on the panel. “The mistress has arrived!” he said in a voice that could be heard from one end of the block to the other. Doormen who’d sneeringly ignored the passing entourage now focused on the RCN warrant officer and her companions.
The door panel was now plain beewood, sandblasted to emphasize the distinctive grain. It opened from the inside; a blue-liveried footman bowed Deirdre Leary out.
“Perhaps it’s not my place to welcome you to your own home, Mistress Mundy,” Deirdre said with a sweep of her hand. “But welcome anyway. I’m delighted to be here when you arrive; I’d been held up by business and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to greet you.”
“I also had business to take care of,” Adele said without emphasis. Chances were that Corder Leary’s daughter knew Adele was connected with Mistress Sand, but if so that was an even better reason not to discuss it. “With that out of the way, I decided to visit the house; though I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I arrived.”
“Ma’am?” Barnes said, bouncing the laden duffle bag in the palm of his hand to call attention to it.
“Hoskins, show Mistress Mundy’s servants where to put her things, if you will,” Deirdre said. The words and even the tone were polite, but Deirdre’s manner brooked no more discussion than her brother would when snapping out orders in a crisis.
Smiling as Barnes and Dasi followed the footman into the townhouse, Deirdre went on, “May we be Adele and Deirdre, mistress? I prefer terms of friendship with those for whom I act.”
Adele stopped on the threshold. The hideous mosaic was gone and the ancient flooring shone with a high gloss. She didn’t even want to think about what that must have cost.
But she didn’t grudge the expense, not even if it meant she had to miss meals again. A Mundy stood again in Chatsworth Minor. What did money matter in comparison with that?
“I’m not used to informality,” Adele said. “Still, your brother’s been training me into an appreciation of it, and I dare say I’ll be able to extend the process to you. Deirdre.”
Adele was finding it hard to speak through the lump in her throat. Things don’t matter! But at one time not so far in the past, she’d thought people didn’t matter either, only knowledge. People did matter. And it seemed that Chatsworth Minor mattered as well, at least to Adele Mundy.
She stood in the entrance hall, entranced by the rich familiarity of the beewood underfoot. It wasn’t home any more, but it was as surely a part of her as the skills and knowledge she’d gained in the years she’d lived here.
That thought led to another. Adele said, “Ah, I don’t know how much you’ve heard—” how much Deirdre understood was the real question; she certainly had access to the bare facts “—about your brother’s situation. The ship he commands, the Princess Cecile, was seriously damaged in action and is being repaired by the Tanais shipyards. Daniel accepted a temporary appointment to bring Commodore Pettin’s dispatches to Cinnabar aboard a Strymonian vessel commandeered for the purpose.”
Adele could see furniture through the doors opening off the hallway; not the Rolfes’ furnishings. These were tastefully chosen antiques and extremely expensive. She cleared her throat and added, “The dispatches credit Lieutenant Leary with a major part of the victory our forces won over an Alliance squadron. Well-deserved credit, I’m happy to say.”
“His father will be pleased,” Deirdre said. “As am I.”
She too cleared her throat before she continued, “I’ve prepared accounts for you—”
Deirdre made a slight gesture toward the upper floors. A lifetime ago Adele had sat in one of the rooms up there and scribbled a note to Deirdre Leary.