“Are you settling in nicely at the Dower House?” Penelope asked.

“Oh, nicely enough,” his mother said. “It’s hard to make a new place home after so many years…and I’m afraid it’s smaller than what Louisa is accustomed to, of course-”

“We’re settling in wonderfully.” But even Louisa spoke to Nev, not Penelope. “How are you doing, Nate? How are things here?”

Penelope, her attentive gaze still on his family, gave a tiny sigh and tried to look as if she hadn’t noticed. Nev reached out and grabbed her hand. “Penelope and I are doing fine, Louisa. Things have been difficult here, but I daresay we shall come about soon enough.”

Louisa looked hurt, though she still did not look at Penelope. But several minutes later, when they were seated at table, she asked Nev, “Have things been difficult? Is there-is there anything I can do?”

Lady Bedlow tsked. “Don’t be silly, Louisa. What could you possibly do? It is not a woman’s place to deal with money matters outside her household accounts.”

Louisa’s face burned. “Men do not seem to manage the business so well that I could do much worse.”

Penelope made a soft choking noise, as if she were trying not to laugh, and Nev felt a little more charitable toward Louisa. “I quite agree,” he said. “I am all at sea when it comes to accounts. Thank God Penelope knows what she is about.”

“Of course you are all at sea.” Tears filled Lady Bedlow’s eyes. “Your father always dealt with all that. If only he were here-”

Louisa visibly tensed with irritation, and Nev felt impatient himself. Did she not remember where Lord Bedlow’s management had gotten them all? He handed his mother his handkerchief. “Please, Mama, don’t take on so-”

“Thank you, Nev. ” She smiled mistily at him. “My children are so good to me. I know I’m a dreadful trial to Louisa.” She waited.

There was a pause, and then Louisa said reluctantly, “Of course you aren’t, Mama.”

Nev, meeting Penelope’s mirthful eyes across the table, had to smother a smile. But Lady Bedlow beamed.

Louisa turned to Nev. “Would it be terribly improper for us to have a house party?” She sounded rather as if the world depended on his answer. “It will be unbearable here all summer and winter, else.”

Nev thought about feeding a dozen greedy mouths and entertaining a dozen jaded minds. “I don’t think we can afford a house party, Louisa. Perhaps one of your friends will invite you.” He tried to look apologetic.

“I’m sure I don’t know who Nate would invite that would be suitable company for you, Louisa,” Lady Bedlow said. “Of course it’s only a matter of time before Mr. Garrett’s son is lording it over me in my own home.”

Nev didn’t want to talk about it, not with his mother, but she was sure to find out eventually. “I won’t be inviting Percy or Thirkell, Mama. I told them that now I had responsibilities, I couldn’t-”

“Oh, Nate, you finally cut the connection!” His mother gave his hand a congratulatory pat; he held himself carefully still. “I’m so glad! That boy has always been a bad influence on you, ever since Bedlow hired his father.”

Louisa tapped her fork irritably against the edge of her plate. “Lord, Mama, I don’t know why you’re so hard on Percy. I always thought it was Nate who was a bad influence on him!”

Lady Bedlow put her nose in the air. “Unequal friendships never end well. It gave poor Percy aspirations above his station. How could he help but go wild?”

“I didn’t cut the connection, Mama. I just-” Nev stopped. He could protest that it hadn’t been an unequal friendship. Percy hadn’t been a bad influence on him, and he hadn’t been a bad influence on Percy. They egged each other on, that was all. But what was the use? That was how everyone would see it. That was how everyone had always seen it: Lord Nevinstoke and his low friend. Nev knew he had done the right thing, but he felt ashamed anyway-especially when he caught Penelope’s curious, sympathetic glance. “I wish Mr. Garrett were still alive,” he confessed, as a sort of compromise. “I didn’t much take to Captain Trelawney.”

“Oh, I never liked him either,” Lady Bedlow said. “There is something overfamiliar about him. He acted quite as if he were your father’s equal and not his servant.”

Nev sighed. “I’m not sure he realizes how bad things are for our people. Penelope and I visited some of the cottages today, and the families seemed really in distress. And so many men out of work or gone.”

“Yes.” It was nearly the first thing Penelope had said all evening. “Do either of you know why Joe Cusher was transported?”

Louisa, reaching for a roll, drew her hand back. “Joe Cusher was one of the ringleaders in that riot three years ago,” she said tightly. “The vandals fired the barn with Papa’s threshing machine in it. We thought they would fire the house too. Sir Jasper and his friend sentenced him to transportation, of course. Agnes Cusher spat at my feet the next time I saw her. The way she looked at me-” She shivered.

“Louisa!” Lady Bedlow’s curls trembled anxiously. “You know I don’t like to talk about that time.”

Louisa opened her mouth, then closed it again with a tiny, frustrated sigh. “Yes, Mama.”

For perhaps another quarter of an hour, there was polite, strained conversation such as Nev never remembered when his father was alive. Then Lady Bedlow cleared her throat. “Penelope, dear, don’t you think it’s time we left Nate to his port?”

Penelope flushed. “Of course. How remiss of me.” She stood.

Nev stood too. “Let’s all go together. I’ve given up port.”

“Why, Nate,” Louisa said, laughing at him, “marriage has certainly changed you! Has Penelope converted you to Methodism too?”

Nev frowned. “Penelope isn’t a Methodist, Louisa.” The sudden, horrible thought struck him that perhaps she was, and he had just made a fool of himself. No-he would know, wouldn’t he?

He looked at Penelope. She remained perfectly civil despite his family’s rudeness; she would not say or do anything to make Nev feel her discomfort. And yet she could not feign ease or gaiety. She looked quiet and shut off. It inspired a curious tenderness in him.

Lady Bedlow led the way unthinkingly to the parlor, and her look of consternation when she realized all the furniture was gone brought a glimmer of amusement back to Penelope’s face. She met Nev ’s eyes, and the two of them were hard-pressed to stifle their laughter. The evening suddenly seemed much less dire.

Louisa looked embarrassed for all of them. “Let’s go to the music room. Will you play for us, Nev?”

“Penelope plays better than I do,” he told her.

“Oh, but I want you to sing us ‘The Ballad of Captain Kidd’!”

“I-I know ‘The Ballad of Captain Kidd,’” Penelope offered.

“Really?” Louisa didn’t bother to hide her surprise, but at least she was looking at Penelope.

Penelope nodded shyly. Soon enough the young people were all singing “I’d a Bible in my hand / By my father’s great command / And I sunk it in the sand / When I sailed!” Lady Bedlow watched them with affection and faint disapproval; she had learned long ago that nothing got between her children and Captain Kidd.

Nev tried to remember the last time he had spent a pleasant evening singing with his family, and couldn’t. Louisa was glowing, and Nev felt guilty. He’d barely seen them these past few years since he left university. The last time he’d talked to Louisa, really talked to her about anything that mattered, she’d been in the schoolroom.

Her enthusiasm for pirates, however, seemed undiminished. And to Nev ’s surprise, Penelope sang with as much energy as any of them. Then it turned out that she knew “Mary Ambree” too, and Louisa was able to extract a promise to consider naming a daughter Mary (Louisa resented that her parents had callously deprived her of the chance to sing And foremost in battle was Mary Ambree and have it be about herself). By the time Penelope had sung several unfamiliar songs about girls joining the navy (Nev suspected they might be old broadsides), Louisa had mostly forgotten that she had sworn to detest her new sister-in-law eternally.