Page 1 of A Body, A Baron, and Miss Mifford
CHAPTER ONE
WITH HER ELDERsisters now married, Miss Eudora Mifford had assumed the role of the eldest daughter of the Mifford household. It was a position she had always coveted, but like most longed-for ambitions, it was proving rather anti-climatic in practice.
Her disappointment in her new role stemmed mainly from the fact that her sisters, who each lived within a stone’s throw of Primrose Cottage, refused to afford her the respect her new title called for.
“Are you only rising now, Eudora?” Mary, the eldest of the sisters and now Duchess of Northcott, called disapprovingly as Eudora entered the kitchen. “Would that I had the time to be so idle. Oh, to be young and carefree…”
Eudora opened her mouth to offer a suitable response but was interrupted by Emily’s arrival through the garden door. The second youngest Mifford girl, now a marchioness, was wearing a very familiar-looking bonnet atop her blonde curls.
“That’s my bonnet,” Eudora cried, outraged by both the theft and her brazenness. If one was going to steal from one’s sister, one might attempt to be a little more circumspect.
“I was thinking when I put it on that it wasn’t mine,” Emily agreed, as she deposited herself at the kitchen table.
“Were you thinking at all to return it?” Eudora retorted, as Emily reached for one of the crumpets Nora had laid out for the expected visitors.
“Well, if I have your bonnet, that must mean that you have mine,” Emily reasoned as she applied a liberal layer of butter to her crumpet, “So once mine has been located, we shall make an exchange.”
“I am not responsible for finding your lost bonnet,” Eudora huffed. “It is not fair for you to hold mine to ransom; I am not responsible for your absent-mindedness.”
“There’s a very fetching bonnet in your wardrobe, Miss Eudora,” Nora said as she emerged from the pantry, “Perhaps that’s the one Lady Chambers is looking for?”
Eudora attempted to quell a blush, offering Nora an innocent look, “Oh, really? I did not note it; perhaps Mama tidied it away yesterday?”
Mercifully for Eudora, baby George let out a displeased cry, distracting Emily from further interrogating her about the misplaced bonnet.
“Oh, poor lamb,” Emily cooed as she went to fetch him from the bassinet in the corner of the room.
“Watch his head,” Mary squawked as her sister cradled George.
As George had almost reached a half-year, such advice was not entirely necessary. Emily rolled her eyes at her eldest sister’s fussing.
“You’ll understand when you have one of your own,” Mary muttered, slightly defensive, “They’re excessively delicate.”
George, who weighed almost as much as a hogget sheep and was exceptionally sturdy of build, took that moment to grab onto a loose strand of Emily’s hair and yank down hard. In the ensuing fracas, in which Emily howled with pain and Mary with worry, Eudora helped herself to a crumpet and a cup of tea.
Really, she sighed; her sisters had so little consideration for her digestion.
“What’s all the fuss?” Jane, the second eldest sister called, as she strolled through the back door. She wore a billowing walking dress made of fine merino wool, which concealed her neat bump and, for a moment, their cousin Charlotte, who stood behind her.
“Baby George has gone on the rampage again,” Eudora supplied, earning herself a glare from Mary.
Jane, ever calm, strode across the kitchen and gently - but firmly - removed George’s fist from Emily’s hair.
“There,” she said with some satisfaction, “Now we can enjoy our tea in peace.”
“And I shall not be bald when the guests arrive,” Emily added as she smiled at George, who was now chewing on his hand.
“Have you any idea what time to expect them, Jane?” Mary asked as the sisters seated themselves around the table.
“Lord and Lady Albermay wrote to say that they would arrive this afternoon,” Jane replied, “Lord Delaney is set to arrive earlier, though he did not specify exactly when.”
Eudora discreetly rolled her eyes. She found Lord Delaney—a close friend of the marquess—excessively irritating. It did not surprise her that the lackadaisical baron lacked the organisational skills to provide his hostess with even a vague travel itinerary.
“Captain Ledger is due this evening, after sundown,” Jane finished, referencing her husband’s friend from his seafaring days, “He’s traveling from Bristol. The Dowager Duchess has invited an old friend, Lord Percival, to keep her company while us young folk frolic - her words, for I can’t imagine much frolicking. Finally, a Mr Lowell, whom Ivo wishes to speak to about his investments in the textile industry, is also due this afternoon - though he shan’t stay for the duration of the party.”
“How nice it will be to see Lady Albermay again,” Emily declared. The sisters had become acquainted with theviscountess - an American heiress - during the previous season when Emily had been accused of murdering one of the guests at her ball.
“Yes, she’s the person whom I look forward to seeing most,” Eudora agreed tactfully. In truth, the guest list sounded terrifically dull to her ears, filled as it was with men who would do little but smoke cheroots and partake in hunting on the Crabb estate.
