The Valentine Legacy by Catherine Coulter Page B

were Glenda and Jessie Warfield.
    A thin woman with stooped shoulders ushered them to the large Belmonde parlor. Glenda was prettily arranged on the settee wearing a pale yellow muslin gown. Jessie was standing beside Alice, with her hand on the widow’s bowed shoulder. She was wearing another of her sister’s castaways, a pale gray wool that made her look like a young nun trying on the mother superior’s habit. Like the other gown, this one was too short and too big in the bosom. James heard her say, “Alice, Mrs. Partridge has told me that you’ve scarcely eaten at all. Come now, here are some fresh scones. Shall I spread some butter and strawberry jam on one for you?”
    Alice gave her a helpless look that made James want to enfold her in his arms and pat her. He expected that mostpeople reacted to Alice like that. But evidently not Jessie. She floored him, saying “Now this is quite enough, Alice. You’re going to eat the scone or I’ll stuff it down your throat.”
    That brought a smile to Alice’s pale lips. Her frail shoulders even lifted a bit. She looked up when Mrs. Partridge cleared her throat.
    â€œOh, Mrs. Wyndham! James. Do come in.” Alice leaped to her feet, and Jessie knew why. Everyone leaped to their feet when Mrs. Wilhelmina Wyndham came within striking distance. The lady scared her to death. In the past, she’d easily managed to avoid her, but not today. There was no escape from her today.
    Wilhelmina looked at Alice, who had two hectic red spots on her pale cheeks, and said, “You have grieved for three days, Alice. Allen Belmonde deserves no more than three days of having you wilt around not eating. It is the shock of finding him that has prostrated you, not your loss. Now, I would like a cup of tea and one of those fresh scones Jessie was talking about.”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” Alice said, and scurried out of the parlor.
    Jessie said, “I didn’t know Alice could move that fast. Well done, ma’am.”
    Wilhelmina looked at Jessie briefly, lifted her chins, then turned to Glenda, who was now sitting on the edge of the settee, at attention, ready for inspection. “You’re looking well, Glenda, but that gown of yours is cut too low. There is too much bosom on display. Here.” Wilhelmina handed her a white lawn handkerchief. Glenda took it and stared at it helplessly. “Arrange it over your bosom, dear,” Wilhelmina said.
    â€œNow, Jessie, I had to settle myself before I spoke to you. You are as you always are, so no surprise there. At least you don’t smell like a horse today. I have no more handkerchiefs, or else I’d give you one to help fill out thechest of that gown. I shall speak to your mother. She needs to have gowns made for you.”
    James, who should have been used to his mother after all these years of watching her in action, nonetheless fairly choked on his words. “Mama, I think you should sit down. Ah, here’s Mrs. Partridge with your tea and a scone. That’s right, take two. Now, Alice, stop hovering. I want to speak to you. Come with me to Allen’s study.”
    Allen Belmonde’s study was a dark room with heavy leather furniture, a dull brown Axminster carpet, and books lining the walls that James knew the dead man had never opened. James gently pressed Alice Belmonde into a chair, lowered himself on his haunches in front of her, and took her white hands between his. “My mother’s a bully, Alice, but she’s right. Allen was a rotter. You have a large estate to deal with. There are people depending on you.”
    â€œI’m a woman, James. I don’t know anything. Allen never told me anything, either. He always said I was to be here whenever he wanted me. He said that was my only role, that and having children. Now he’s gone. I feel, well, I feel sort of frozen. There’s no one to tell me what to do.”
    â€œDid you love him,