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"I aot a touch out of hand" Mada none of it "Sorry isn’t good enough I lost my parasol" She practically hissed it The absence still rankled

"YouI could easily have made you a replacement The countess has me very well set up"

Alexia arched her eyebrows

"Ah You don’t trustto the Woolsey Hive May I remind you that you put me there?"

Alexia sputtered

"Dada," said Prudence, warning thee "Well, ladies, Madame Lefoux, shall we? The train is about to depart, and I believe everyone is aboard, save us" It took him a moment to sense the tension between his wife and her erstwhile friend

"Nohat’s all this about?"

"Foo!" pointed out Prudence

"Yes, poppet, so I see"

"Your wife is stillher parasol"

"Ah My dear, I did order you a new one, but it is taking far longer than I expected You kno scientists can be"

"Oh, thank you, Conall! I did think it ht have slipped your mind"

"Never, my dear" He bent and kissed her on the temple "Now, if that settles matters?"

The sun peeked up, outside the station but definitely rising The train sounded its horn, loud and long, and the engine began to ra bouts of s

Lord Maccon grabbed Madame Lefoux’s port steward His strength was taxed by the rising sun, but not so e hter wrapped chubby arht, since she associated it with hugging her father In addition, her aunt Biffy and her uncle Lyall were more likely to scoop her up and twirl her around when the sun was up

"Dada," she said approvingly Then she leaned forward toward his ear, as if to tell him a secret, and spouted a whole streaured this was Prudence’s version of gossip It was probably quite interesting and informative, had it actually been co," said her mother as she clilish Otherwise, you can’t possibly hope to be understood"

"No," said Prudence, most decidedly

Mada, for Alexia heard her chuckle behind her as she, too, climbed inside the coach

The Tunstells’ troupe had already struck up a rousing chorus of "Shine Your Buttons with Brasso," an extremely bawdy tune entirely ill-suited to the first-class co Express to Southaht be one to justify such behavior

He shrugged "Actors"

Prudence, lacking in all sense of dignity and decoru

Madame Lefoux i along

Tunstell de ladies fro in the aisle

"What will the steward think of us?" said Alexia to no one in particular "This is going to be a very long trip"

CHAPTER SEVEN

Biffy Encounters a Most Unsatisfactory Parasol

In the years that follohen Lady Maccon had occasion to recall that night, she would shudder at the horror of it all She who has not traveled in the company of ten actors, three toddlers, a olf, and a French inventor cannot possibly sympathize with such torture The chaos of the train station was a mere appetizer to the main course of utter insanity that was the Maccon party’s atte the steaed to do so with few actual casualties Ivy lost one of her hatboxes to the briny deep and had a fit of hysterics Thethe villain, a fellow named Tumtrinkle, barked his shin on the side of the entrance rae reason, caused his to withstand the pain for the next three-quarters of an hour The wardrobe mistress was in a panic over the proper treatner insisted on handling all of the backdrops personally, despite the fact that he had a dodgy back and a limp One of the understudies was not pleased with the size and location of her roohosts were tethered near water, so she could not possibly be in a room that overlooked the ocean… on a boat Percy spit up on the captain’s lapel Prier’s hat Prudence squirrasp at one point, toddled over to the railing, and nearly fell over the edge

Lady Maccon felt, if she were the type of woht have been called for She could quite easily have taken to her apartments with a cool cloth to her head and the worries of the world far behind her

Instead, she oversaw the loading of thecloths to the captain and Percy, rescued and returned the feather to its rightful owner, sent a steward to Ivy’s room with restorative tea, insisted Tunstell comfort the hysterical understudy, distracted the wardrobe hter with one arm and her frantic husband with the other, and all before the steamer tooted its departure horn and lurched ponderously out into a dark and choppy sea

Finally, once everything was settled, Alexia turned to Conall, her eyes shining with curiosity "Who did you order it from?"