Chapter 10: The Palace

The trip to Bavindor was relatively uneventful.

They made a long carriage train, which got longer when they picked up the Dwyer’s, their five wagons and a carriage, on the way. While it was common for thieves to attack the shipments, the local robbers gave them a wide berth due to their escort.

The two older members of their Growers Society also joined them, citing safety in numbers. Ty and Willow had no problems including them, as they were, after all, members of their little society and they got on along very well with the men. The other two members had already made other arrangements.

Hugh, Grace and sometimes Bethany rode in the carriage. Willow for the main part rode with Ty. Silvia and Mathew also preferred to ride. Their carriage had their two children, the nanny and the couple who worked for them as their maid and valet in it.

They had a boy William, who was close to Bethany’s age and they got on well. They let the older children ride their ponies, for short spells. William often ended up in the carriage with Bethany, Hugh and Grace.

They had left early enough to reach Pink Valley just after dark, and the Gentry got to sleep in separate rooms. The wagon drivers and the soldiers didn’t mind, as they too were well taken care of in the large bunkhouse for single men.

Ty spent half the night making love to Willow. He was not looking forward to having to behave, once they reached the Palace. Willow wondered how long it would take her to entice him back into her bed. She did not intend to sleep without him if she didn’t have too.

She didn’t wish to force Ty into marrying her, but she didn’t see why she had to go without because the silly man couldn’t work out he loved her. Apparently, he couldn’t tell when he was deceiving himself.

They stayed the next night in a way-station that was three hours from Bavindor. They could have pushed on, but they decided that it was more prudent not to travel at night with such a big party. Plus the wagon drivers had to drop off their wagons and get them unloaded.

It was better for the drivers to do the unloading in the light of day than them having to sleep with the wagons in town unprotected at night. They would drive the empty wagons back to the station the afternoon and them back home.

The way-station didn’t have separate rooms as it had separate men and ladies bunkhouses. While it had some better rooms for the ladies, they still had to share them with their servants. So Ty didn’t get one more night with Willow. After a not so flash night, they were all up early and back on the road not long after daybreak.

Ty had arranged with some wheeling and dealing to get the Dwyers an apartment near his. Old Sir Todd Tully had agreed to rent him his rooms for the Season. He would share with his friend Sir Walter Primrose who had a spare room in his apartment below their level.

‘The extra pocket money wouldn’t hurt’, Todd had written in his letter back to Ty. Ty had sent him a bank draft to cover the rent and an extra generous amount. He asked if Todd could organise some extra beds for the children and told him to keep the change.

Ty was very impressed when he escorted the Dwyers to the apartment. The old boys had gone all out. They had packed up Todd’s junk and put it in storage. They had then set up the larger spare room with a set of bunks for the children and a separate bed for the nanny.

The small room was set up for Mathew’s manservant and his wife who acted as Silvia’s maid and cook. They had even replaced the mattress on the bed and the drapes in the main bedroom. The bathing room had also been upgraded. It had a new bath, a shower and a very modern privy and sink ensemble.

They had even replaced the dining room set. It now had eight matching chairs. They had also put some new comfortable couches and seats in the parlour. Silvia was delighted with the apartment. While they weren’t hard up, normally they had to rent on the outskirts of town making travel a pain when it snowed.

This year they would be right in the thick of things. The smaller apartment wasn’t a problem here as most of the entertaining was done in other rooms in the palace. The apartment was a haven. It also meant they wouldn’t be expected to put on large parties and could just go to others as they chose.

Ty’s apartment was larger. It took up twice the space of Todd’s. It had six rooms, two bathing rooms, a parlour, a library, a kitchen and a dining room that sat twelve.

Bethany, Vincent, Hugh and Ty had their own rooms. Willow and Prudence would share what would have otherwise been the wife’s room, and Prudence’s nanny/maid and her daughter would have the last small room, which used to be Bethany’s nannies.

Ty had gotten his agent to arrange for two single beds to be put in the large spare room. He was to shift the bigger bed to Hugh’s room and put his old bed in the nannies room. Grace had informed Ty she would be bunking with her intended. Willow didn’t effectively have a maid, she said she could share Prudence’s or use Grace if required.

Hugh and Grace had probably spent about as much time as Ty and Willow had, screwing each other’s brains out. Hugh however, intended to make an honest woman of Grace. He had asked her to marry him when they were in Pink Valley. It would only take a couple of days to register for a licence, and they could be married the next weekend.

He told her they would live wherever she felt most comfortable. He would hate to leave Ty’s service, but he couldn’t and wouldn’t give her up. Grace had cried and said yes, before showing him how much she had come to love him too. Ty congratulated the two. He too was aware that he could and probably would lose Hugh. But he couldn’t deny his oldest friend his happiness.

Grace was only just in her thirties and still young enough to give Hugh a kid or two. Hugh wasn’t really that old at forty. He just seemed old at times to Ty and Vincent, as he had taken on the role as their father. Ty and Vincent could both attest to his fathering abilities, as they both believed he was instrumental in bringing them closer together.

Hugh had also seemed content at Willow’s Estate. Ty guessed they would end up back there, after the Season. Hugh and Morris had become fast friends and worked out an amicable sharing of duties.

Ty often forgot how young he was himself. He should be out making merry with the young bucks. He often felt ten years older, being responsible for three estates, two Wards, a daughter and a King. He’d had to grow up very fast after his father died six years before.

He still believed his Uncle Albert was responsible for his father’s death, but he had never been able to prove it. He had mostly left it alone because he didn’t want to upset Vincent. It was bad enough that he had gotten his father exiled without accusing the man of murdering his own brothers as well. He couldn’t change the past, what was done, was done.

He escorted his own party to his apartment and got them settled in. Bethany was glad to be home with her own things but missed that she couldn’t just run around outside as she could on the estate. She had become quite feral, as she preferred being outside if she wasn’t in the playroom.

They were also further from the stables, and she had to be escorted to them, as children weren’t allowed to run around loose in the palace. Brain had promised to come and get Bethany every morning for her ride.

Brain had elected to stay with the stable lads. He also got on very well with Mathew’s stable master. The man told Ty he would make sure Brain was not picked on and made sure he was introduced to the King’s stable master.

Vincent and Prue would be joining them by the end of the week. Willow needed to spend a couple of days with the agent who organised the auction of her products. Grace and Hugh elected to be her escorts and Ty had to attend his own office and the King.

Willow found it very strange dealing with the agent without her father. At first, he tried to treat her as a silly child that didn’t know what she wanted to do. He wanted the nadack repackaged and sold in larger consignments. But Willow refused. She gave him a copy of the lists of the parcels she had put together.

She personally made sure that each package was accounted for as it went in the vaults. The bales of lavender were stored in a separate secure area. However, she wanted the processed oil put in the vaults as a well, since they were worth a small fortune, being as concentrated as they were.

The man gave her grief at every turn and Willow was getting very vexed. Mathew turned up with his agent and inquired, “Lady Willow would you like me to get your intended Duke Arrondale to assist you?”

The Agent blanched at the name and suddenly became very attentive to her needs. This didn’t endear Willow to him either. They shouldn’t have to drop names to be taken seriously. But at least she was able to get the parcels sorted out, and the Agent promised to have the list sent to the news-sheet, so buyers knew what was available.

The first auction wouldn’t be for two weeks for a quarter of the consignment. The rest to be auctioned every fortnight until it was sold. Mathew had told his agent that he wanted his split and sold at the same time as Willow’s products were.

He and her father had worked out a few years before that they both got better prices when they sold together and billed their product as Terville Nadack and Lavender.

They also included the other two farmer’s names to their bill from their Society to the men’s delight. Since Willow had been helping them, their own products were of much higher quality these days. They wanted their parcels split with Willow’s and Mathews.

They dropped off the samples to the Apothecary that was used to analyse the products to ascertain its quality and worth matched with their assessments. This information would be posted on the lists. Once the quality was known, the parcels could be sold pre-auction if they agreed to the set price or better.

Ty found he had a backlog of work to catch up with. He had to go visit Paul and the one surviving man from the ambush. He wanted more information from them. He didn’t believe the threats to Willow had gone away.

He hoped as word got around, that she was under his and the King’s protection the perpetrator would move his interest somewhere else. He wasn’t entirely happy with what they were able to tell him, but he did get a couple more leads to investigate.

The next day Silvia and Willow went shopping. Ty had given Willow a special card with his name on it. He informed her to use it to put her purchases on his account. It would save her wasting a lot of time setting up accounts with the establishments. He had told Silvia to add her purchases to Willow’s, and he and Mathew would sort out the bills later.

Willow and Silvia were amused when they went into one of the places Ty had directed them too. Supposedly, it was one of the better boutiques, where the Gentry shopped. The assistant had looked down her nose at their more country attire and ignored them.

She didn’t recognise Silvia, as it had been several years since her coming out. She and Mathew didn’t bother attending a lot of the bigger balls since they married. They had been in there at least ten minutes, without being attended to when Silvia whispered to Willow to hand over the card.

She was reluctant but presented the card to the assistant and informed her in a haughty voice, “My Guardian has deemed that our wardrobes require refreshing. As we are guests of the King, we require day-dresses and ball-gowns for attending court.”

The assistant looked down at the card, blanched and quickly escorted them to a special room reserved for wealthy patrons. They soon found themselves seated and being served tea. The proprietor was sitting in front of them with several catalogues to help them decide on styles and colours.

Silvia took over, as she had the greater experience with what they would require. Willow was astounded at the list of requirements grew. She just wanted a couple of day-dresses and one or two ball-gowns. Apparently, as a debutante, since it was her first Season, this was impossible.

Silvia had elected herself as her sponsor, and Prue would be her companion. Between them with their connections and with Ty’s name being attached to Willow’s, Silvia has a feeling they would be invited everywhere. She told Willow it was going to be fun.