“This one!” I breathed, holding up a beautiful, fringed butter yellow shawl embroidered in bright, vivid colours with a bountiful variety of flowers, fruits, birds, and animals. “She will like this one—I’m certain of it!” I nodded decisively and folded the shawl carefully. “Wrap it and have it sent to Lady Dudley at once please, Kat.” “Very well, love,” Kat sighed, shaking her dear grey head. “I’ll do it, but I don’t understand it! Why do you do it, send these things to her? Ever since we heard the poor lady was ailing, you’ve not let a week pass without sending her something, and such costly things too, like that fine flowered chair—I doubt there’s another chair in all your palaces even half so comfortable—and always in Lord Robert’s name, never your own!” “If I sent them in my name, it would only scare her,” I explained. “She would shrink from these gifts in suspicion and fear rather than take any delight from them.
