The front of Delmar Cottage faced Woolmouth Cove. In the morning when Keiko woke up, she opened her bedroom window and let in the salty sea air and she fell asleep at night to the crashing of waves on the beach. Her old spinnet, carried down from the main house to make room for Yukina's new piano-forte, sat by a bay window from where she could watch the sun dance across the English Channel as she played.

Keiko ran her fingers along the spinnet's keys, playing a cacophony in c-major. Lord in Heaven, when was the last time the poor old spinnet had been tuned?
"C'est toi, ma chèrie?" said Mamma, who lay on the sofa in the drawing room.
"Oui, Maman," replied Keiko. "C'est moi."
Keiko helped her mother sit up against the sofa cushions. Mamma's health had been poor since Papa's death, and it conveniently excused her from visits to the main house. She'd never liked Aunt Hina and Uncle Tatsu (though they'd always been polite to her and charged them an uncommonly reasonable rent to stay in the cottage), and walking the halls where she'd once been mistress was unbearable. Papa's presence remained. Keiko fluffed a pillow under Mamma's head. One could imagine he went off hunting, and you would soon hear his pounding footsteps and thunderous laughter again and would find his muddy footprints and the mucky pawprints of his dogs on the floor.
"What news from the main house?" said Mamma.
Keiko settled herself next to her mother. "Mr. Kuwabara will propose to Yukina by Christmas, mark my words." I've never seen a man more in love than Mr. Kuwabara is with Yukina. The thought brought a pang of envy. How wonderful it would be to have someone care for you that much.
"First you and Mr. Sensui." Mamma giggled like a young girl. "Now Yukina and Mr. Kuwabara. And Yukina didn't have to go all the way to Bath."
Last February, a mere three months after Papa's death, Dr. Kamiya prescribed a season in Bath, saying that a change of scene was just the thing to improve Mamma's health and spirits. While in Bath, they made the acquaintance of Mr. Shinobu Sensui of Maidenswood in Hampshire. 

The master of ceremonies introduced Mr. Sensui to Keiko and her mother at a ball in the Upper Assembly Rooms. Keiko vaguely recalled noticing him at the Theater Royal Orchard Street during a production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. He was terribly handsome and obviously a man of fortune and fashion, said to be worth 10,000 a year. His attentions flattered Keiko, who didn't know many people in Bath and had to suffer through being a wallflower at the previous ball she attended. Because Mr. Sensui singled her out, her dance cards at all the following balls were always full.

Keiko met Mr. Sensui again that summer when he called upon her and her mother at the London home of Aunt Ume, Mamma's sister. Mr. Sensui brought a bouquet for both Keiko and Mamma, who hadn't received flowers since she was widowed. Any young lady would have lost her heart to him, but Keiko didn't have hers to lose.
"Mr. Kuwabara says that Yusuke will be at the Exeter Assembly next week," said Keiko. Mamma was bound to hear about Yusuke's return sooner or later so it might as well be from her.
A fond smile crossed Mamma's lips. "Cher Yusuke," she said. "It'll be good to see him again." Mamma and Papa treated Yusuke like a son, thinking he would look after Keiko like a brother.
Keiko lowered her eyes. If only Mamma had and Papa knew what Yusuke had really been to her. "You should eat something, Mamma."
She went into the kitchen and brought back a glass of lemonade and a slice of leftover pork pie from last night's dinner, leaving them on the sideboard for whenever Mamma wanted them. After that, she went upstairs and changed out of her good silk stockings into a pair knitted from blue wool. Yusuke always teased her about wearing blue stockings, saying girls who wore them were know-it-alls who never got husbands.
The poor boy would have to eat his words when he learned about Mr. Sensui. After all, hadn't Keiko promised to introduce him to her husband the next time they saw each other?

Keiko switched her delicate shoes for a sturdier pair of boots. She fumbled in her pocket to check that she had Mr. Sensui's letter and a penny to mail it. A copy of Voltaire's Candide Miss Genkai lent her sat on the nightstand by her little white bed. There was still a chapter or two left, and she could finish the book as she walked into town. Then, she could call upon Miss Genkai to return it.
"Now, where are you off to?" Mamma asked as Keiko went back downstairs.

"To mail a letter," Keiko replied from the boot room. In the boot room was a hutch made from an old cabinet where lived a bluish-grey rabbit named Puu. She opened the hutch to check if Puu had enough food and water. Poor Puu looked lonely and dejected. When she returned, Keiko would have to let him out to play and be cuddled.
"A letter to whom?"

Keiko rolled her eyes. "Who do you think?" She grabbed her pinafore from its hook, tied the strings around her waist, and pinned the bib to the bodice of her dress.
Mamma giggled and Keiko took a deep breath. Let Mamma believe she was madly in love with Mr. Sensui just like she and Papa had been.
Miss Genkai had once told Keiko that no one had been surprised when Papa, known as a rogue in his youth, eloped with a French beauty during his grand tour. What shocked everyone was that Mamma was a perfectly respectable young woman—the daughter of a Parisian financier, prominent enough for Mamma and Aunt Ume to have attended balls at Versailles. Their marriage, born out of youthful passion, turned out to be uncommonly successful, and all Mamma had ever wanted for Keiko was to have the same thing they had.
Mr. Sensui might one day become as good a husband as Papa, but Keiko wouldn't hold her breath. 
"Au revoir, Maman." Keiko grabbed her bonnet and shopping basket, which she placed Miss Genkai's book in. "Je reviendrai bientôt."

The dirt road leading into Seacombe, the nearest town to Delmar, passed along the cliffs overlooking Woolmouth Cove, where Keiko and Yusuke used to play as children. Woolmouth Cove was also where Yusuke first put his arm around her waist and kissed her that summer three years ago.

A strong breeze from the sea made Keiko's muslin skirts billow like a sail. It wasn't as if Yusuke had never done anything like that before then. He always used to grab her waist to make her mess up while practicing her scales and kiss her on the cheek to distract her while he snatched a piece of cake off her plate. But that was the first time he hadn't been "just teasing" when he'd done it. Keiko sighed. Or so I thought. Perhaps making her believe he was serious had been his greatest prank of all?
Keiko took Candide out of her basket and continued reading as she walked toward Seacombe. Why think about stupid boys more than they deserve? 

Mr. Takanaka, who'd been the butler at Seacombe House for as long as anyone could remember, and resembled nothing so much as a dear old badger in a waistcoat and powdered wig, opened the door for Keiko when she arrived. "Miss Keiko." He welcomed her with a bow.
"Good afternoon, Takanaka," said Keiko. "I'm here to return a book I borrowed. Is Miss Genkai home?"
"Madam saw you from the window. She's waiting for you in the drawing room."
Keiko followed Takanaka down the hall. Over the years, she had memorized each painting hanging on the walls—primarily idyllic landscapes instead of the expected ancestral portraits. Seacombe House and the Genkai family itself only went back as far as Miss Genkai's father, whose picture hung next to the drawing-room door, giving a self-satisfied grin to anyone who entered.
"Come in, child,"'said Miss Genkai from inside the drawing room. "Don't dawdle out there."
Keiko smoothed her dress. Miss Genkai was, without a doubt, the most terrifying person she'd ever met. As a small child, she hid behind Mamma's skirts whenever she heard Miss Genkai coming. Though she'd come to love Miss Genkai second only to her own mother, she'd never lost the awe and reverence in which she held the imperious old lady. A person could love someone and still find them frightening.

Miss Genkai  sat in an upholstered armchair by the fireplace, above which hung an early Gainsborough portrait showing the petite, doll-like beauty she'd been fifty years ago- the doll-like beauty who had many suitors but had the misfortune of loving the one man who was too proud to marry her. Keiko had heard stories about Miss Genkai and the younger Mr Toguro and a "natural" child, but no one dared to repeat them in Miss Genkai's presence.

Though Miss Genkai's bloom had long since faded, the delicate symmetry of her features was still visible under the jowls and wrinkles of old age and her eyes still blazed with the fire of a woman of twenty.
"Please, have a seat," said Miss Genkai as Keiko approached. She gestured to a Chippendale chair with a sunny yellow cushion. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll ring Takanaka for tea."
"Oh no, Ma'am." Keiko placed Candide on a table. She could still make a polite exit and have this bloody conversation another time. "I just came to return this." And she should be getting back home to Mamma.
Miss Genkai laughed. "If all you'd wanted was to return a book, you wouldn't have come all this way."
Keiko bunched up the fabric of her apron in her fist. Of course, Miss Genkai knew. Her face must be an open book. She settled herself atop the sunny yellow cushion.
"Perhaps I should ring for brandy instead? This seems like a conversation that needs something stronger than tea." 
"Brandy would be nice." Keiko smoothed her skirts. Best to get this over with.
Takanaka brought in two crystal glasses, as delicate as snowflakes, and a bottle of the finest Armagnac, probably smuggled over from the Continent by free traders out of nearby Exmouth. Keiko savored the brandy's sweet taste, like liquid courage.
"Mr. Kuwabara visited my aunt and uncle today," she said. "He said that you told him Yusuke will be at the Exeter Assembly next week."
The Exeter Assembly was the monthly ball held at Phillip's Hotel in the city of Exeter, eleven miles from Seacombe. Keiko and her mother planned to attend next week. So were Miss Genkai, Uncle Tatsu, Aunt Hina, Yukina, Hiei, and Mr. Kuwabara. And now Yusuke, apparently.
Miss Genkai sipped her brandy. "You were going to have to face him eventually," she said. "And I doubt he's going just to squire around an old lady like me."

Keiko fiddled with her engagement ring, set with a diamond and ruby, forming the shape of a heart. "You think he wants to see me?" She ought to spit in Yusuke's face at the Assembly or at least give him the "cut direct" but she wouldn't. It wasn't in her nature to be cruel, but whether this was out of goodness or cowardice, she didn't know. "If Yusuke cared about seeing me, he would have done so already."
Yusuke had been in England for several months and there hadn't been so much as a letter from him. Granted, Keiko hadn't sent any to him either. She stopped writing to him after he left the last time. Under the best circumstances, Yusuke was a poor correspondent, so why waste the ink and paper?
Miss Genkai opened a small, enameled box and took a pinch of snuff. "Nonetheless, dear, the two of you will be in the same room again."
"Does he know about Mr Sensui?" Keiko certainly hadn't told Yusuke. Let him be the last to know, just like she'd been the last to know he was back in England.
"I haven't told him yet." Miss Genkai let out a sigh. "I keep hoping someone else will."
Keiko laughed. "Do you think he'll make a scene when he finds out?" Since when was she ever important enough for Yusuke to make a scene about her? She wasn't even important enough for him to write her a quick note to let her know he was still alive.
"The poor boy isn't going to take it well." Miss Genkai guiltily lowered her eyes and poured herself another glass of brandy.

A/N    History Nerd Corner

£10,000 is worth 1.8 million dollars in today's money (get that bag Keiko) and famously the reputed annual income of one Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.

"Blue-Stocking" is a term for a woman with intellectual aspirations, stereotyped as obnoxious and pretentious know-it-alls (think Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice or Eloise Bridgerton from Bridgerton). Keiko, with her focus on studying, could be considered a blue-stocking. Yusuke knowing that Keiko wears blue stockings is a reference to his canonical habit of flipping her skirt (extra scandalous since women didn't wear any kind of underpants at this time). 

"Candide or Optimism" is a 1759 satirical novel by the French enlightenment philosopher, Voltaire. A wildly improbable and outrageous series of events involving a young German nobleman, Candide, his childhood sweetheart, Cunegonde, their tutor, Professor Pangloss, and the colorful characters they meet along the way which take them across the globe from Paris to El Dorado. These events include gruesome deaths and miraculous resurrections, encounters with famous historical figures, and butt cheeks eaten by cannibals.

Free-trade was a euphemism for smuggling, a common means of bringing in extra income for coastal communities, especially during the last decades of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century , when England was at war with France. Local authorities were happy to look the other way because they could get luxury goods, like French wine, for cheap.

The "cut-direct" is a public snub, considered one of the worst things you could do to someone in genteel, regency society.