Free A Yuletide Treasure by Cynthia Bailey Pratt Page B

death,” Camilla said with compassion. “He must have been a most gallant officer.”
    “He was,” Tinarose said, gazing off into the distant view afforded by the upper-landing window. “Two of his crew nearly drowned trying to save him.” Then the girl turned her head and gave Camilla a slight, sweet smile. “Come on. I’ll show you where the drawing room is. We always meet there first.”
    As they went down together, Camilla became aware of a kind of suppressed excitement simmering in the girl beside her. Her cheeks held a tinge of color, and her eyes were bright. She’d also obviously taken some extra pains with her abundant dark hair, creating several large springing curls at either side of her head. It was becoming to her but far too elaborate for a quiet family party. Camilla wished she knew Tinarose a little better so that she might have dropped a gentle hint.
    “I am intrigued, Miss LaCorte, by your name. Tinarose. Does it have some significance?”
    “I was named for both my grandmothers,” she said with a smile that indicated she’d often been asked. “My father was afraid that one name or the other would drop away, so he linked them into one so that neither would have preference.”
    “A very fair decision.”
    “What about you?”
    “Oh, I was named for some Roman heroine. Or perhaps she wasn’t Roman. All I recall is that she ran so lightly that she could run over a field of growing crops without bending a stalk. Sir Philip would probably know more.”
    “Does your mother admire that kind of person?”
    “Doesn’t everyone?” Camilla saw the girl having trouble answering this rhetorical question. “Now, my sister has a charming name. Linnet. Named for the birds that sang during my parents’ honeymoon.”
    “How romantic,” Tinarose said, turning toward her. “Is your sister older or younger?”
    “Older, by two years.”
    “Oh.”
    She sounded so disappointed that Camilla laughed. “Why, did you want her to be younger?”
    “No, it’s only... Well, I have two sisters, both younger than I. They’re the bane of my life, they tease me so. I thought if you were in the same case, you could offer me some advice.”
    “You’re fond of them?”
    “They can be such dears,” Tinarose conceded. “But I’m sixteen and Nelly is ten and Grace is only six. They don’t understand what it is to be a woman.”
    Camilla, hardly twenty-one herself, did not smile at the mingled pride and resignation in Tinarose’s voice. She had not yet entirely outgrown the feeling that no one could understand her. “It’s difficult,” she said. “I remember my sister at your age. I thought she was impossible. She’d been a darling before that; we shared so much since there was only the two of us. It’s hard to watch a beloved sister go through the door to womanhood, leaving you behind.”
    “Are you close again now?”
    Camilla shook her head. “Not yet. But I hope to be again, once I catch up to her. She’s married now. I’m only here because my mother has gone to be with her through her first confinement.”
    Tinarose’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, how you must miss being with her!”
    ‘Yes, yes, I do. But my mother thought it wisest for me not to go just now.” Camilla realized that they’d been standing together for some few minutes outside a pair of closed double doors. “Is this the drawing room?” she asked.
    Tinarose repressed a giggle. “Yes, it is. Oh, do I... Is my hair all right?”
    “Charming,” Camilla said. “I meant to compliment you upon it.” There was no point in lessening the girl’s confidence by saying anything less than positive about the confection now. “And what a lovely cameo.”
    Tinarose touched the carved red and white piece at her throat. The profile was that of a young man, his hair dressed in the Roman fashion now aped by au courant gentlemen, his cheeks chiseled and firm chin held high. “My father brought us each one,” she said, “I think he bought