Sir Frederick's Tradition

Wearing her wedding pearls and the necklace Frederick had given her for Christmas, Henrietta felt sufficiently elegant, even though she had worn the same dress to Hartfestol before.














"Are you coming, my dear? I'm sure you look wonderful..."
"Yes, of course, I only had to put on my earings..."














Henrietta put down her mirror and left her new bedroom. She was really quite fond of her new house. Ever since she had been old enough to know she would get married one day she had dreamed of putting together a house, of having one of her own, but somehow she had not realized how nice it would really be until Frederick had showed her the front hall and asked her what she thought.















Now he was standing in that same hall, and the carriage--their own carriage! was waiting to take them to Hartfestol for a New Year's Eve dinner. Henrietta suddenly felt even older and grander than her 18 years.
But the dinner conversation made her feel remarkably stupid again.














Her husband and the Earl seemed to have arsenal of old stories and jokes to go through, and though they often smiled brightly at her with the punchlines, she felt rather left out. It wasn't very considerate of Frederick to be doing this, she thought.
"My Lord, I think you should tell Henrietta who Mrs. Wilcox is,"Frederick said at last. Finnally he had noticed her imploring looks, if not her foot under the table.














"Oh, Mrs. Wilcox is the woman who used to live in your house. When I told her a new couple was moving in, she--(he gave Frederick a quick glance here)--all she wanted to know was whether you would be spending your wedding night there."
Henrietta was a bit taken aback by this.














Frederick just sent her a look that said "I'm sorry-but isn't it funny?"
Henrietta was suddenly sorry to be the only woman of the party. When Drake came in with the after-dinners, she withdrew to the parlour by herself.

Later, when they were in the coach, Henrietta was rather quiet. She wondered how long it would take Frederick to notice-she dared him to notice.
But Frederick always caught on eventually, and so just as they left the grounds of Hartfestol, Frederick asked her-gently-if anything was wrong.














"Oh, no! I'm quite fine."
"What's bothering you, Henrietta?"
"Nothing! I'm sure you and his lordship had a good time, so that's all that matters."














Frederick sighed gently. "You matter, Henrietta. I'm sorry about the Earl. He isn't used to having women around-he hasn't had anyone visit him since his wife's funeral, and that was 10 months ago."
"No one visit him? Why not?" And he is so outgoing around us! she thought.














"I don't really know. I-I suppose this is obvious, but he's in mourning, and I think moreover that her death was quite a blow, more even than most wive's deaths are."
"Then surely he ought to treat women better, in her honor," said Henrietta.
"Oh Henrietta," her husband said and drew her to him. "I don't think it works that way."














After a few moment of silence, Frederick brought out his pocketwatch. "It's a new year," he said. "Eighteen hundred A.D." After a moment he grinned devilishly and looked at her. "You and I seem to have forgotten a tradition."
"What tradition?" asked Henrietta.