Withering-by-Sea and Wormwood Mire by Judith Rossell

Title: Withering-by-Sea and Wormwood Mire
Author and Illustrator: Judith Rossell
Publication: Atheneum, hardcovers, 2016 and 2017
Genre: Middle grade historical fantasy

Plot: In Withering-by-Sea, we meet Stella Montgomery, an eleven-year-old orphan being brought up by three disagreeable aunts and their spiteful maid Ada in the Hotel Majestic, somewhere in Victorian England. Stella longs for adventure but the closest she has come is reading about the Amazon in the Atlas she cherishes. When a desperate visitor to the hotel gives her something to hide, Stella is plunged into danger, forcing her to flee from a magician who wants to harm her. In the process, Stella makes friends (courageous Gert, part of a dancing act, and Ben, the unwilling assistant to Professor Starke) and starts seeking the truth about her own background.

The Travelers by Chris Pavone

Title: The Travelers
Author: Chris Pavone
Publication: Broadway Books, trade paperback, 2017 (2016).
Genre: Suspense
TBR Challenge: This is the second book I have read from my 2019 TBR Pile Challenge, sponsored by Roof Beam Reader. I need to accelerate or I won’t make my goal!

Plot: Will Rhodes is a travel writer for The Travelers, a magazine that sends him all over the world for stories about ex-patriates living in exotic locations. However, like most people in publishing, he and his wife, Chloe, are underpaid and trying to get by. They live in Brooklyn, where they have been trying to fix up a brownstone. After Will is tempted into a one night stand with a beautiful stranger, everything starts to go wrong for him. His secrets come between him and his wife, and between him and his boss. Suddenly, the exotic locations he used to enjoy turn into dangerous places where he doesn’t know if he is the hunter or the hunted. Can Will extract himself from what seems to be an international conspiracy before it destroys him?

Brooklyn brownstones

My Impressions: This is the third book I have read by Chris Pavone, and falls between the other two in appeal. The Accident, which I read in 2014, was about a mysterious manuscript that could provide fame and fortune – or possibly death – to those seeking to publish it, but I found the characters so unlikeable it was the publishing background that primarily motivated me to finish. The Expats is about Kate Moore, living in Luxembourg as an expat wife who is hiding a secret about her past. She also appears briefly in The Accident. I found her a convincing and entertaining character. Here, the pace is slow and it took me a long time to care much about Will Rhodes, who seemed to me to have asked for all the trouble that comes his way. Fortunately, the book accelerates once Will starts being chased around the world and the second half of the book takes place at quite impressive speed. It wound up being suspenseful and a good summer read.

Off the Blog: I baked delicious banana cake for my mother's birthday!  I wish you could come share the leftovers.

Source: Personal copy

Frederica by Georgette Heyer, Chapters 14 - 17

In which Alverstoke makes a move that unnerves Frederica, Jessamy comes to grief in a Pedestrian Curricle, Harry is rusticated, Lady Elizabeth comes to town, and a balloon ascension is planned

Chapter 14

Alverstoke surprises everyone by turning up for what Betsy Ray’s family would call Sunday Night Lunch. He dresses down in morning dress and manages to be the most elegant man in the room without no effort. Felix is delighted to see him and thanks Alverstoke for arranging the trip to the New Mint with Mr. Trevor (although it is doubtless Charles who did the legwork). Darcy Moreton is struck first by Alverstoke’s friendly response to Felix’s greeting and then by Alverstoke’s “warmer and more intimate” smile for Frederica.

Good God! mentally ejaculated Mr. Moreton. Sits the wind in that quarter? 

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen

Title: The Rest of the Story
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publication: HarperCollins, hardcover, 2019
Genre: Young Adult

Plot: When Emma Payne’s father remarries, she unexpectedly needs a place to go while he is on his honeymoon. The surprising suggestion is that Emma visit her mother’s mother in working class North Lake, two hours away. Emma’s mother was an addict who overdosed years ago, and Emma has had no contact with her mother’s family since she was 4, although she remembers stories her mother told her as a child. When she arrives, she meets cousins she didn’t know existed and learns her grandmother runs a motel. She also learns that her Calvander family know her as Saylor, which is her middle name. Determined to pull her weight, Emma Saylor is soon changing bedding and scrubbing toilets with her cousins and Roo, the cute son of her mother’s best friend. Cleaning allows time for contemplation about her mother’s sad end; why doesn’t Emma remember more about her childhood visit; the contrast between North Lake and the affluent resort side of town, known as Lake North, which is where Emma’s mother first met her father. Although it takes strategy, Emma finds she fits in on both sides of the lake and, ultimately, has to make a choice regarding where she actually belongs.

Frederica by Georgette Heyer - Chapters 11-13

In which the Merrivilles please the ton, and Alverstoke’s friendship with Frederica deepens

Chapter 11

Charis is a huge success at the ball.   She is asked for every dance and, properly, won’t stand up with anyone more than twice.  However, Endymion who was immediately smitten, asks for two dances and escorts her to supper.   He is slightly outmaneuvered by a fellow officer, Lord Wrenthorpe, who is escorting Chloe and wants to make a party of four.   Endymion loses his tête-à-tête with Charis and has to dash to find Frederica who is with Lady Jevington’s son Gregory, another “cousin”.  We also learn that Mrs. Dauntry introduced Charis to Lord Wrenthorpe – she has already noticed her son’s infatuation, disapproves, and is trying to distract Charis.

Although the ball is magnificent and everyone who is anyone is there, Lady Buxted is infuriated that Alverstoke did it to launch the Merrivilles and that rival hostesses are urging her to bring them to their festivities.  Lady Jersey promises vouchers for Almack’s for the Merrivilles and oh-so-sweetly includes Jane as well.   Just as we saw Lady Jersey in the previous chapter complain about Louisa and Augusta snubbing her when she was their younger sister’s friend, Louisa remembers it differently:

When Lady Buxted remembered impertinent little Sally Fane, a wretched schoolroom-miss to whom she had administered a number of well deserved set-downs, the delicacies her brother’s French cook had prepared for the refreshment of his guests tasted like ashes in her mouth.

Alverstoke does not dance with his wards but does ask Frederica if she is satisfied.  She tells him she is delighted by Charis’ success, and he is amused that she spares no thought for herself.  Although Frederica assumes anyone being nice to her is hoping to get close to Charis, she does not realize two of the guests prefer her – Lord Buxted and Darcy Moreton, Alverstoke’s oldest friend.   In fact, Mr. Moreton quizzes Alverstoke on his real motives for taking the Merrivilles under his wing and says “[t]he elder sister’s the filly for my money.”   Alverstoke admits he did it to annoy Louisa.

After the ball, many of their new friends call on the Merrivilles at Upper Wimpole Street: Lord Buxted, Endymion, and even Lady Jersey makes a courtesy call, which she almost regrets.  Luckily, she decides to be charmed by Miss Winsham’s eccentricity, and her approval helps establish the Merrivilles in society.   Miss Winsham is made much of when she escorts the young ladies to Almack’s but she does not appreciate the attention, and afterwards is happy to delegate their chaperonage to Lady Buxted or Mrs. Dauntry.  Neither of those ladies is thrilled with the Merrivilles but can’t show it because each needs Alverstoke to pay her bills.   Lady Buxted is jealous of their popularity but doesn’t think her son could be seriously interested in Frederica, while Mrs. Dauntry is worried about Endymion’s infatuation with Charis, which includes escorting Chloe to spend time with her new friend.   Lady Buxted spitefully tells everyone that the Merrivilles have no fortune, hoping to spoil their chances, while Mrs. Dauntry, craftier, tries to introduce Charis to any possible prospect that isn’t her son.  She is so preoccupied with Charis that she does not notice Chloe and Charles Trevor becoming close.   The ton ignores Lady Buxted and observes Mrs. Dauntry’s hints about the family estates in Herefordshire, so there is a growing sense that the Merrivilles are better dowered than they are.

Chapter 12

Frederica begins to hear rumors about her and Charis’ alleged fortunes, and she is concerned about the misrepresentation and worried Alverstoke is responsible. She asks him – after he has taken Jessamy for a ride with the grays and complimented the boy on his skill – and he denies it but is amused, especially when he hears Mrs. Dauntry has been introducing Charis to some questionable prospects. 

Meeting her enquiring look, he said, “Who would have thought that your adoption of me would have provided me with so much entertainment?” 

“You did!” responded Frederica unhesitatingly.  “I didn’t know it at the outset, but I am very sure now that you adopted us merely to infuriate Lady Buxted!” 

“And can you blame me?” 

An involuntary chuckle escaped her.  “Well, perhaps not as much as I ought! But you did think it might amuse you!” 

“True – and so it did!”  

Alverstoke and Frederica confer about some of Charis’ would-be beaux and Alverstoke says he will take them driving in the park to send a quelling message to inappropriate suitors.  Frederica says he doesn’t need to include her but she is grateful for the attention to Charis:

She tried, unsuccessfully, to repress a mischievous chuckle, and added, with disarming candour, “You can’t think how much against the pluck it goes with me to administer to your vanity, cousin, but I haven’t spent all these weeks in London without realizing that your consequence is enormous!” 

“Viper!” said his lordship appreciatively. “I will endure the company of your beautiful but bird-witted sister, but on the condition that the tedium of these sessions will be relieved occasionally by your astringent quality."

Alverstoke reveals he has heard the rumors about Endymion’s passion for Charis, and Frederica reveals that Lord Buxted prefers her.   Alverstoke says this improves his opinion of Buxted.   Felix bursts in on their conversation to beg Alverstoke to take him to the New Mint.   Alverstoke says Charles Trevor deserve this treat and it is revealed that Mr. Trevor has been coming to the Merrivilles’ informal Sunday night suppers.  Puzzled, Alverstoke asks Frederica if Charles is pursuing Charis too; she says no and is too discreet to reveal the truth, but Alverstoke guesses that Charles is interested in Chloe Dauntry.

Chapter 13

Alverstoke demonstrates his active support of the Merrivilles by taking Charis driving in Hyde Park where they can be seen by the ton.   Unfortunately, although Charis has lovely manners and impresses him by her lack of coquetry to the admirers they encounter, she is not a great conversationalist and he is bored.   He politely asks her to drive out again and she surprises him by asking if he would take the whole family to visit my favorite place in England, Hampton Court!  Everyone enjoys this expedition, especially the boys and Charis who get lost in the maze, while Alverstoke (who somehow in pre-internet 19^th century acquires the key to the maze) guides himself and her out of it.  She teases him about not taking his own nephews and nieces on such excursions and he says that would have bored him. 

“But why didn’t you send [Charles Trevor] to escort us today?” she asked, in an innocent tone at variance with the mischief in her eyes.  “You cannot have supposed that such an expedition as this wouldn’t bore you quite as much as the Mint!” 

He glanced down at her, half smiling, but with an oddly arrested expression in his face.  

She was puzzled by it, but after a minute, she said quizzically: “Are you wondering if you can bamboozle me into believing you won’t entrust your team to Mr. Trevor?” 

“No,” he replied slowly, “though it would be true! I was thinking how well that bonnet becomes you.”

They continue to joke until he asks her gently if she thinks Charis really wants the future Frederica seeks for her.   This distresses Frederica.  She explains that she doesn’t want a brilliant match for Charis, just an eligible husband who can provide the “elegancies of life.”   Alverstoke points out that Charis prefers the country to town which surprises and worries her sister.  She says she only wants Charis to be happy but the girl is so persuadable and falls in love so often she did not want Charis to throw herself away on someone in the country without ever having seen a wider range of suitors.  Frederica admits she doesn’t always understand her sister because she has never fallen in love herself, which astounds Alverstoke.  She tells him she is four-and-twenty and happy to be on the shelf, taking care of the family.   She says his reputation doesn’t reflect his kindness to her family, and asks what he thinks about an older gentleman in his 40s for Charis but Alverstoke says the man sounds too dull and wonders why she is so well disposed towards him.

“I was beginning to think you had a tendre for this paragon yourself, and that would never do: you wouldn’t suit, believe me.” 

“Readily!” she said, laughing.  “So perhaps I won’t, after all, try to cut Charis out! As if I could!” 

“I can think of more unlikely contingencies,” he said. 

"Can you indeed? Then either you must be all about in your head, or a bigger humbug than I am!” she said roundly.

Questions:

Is this conversation between Alverstoke and Frederica what is sometimes called a recognition scene – on his part, at least?   Certainly, Alverstoke enjoys Frederica’s easy conversation and lack of awe around him (no one else teases him).   I don’t think he is in love with her yet but he does recognize something special about her.

These chapters are also important because they show the way the ton embraces the Merrivilles (whatever their finances) but Alverstoke realizes before Frederica that Charis enjoys parties but doesn’t really like being the center of attention.   Charis tells him the country is nicer because people don’t stare.   For those down on Frederica, let me point out that she is distressed at his suggestion the season for Charis was not what her sister wanted.   She just wants Charis not to have to pinch and scrape if she marries someone of modest means and  hitherto, it is implied, Charis fell in and out of love readily.

Should Frederica have been spurred to have a serious talk with Charis after she has this conversation with Alverstoke?

Frederica - Chapters 9 and 10

In which Frederica and Charis prepare for the ball, then attend a pre-ball dinner party at Alverstoke House with many new “relatives”

This cover is dreadful

Chapter 9

While the Marquis is enjoying the races at Newmarket, the Merriville ladies are preparing for the ball while Felix gets into trouble by taking a steamboat to Margate without permission (where he makes friends with the crew and spends the night aboard before being returned to Frederica the next day). Afterwards, Frederica asks Jessamy to keep an eye on him so for a while they spend time exploring London and having a great time. When Jessamy wonders if he has been leading Felix into bad ways, Frederica calms him down and also asks him not to encourage their neighbor, Mr. Nutley, in his infatuation with Charis.

“. . . it would not do to become intimate with that family , or with their friends. To be plain with you, Jessamy, they may be good, worthy people, but they aren’t up to the rig! Mrs. Nutley’s patronage cannot give us consequence – in fact, it would be excessively harmful! Her manners, you not, are not distinguished, and, from what Buddle tells me, Mr. Nutley is a very ungenteel person.” 

“Buddle!” he ejaculated. 

She smiled, “My dear, if Budddle holds up his nose you may depend upon it he is right! Papa once told me that a good butler may be trusted to smell out a commoner in the twinkling of a bedpost! Young Mr. Nutley, I own, has more polish than his parents, but he’s an April-squire, Jessamy!”

Frederica - Chapters 7 and 8

In which Frederica meets Alverstoke's sister, Lady Buxted, and the Marquis becomes better acquainted with the two youngest Merrivilles, Jessamy and Felix.

Chapter 7

As the inestimable Charles Trevor deals with the aftermath of Lufra’s Green Park adventure, Frederica is suppressing laughter at the way Alverstoke dealt so masterfully with the situation, and also, somewhat ruefully, at herself for invoking his name like the Marquis of Carabas in Puss in Boots.*    Alverstoke is amused too but gets serious faster than she does and scolds her for walking alone.

“Whatever may be the accepted mode in Herefordshire, in London it won’t do.  Girls of your age and breeding don’t go about town unaccompanied.”

Frederica - Chapters 5 and 6

In which Alverstoke tells his sister he will give a ball after all - but with conditions - and Frederica has an unexpected adventure in Green Park.

Chapter 5

Charles Trevor is astonished to learn that Alverstoke is interested in visiting a foundry.  He gets excited at the thought that Alverstoke wants to speak on the topic to the House of Lords (his ambition is politics) but it is a false hope – Alverstoke reveals that he needs the information on foundries (or pneumatic lifts!) for his young cousin Felix, and mentions that Charles was right about Charis’ beauty.  Charles is torn between bemusement at the sudden interest in mechanics and slight worry for Charis’ possible susceptibility:

It did not occur to him that his lordship had yielded to the blandishments of a persistent urchin; and if such a notion had crossed his mind he would have dismissed it as an absurdity.

Next, Alverstoke visits his sister Louisa, and delights her by saying he will give a ball, albeit “with conditions” and that it will take place in three weeks.

“April!  But you cannot have considered!  May is the month for the really tonnish parties!” 

“No, is it really?” he mocked.  “And does it occur to you that May is already overcrowded with balls, routs, and assemblies of every description?” 

“There is that, of course,” she agreed, frowning over it. “But in only three weeks the season will barely have begun!” 

“It will begin, then, at Alverstoke House,” he replied coolly. “And if you imagine, Louisa, that we shall find ourselves thin of company, let me reassure you!”

Lady Buxted is infuriated by his complacency but knows he is right.  However, she is not expecting his Big Reveal, which is that the ball will not be for Jane alone.  Alverstoke explains that Chloe Dauntry will also make her come out at the ball, and tells Louisa that their deceased and distant cousin Fred Merriville left his five children to Alverstoke’s protection.  Stunned, Lady Buxted asks why, and he uses the excuse Frederica provided:

“Well,” said his lordship, succumbing to the promptings of his particular devil, “he thought I was the best of my family.”

Alverstoke makes it clear he will help subsidize the expense of Jane’s entry to the ton if Lady Buxted cooperates by introducing the Merriville young ladies at the ball and securing them vouchers for Almack’s, and when she starts to refuse he implies he will ask Cousin Lucretia to act as hostess for the ball instead, causing Lady Buxted to give in reluctantly.   Two days later, Frederica has an unexpected adventure in Green Park when she takes the family dog, Lufra, for a walk.   Charis is home with a cold and Frederica, having ignored the need for a chaperone, finds herself in difficulty when Lufra charges a group of cows.

Chapter 6

Heyer observes that a lesser woman would have left the dog to his fate but Frederica is afraid the park attendants will impound Lufra or worse.   As the dog’s critics gain momentum, she says in desperation, “Take care!  This dog belongs to the Marquis of Alverstoke.  He is extremely valuable, and if anything were to happen to him his lordship would be very angry indeed!”  One of the park-keepers finds this unconvincing because he says Lufra is obviously a mongrel. In for a penny, out for a pound – Frederica follows her fib about the Marquess by stating that Lufra is pure-bred Barcelona Collie.   No one believes her but when she suggests they go to Alverstoke’s home to ask him, some of her tormentors are willing to bow out.  But the man in charge of the cows at Green Park (don’t ask why) and a hatchet-faced lady refuse to back down so the whole shebang of them head to Berkeley Square where there are no nightingales singing but a nervous footman admits them to Alverstoke House.   He doesn’t know what to make of Frederica or those accompanying her but is luckily rescued by his lordship’s butler Wicken, who knows about the Merrivilles by special servant osmosis (you know Charles hasn’t been gossiping).

Alverstoke, who dresses with elegance but is not a dandy, is tying his neckcloth by dropping his chin into the foot-wide muslin cloth, shows mild surprise when told of Frederica’s visit.  Wicken warns him about the dubious individuals who accompanied her, as well as a very large dog.

“Is there, by God!  I wonder what the deuce –” he broke off.  “Something tells me, Wicken, that danger awaits me in the book-room.” 

“Oh, no, my lord!” said Wicken reassuringly. “It is not, I fancy, a fierce animal.”

Lufra redeems his prior bad behavior by recognizing Alverstoke and bounding affectionately towards him (after a nervous second when the uninvited guests wonder if he’s about to attack).  Frederica quickly tells the Marquis that she will never offer to take his dog out again.  He catches the passed baton and asks for an explanation of what went down.  There is general chaos as everyone tries to explain but the hatchet-faced lady is the loudest and most determined not to be ahem-cowed.  The three men continue to whine about the dog not really being a Barcelona Collie but Alverstoke agrees, and explains that Frederica got it wrong – the dog is actually a Baluchistan Hound.  This saves the men’s pride so they are willing to be paid off by Mr. Trevor but the hatchet-faced lady is of sterner stuff.  Alverstoke won’t put up with her officiousness:

“. . . It appears to me that you have been indulging in a high piece of meddling. If I should be asked to give an account of this interview, I should feel myself bound to state that these men came, very properly, to inform me of my dog’s misdemeanor, and to request that he should be kept under restraint; but as they were accompanied, for whatever reason I know not, by an officious person, wanting in both manner and sense, who took it upon herself to usurp their authority, it was all too long before they were able to lay their complaint before me.”  He glanced towards the open door, where Wicken stood, his countenance graven, and his brain seething with conjecture. “Be so good as to show this lady out!” he said.  “And desire Mr. Trevor to come to me!”

Wicken is even more intimidating than the Marquis so the hatchet-faced lady leaves, raging and humiliated.  The park rangers and cowman slink out to receive largesse.  Frederica hides her laughter in her handkerchief.

This is one of my all-time favorite Heyer chapters, and in addition to providing light relief it serves several purposes: most importantly, it reveals Alverstoke’s sense of humor and ability to handle the unexpected with aplomb.  This impresses Frederica, who, you will recall, found him somewhat arrogant in their first meeting.  In addition, we learn that Alverstoke’s servants have been speculating about the Merrivilles so her unexpected arrival adds grist to the mill.  And, as we will see in the next chapter, this provides the perfect opportunity for Frederica to make the acquaintance of Lady Buxted solo!

• So, do you like Alverstoke better now?
• Do those who think Frederica too managing like seeing her at a loss?
• Is this one of Heyer’s best ensemble chapters?
• Should Frederica have dragged a housemaid along to chaperone?  It wouldn't have helped her deal with Lufra's behavior but would have sent a message as to her quality.
• Is Lady Buxted cruising for a bruising?   Does she deserve it for her spiteful and grasping behavior (and, wait, it gets worse)?
• Should a girl who looks terrible in pastels be allowed to wear pink at her come out? (and keep in mind (a) that it used to be easier to tell a young girl what to wear, and (b) her whole future might depend on the success of this event and, superficial though it may be, she will be judged on her looks and expectations)