Amelia was looking out of the window. She was supposed to give lessons to William to prepare him for his boarding school but he was never a good student and she was never a good teacher. Instead, she was blowing cold air and drawing flowers, not paying attention to William or Nelly who were arguing over the map. She wanted to be running outside, maybe to sit on the hill looking out for the coach. In her head, she was imagining how her sister would look now. She spent a season with Mr and Mrs Spencer in London followed by accompanying them on their travels to the continent. After the fiasco of her London season, Mr and Mrs Edwards didn’t mind not to see their eldest daughter for almost a year. After all, there were not many right men to meet in the country and being in the service of Mr and Mrs Spencer gave her better chance to meet some.

She would look different, Amelia thought. The world would have changed her, she was sure of it.

Finally, she could see the coach. She was so excited she just wanted to spin around the room. Then she composed herself, realising she was the eldest, she was the one who was supposed to be leading by example. At least until Jane was back.

“The coach is here,” she interrupted her siblings’ game or whatever they were doing instead of their study. They all smiled. All three of them missed Jane dearly. She stopped them before they would all get scolded for bad manners and let them downstairs. She called Mrs Leary to fetch her parents - after all, she was not sure they would welcome if she interrupted their morning.

And so the whole family was standing in front of the house when the coach arrived.

“That’s not the London coach,” William whispered but Amelia just shushed him. Of course, it wasn’t the London coach, the coach stopped in the village, not in front of their house. It was not far and they were used to walk it but Jane would have to hire another to fetch her from the village unless she wanted to carry her bags.

And so the coach stopped and the valet opened the door. A young servant girl jumped off the coach as well, starting to take down the luggage. It was far too much luggage for Jane. But then, it was not Jane who descended from the coach. It was Mr Spencer, followed by Mrs Spencer and then Jane. Suddenly the whole family gathering made sense to Amelia.

“Clarence, welcome,” Mrs Edwards hugged eagerly her younger sister that it created an illusion that she really cared and the sisters were close.

“James, it’s so good to see you, welcome to my humble house,” Mr Edwards welcomed his brother-in-law.

“Humble indeed,” James Spencer nodded in acknowledgement, just humbly reminding his brother-in-law that indeed he was the head of the family now. Not because he would be of a noble birth, or because he married better, but because he had money. Speculations and a plantation in the Indies turned to be a better entry ticket to London society than a title of a country squire and a run-down estate.

“Ginny, take the luggage into the guest rooms and show the servants where they will stay,” Mrs Edwards made sure that Mr and Mrs Spencer knew she was still the lady of the manor. It was her who married the title and thus, she was of a better society. Even if the society was part of the country and they knew they would have struggled to launch any of their daughters, let alone three of them, into London society.

“Mrs Leary, we will take tea in the morning room. You must be tired indeed.”

And so the family left to take their guest to the morning room, that was also afternoon room and doubled up with the reading room, and Amelia was finally left alone with her elder sister.

“Jane,” Amelia hugged her sister. Then she looked closely at her trying to see how her sister changed in the past year. But Jane just looked the very same.

“I am so happy to be back, you can’t imagine,” Jane greeted her and dragged her sister inside of the house.

“You have to tell me everything. What’s like to be in London? What’s Florence like?” Amelia couldn’t contain her excitement. After all, Jane spent the whole season in London and according to the letters Mrs Spencer had been regularly sending to her sister, she attended all of the fabulous balls and a few more private ones.

Before she managed to drag her sister upstairs to get every little bit of a detail out of her, Mrs Edwards stopped them. She appeared almost like a ghost at the bottom of the staircase before the girls made it upstairs.

“Girls, it’s impolite to just leave, we have guests,” as if Jane didn’t count as a guest anymore once she entered the house.

“Amelia, be nice to your aunt and uncle, after all, it is your turn now and hopefully, you will be a bigger success than your sister,” she added to Amelia, saying it quietly enough so Amelia would know that the words are meant for her but still loudly enough for Jane to hear them.