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Aimee found Ursula sat in the front room, staring distractedly into the fire.

“The wedding chests have arrived,” she told her sister excitedly. “Shall we go down and view them? Father said you are to have the first pick as you are the elder.”

Her sister rose to her feet with a slight frown. “I am sure they will all be lovely,” she murmured and together they proceeded down to the entrance hall where they found the chests had been placed to one side. Aimee drew back the cloth which had been thrown over them and gasped at the grandeur of the lavishly decorated trunks.

“Oh, they are beautiful!” she gasped, kneeling down to examine the intricately painted scenes that decorated the sides. “These two depict a bridal procession,” she exclaimed, tracing the glossy figures with a careful finger. “See, here are musicians and guests in all their finery. Look, Ursa! The finest artist must have worked on these scenes.” When she glanced up, she saw a frown on Ursula’s face. “What is it, sister? You do not care for them?”

“No, no,” her sister said quickly. “It is not that. Only …” She bit her lip.

“Only, what?” Aimee looked at her mystified. She straightened up when Ursula did not speak and moved to the second pair. “If these ones are not to your liking, then perhaps these two will be more to your taste.”

She drew the cloth away, revealing another pair of matching trunks, this time decorated with fruit trees, birds, and beasts all bathed in gold leaf. “Oh, these are beautiful too!” Aimee could not help but burst out. She could hardly decide which pair she thought the more lovely. When Ursula continued silent, Aimee felt a rush of impatience. “What is it?” she asked. “Why do you stand there so still and sulky?”

Ursula started at this. “I am not!” she protested, and indeed, Aimee knew deep down her claim was unjust. “I never sulk!”

“Tell me, then, why you stand there as dull and stiff as a stock at the sight of our father’s fine gift.”

Ursula fidgeted, staring down at her hands. “’Tis only that … Well, they do not much resemble the wedding chests that Lady Wycliffe showed us at Wycliffe Hall,” she mumbled.

Aimee cast her mind back. In truth, she could scarcely remember the gloomy furnishings at Wycliffe Hall. “They do not?” she asked uncertainly. Ursula shook her head. “How do they not?”

“Those were not painted and gilded,” said Ursula in a small voice. “But only carved about with borders of fruits.”

Aimee gazed first at her sister and then at the dazzling chests. “What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything!” Ursula responded quickly. “I am sure these chests are perfectly adequate.”

“Adequate,” Aimee repeated in dazed accents. “Ursula, these chests are exquisite and must have cost Father by far in excess of what a pair of plain carved chests would have cost him.”

“I know that, Aimee,” her sister answered impatiently. “You do not understand!”

“No,” Aimee answered, raising her chin. “I do not.” Seeing the martial gleam in her younger sister’s eyes, Ursula reached across and captured her hand.

“It was nothing, naught but a piece of foolishness. Do not let us quarrel, sister dear,” Ursula urged. “For I have just had a very good idea.”

“Oh? What is that?” Aimee asked, still feeling ruffled by her sister’s attitude.

“We will not each have a matched pair but split them, so we both have one of each.”

Aimee brightened at that notion. “That is a very good idea,” she approved, gazing back down at the golden trunks.

The next couple of weeks passed quickly with tradesmen coming to the house every day to display their wares. She and Ursula selected fine linens, wall hangings, and every household item they could think of for the new townhouses their father had promised would be theirs on the occasion of their marriages.

“I do not think all of these items can possibly fit in our trunks,” Ursula observed in consternation as they looked about at the growing piles.

Aimee agreed. “Can we not ask Father if the furnishings and linens could not be installed in our new houses ahead of time, so they are ready for us?”

“You know Father does not wish us to see them ahead of time,” her sister reminded her. “He wants the houses to be a surprise.”

“Yes, but they still will be,” Aimee pointed out. “If others hang the tapestries and place the furnishings in the rooms for us.” When Ursula hesitated, Aimee sprang to her feet. “Let me talk to Father,” she said decisively.

For once, though, Gerold could not be persuaded by his youngest daughter, for he was convinced the dowry should be paraded through the streets in a procession accompanied by musicians and the bridal party.

“But, Father …” Aimee protested. “I do not think our friends and neighbors will enjoy carting so many wares before them, especially after they have sat down to such a lavish meal!” She tried and failed to imagine her father’s business friends hobbling through the streets carrying chairs and tables over their heads.

Her father waved this away. “Nonsense, Aimee! I have employed many attendants along with the musicians and entertainers. When you and your sister leave my house, it will be to the accompaniment of great celebration and pomp. No one shall think I have not acted handsomely by you both.”

Aimee regarded her father with sudden misgiving. “I thought you were inviting only fifty of your closest friends and acquaintances to the wedding banquet,” she reminded him.