Amanda Scott (13 page)

Finding both Marlie and Miss Floodlind awaiting her convenience, she soon rid herself of the riding habit, had a quick bath, glad that she had managed to wash her hair only two days previously, and dressed as quickly as possible in a becoming round gown of pale orange Indian muslin trimmed round the bottom with a wide, colorfully embroidered border. The dress was made with full sleeves to the elbow, tied with coquelicot ribbons. A matching ribbon banded the high waist, and both the front and back of the bodice plunged low. Even in the bedchamber with its cheerful fire and the windows curtained to block the draft, Diana was chilly, so when Miss Floodlind suggested a shawl, she agreed, deciding to wear one that Simon had brought her from Paris the previous month. It was made of the softest white wool, embroidered all over with gold thread, and Simon had assured her that the fashion of sporting such shawls was all the crack in Paris. She could not deny the wearing of it would keep her a deal warmer.

Since the dinner hour would be put back to at least eight o’clock, she would have time to change again later; therefore, she wore her hair simply, à l’Anglaise, and in less than an hour from the time she had entered her dressing room, she was ready to leave it, looking the fashionable young lady.

Trusting that Simon would not come in search of her but would go instead to lend his support to Lady Ophelia and the marquess, and that he would furthermore somehow contrive to prevent his aunt from sending someone to fetch her if guests began to arrive, Diana gathered her pretty shawl about her shoulders and went forth to attend to the small matter of the Lady Susanna.

L
ADY SUSANNA’S BEDCHAMBER WAS
three doors along the second-floor gallery from Diana’s dressing room, and Diana pushed open the door quietly without knocking, thinking the younger girl would very likely be laid down upon her bed in a darkened room recovering from her headache, and not wishing to disturb her overmuch. Instead, however, she discovered Susanna, curled up on a French seat in the deep window alcove, a book upon her lap, her curly dark head bent as she read. She looked up sharply when Diana chuckled.

“Good gracious, Diana, you frightened the liver and lights out of me!”

“My, what elegant phrases your governess has taught you,” Diana said teasingly.

Susanna blushed. “I had that one from the boots, actually,” she said. “He’s the most engaging creature. You must make his acquaintance.”

“Do you actually converse with the boots?” Diana inquired, her eyes dancing. “Even my mama would never have countenanced such familiarity with the servants as that.”

“Well, he’s the son of one of Papa’s tenants, so I knew him even before he began working here at the abbey,” Susanna told her. “He was such a funny, laughing little boy that I recognized him at once the first time I saw him on the gallery, returning some guest’s boots to his valet.”

“Not a particularly finicking guest, if he entrusted his boots to anyone but his valet,” Diana replied.

“No, indeed. Papa certainly would never do such a thing.”

“Nor Simon, generally, though I do think someone else must have polished them at Ethelmoor, since Pettyjohn was not with him.”

“Oh, well, Simon scarcely cares what he looks like, you know, but fancy Rory arriving here without his valet!”

They chuckled together over the vagaries of the opposite sex, and then Diana regarded her young sister-in-law rather sternly. “Why are you not dressed, my dear? Her ladyship said something about a headache, but that cannot be the case. You look to be in prime twig.”

Susanna blushed again. “I-I merely wished to keep out of her way, you know. Diana, I cannot feel that I am quite ready to appear in public yet. Not yet.”

“Pish tush, my dear, you are as ready as you will ever be, and you are merely suffering from a case of nerves. Trust me. My own mama practically had to drag me to my first affair, and I was in alt for weeks before with the excitement of anticipation. But when push came to shove, she had to shove. I was very glad of it afterward, I can tell you, and so will you be. You will not wish to miss the fun. This is no formal presentation as mine was, you know. You will merely conduct yourself as befits the daughter of the house, not putting yourself forward, you know, but merely observing and being polite when you are noticed at all. It will not be so difficult.”

Susanna regarded her doubtfully. “You must have forgotten that the Prince of Wales means to honor us,” she said. “Surely, I will be presented to him. Aunt said—”

“Never mind what Lady Ophelia said,” Diana put in quickly. “If his highness requests an introduction, you may be certain that her ladyship will present you, but he is not at all likely to do so, you know. If he stays above a day or two, he will be more interested in speaking with his particular friends than with a young girl recently come from the schoolroom. More than likely he will take no notice of you. If he were to be accompanied by the Princess of Wales, that would be altogether different, of course.”

Susanna giggled. “It certainly would!”

“Yes, well, never mind about that. You have no royalty to worry about today, for the prince will not arrive before Thursday at the earliest. Since many people choose not to travel on a Sunday, you know, we may expect only those persons today who do not entertain such scruples—my brother, Ethelmoor, and his family and possibly one or two others. The rest will begin arriving in force tomorrow. So you see, my dear, today will be little more than a family gathering. You will not wish to miss seeing little John or Amy, you know. Though I suppose,” she added with a smile, “that I had best stop calling him ‘little.’ He will not appreciate such words now that he is getting so advanced in years.”

Susanna laughed again. “Indeed, I should not like to miss seeing them. Is Amy talking yet?”

“Yes, and such a prattler. Only wait till you see her.”

After that it was a simple matter to persuade Susanna to ring for her maid, and Diana stayed to see her rigged out in the white muslin round gown that Lady Ophelia had decided would be proper for her to wear the first afternoon. She, too, had a shawl from Paris, a gift from her brother. Susanna’s was of palest pink with silver embroidery, and since she chose to wear pink ribbons threaded through her hair and pink satin slippers upon her feet, Diana decided the total effect was bound to impress any young man she might chance to meet. Lady Susanna was going to take London by storm if only she might learn to deal more competently with the well-meaning Lady Ophelia.

They went downstairs together and joined Simon and the marquess in the new hall, where they learned that no guests had yet arrived. Rory entered some moments later, dressed nattily in the French style in tan breeches, a well-cut coat of dark blue with highly polished steel buttons, a gaily embroidered scarlet brocade waistcoat, and lace frills at his collar and cuffs.

Simon shook his head. “Very pretty, twin. A new rig?”

“Not so new as all that, but ’tis all the crack. What do you think?”

“Fluffy.”

Rory laughed. “I should know better than to ask you, Simon. You’ve no more notion what a gentleman ought to wear than…well, than Diana’s Tredegar does. Just look at you. That coat of yours is too loose, your neckcloth is tied all by guess, and your waistcoat is mighty dull and drab. Don’t you agree, Papa?”

The marquess gave the question some thought, then pronounced that both his sons looked well enough. “Can’t understand the modern fashions at all, myself,” he said. “So little color, even in yours, Roderick. Why, in my day, a gentleman spent the larger part of his day perfecting his appearance. No detail was too small to go unnoticed.”

His sister, entering the room in time to hear his words, agreed with him heartily. “Indeed, Marimorse, one cannot tell what the modern world is coming to when a man appears before a woman not only with his head bare of powder but bare of hair as well. All this cropping. Even the ladies, though I am glad to see that Diana has not been so foolish as to chop her lovely curls off.”

“I told her I would beat her an she dared such a thing,” Simon murmured provocatively. But when Diana turned to glare at him, she found him regarding her with twinkling eyes. He made her a little bow, gesturing subtly toward Lady Susanna. “I make you my compliments, my dear,” he said. “Very nice, very nice, indeed.”

The gesture caused a small flip-flopping sensation in her breast, and Diana felt warmth rushing to her cheeks. She knew perfectly well that he referred to her victory in producing the Lady Susanna, but his tone and the twinkle seemed to be doing odd things to her insides, nonetheless.

“Yes, she does look charmingly,” agreed Lady Ophelia, misunderstanding Simon entirely, “and I’m sure Susanna looks well, too, but as for allowing her to cut her hair, I can tell you that I should never agree to such a thing. Nor would Marimorse be so lacking in his sense of duty to his daughter as to permit it. We do not feel it necessary to follow every foolish fashion here, I can tell you,” she added unnecessarily, as she smoothed her full, purple satin skirts and adjusted the net veil that covered her gray, rigorously ordered curls. “I like that rig of yours, Roderick,” she said then, raising her long-handled glasses to peer at him. “Shows a bit of imagination, and I like a touch of lace. So sad to see lace going out.”

“Not in France, it ain’t,” Lord Roderick assured her. “Wouldn’t wear ruffles for morning dress, of course, but you wait till you see the shirt I wear with my evening rig. Rows of ruffles. Assure you.”

“Oh, Rory, no,” Susanna said with one of her giggles. “Why, I was reading in the
Lady’s Monthly Museum
only last week that ruffles for men are quite out. Simon is dressed much more the way
they
said a gentleman should be dressed.”

“Poppycock,” said Lord Roderick. “Simon don’t know the first thing about it. Not that the idea ain’t right if he means to follow the English way of things, but no one would ever mistake him for a member of the well-dressed set. You only wait till Brummell gets a look at him. Now, there’s a fella knows how to dress.”

“But not in lace, twin, never in lace.”

“Well, no, but I daresay he couldn’t carry it off, anyway. Just look at him. Fella looks best as he is, and he’s got the body to carry off that stark, simple look. Wants to set a fashion, so he does it in a way that others can’t follow without a lot of padding and nipping-in. Look at poor Prinny, for example. With all his bulk, he’d much rather dress with a few ruffles—aye, even with long, full skirts to his coats—but will Brummell let him? Not a bit of it. ‘You call that thing a coat?’ he says, and poor Prinny well nigh weeps.”

“I cannot approve of such flippant talk about a member of the Royal Family,” said Lady Ophelia in measured tones. “It is not becoming, particularly with Susanna present.”

“True,” Rory agreed, twinkling at his sister. “Can’t be saying things about Prinny’s girth, not when he means to honor our humble house with his august presence.”

“Well, as to that, I cannot agree,” said his austere aunt. “It is his highness who should feel honored, for although the prince and his brothers had the good fortune to be born on English soil, I’m sure they are quite the first members of the Hanover family to have one so.”

“Aunt, you know perfectly well the family dates back to the Conqueror.”

“Only by way of a female and very obscurely, I’m sure,” said his aunt, unimpressed. “I shall always hold by the true line.”

“As if she knew the Pretender personally,” Simon murmured in his wife’s ear.

Diana choked back a laugh. “Pray, do not suggest such a thing, sir.”

“What’s that you say?” demanded Lady Ophelia.

“Only that the Hanoverian line seems fairly well entrenched now, ma’am,” said Simon without missing a beat. “Won’t you take a chair? You have been in such a bustle all day that I’m persuaded you ought to put your feet up.”

She agreed to his suggestion and allowed him to pull up the gros-point footstool for her comfort after she had seated herself in the deep wing chair near the fire. Rory took the opportunity to shoot a questioning look at Diana, and she was sorry to have to shake her head, grimacing slightly at the same time in order to let him now that although she had indeed tried to speak to Simon on his behalf her efforts had gone unrewarded. His cheerfulness faded somewhat, but the expression was brief, and a moment later he was happily engaged in relating a humorous anecdote to his sister.

Diana was pleased to see that Susanna looked relaxed. Even her aunt’s stern pronouncements seemed to have little effect on the girl and Diana hoped that so long as she was not left alone for any length of time with Lady Ophelia, Susanna might do very well. Diana’s stomach chose that moment to remind her that she had not eaten all day, and she glanced quickly about to see if anyone else had heard the embarrassing noise. No one was paying her any particular heed, however. She wondered idly if Simon had eaten breakfast before going in search of her.

Lady Ophelia being settled at last, he glanced up just then, catching Diana’s eye. She smiled at him and felt a glow of delight when he grinned back at her.

Having nearly decided to risk incurring Lady Ophelia’s displeasure by going in search of sustenance, Diana heard the approaching carriage wheels outside with mixed feelings. If guests were indeed arriving, some refreshment would soon be served. On the other hand, it would most likely be of the cakes and tea variety; whereas, if she had had the opportunity to slip away to the kitchen, she might well have talked the cook out of something more sustaining. A moment later, however, her hunger was forgotten when her brother, his wife, and their two children were announced.

Ethelmoor and Lydia came in with their usual calm dignity, and young John Sterling, entering behind his parents, carried himself with much the same dignified air. But Amy, seeing her favorite aunt from her perch in her nanny’s arms, gave a shriek of delight and made it clear that she wished to be put down immediately.

Noting Lady Ophelia’s outraged expression even as that lady began to rise from her chair to greet the arrivals, Diana hastened forward to take the young offender from her nurse.