‘Oh, don’t be so silly. It’s horrid old stuff in any case. I’ve ordered a whole new set from Thomas Sheraton and it arrives in a few weeks. Do you know you can pick what you want out of a catalogue and it arrives like magic? Who would’ve thought? Sit down and rest. You appear quite fatigued, not in your best looks at all. Is it just the visitor or is something else the matter?’ Ruby sank gracefully into an armchair and put her feet up on a stool. ‘Cook will send up some refreshments. Can you stay long?’
The mantelpiece clock, a gilded affair of Atlas supporting the dial, showed it was approaching dinnertime. ‘Are you expecting company?’
‘Arthur isn’t coming until later if that’s what you are worried about. How about cards? I do get so bored here on my own. There is only so much shopping one can do to pass the time.’
Dora carried a card table over to set it between them ‘Where is the deck?’
‘There’s a box on the bookcase– the silver one.’
Dora returned with the playing cards and shuffled. ‘Piquet?’
Ruby nodded and yawned. ‘Sorry– I was napping when you arrived.’
‘How are you? All well with the baby?’
She rubbed a circle over her tummy. ‘I believe so. She dances around like her mother. Perhaps she’ll try for the ballet– plentyof work in that for a few years and it is suitably scandalous. Have you seen how the prudes in the periodicals get in a lather over a girl pirouetting? They don’t understand the difference between art and prostitution.’
Dora dealt. ‘Still convinced it is going to be a girl?’
Ruby shrugged and picked up her hand. ‘Call it a mother’s instinct.’ She discarded a card and selected another from the undealt pile. ‘I’m sorry about the newspapers.’ She avoided Dora’s eyes.
‘It was a bigger problem for Jacob than for me.’ Dora rearranged her hand to see what runs of suits she held.
‘I hope you can be bothered to score the tricks because I never can be.’ Ruby set a king of hearts down. ‘Perhaps we should have picked a simpler game.’
Dora responded with a knave. ‘Let’s see this one through.’
‘Arthur arrived here in a fury last night. He’d seen Jacob and been given a firm rebuff.’ Ruby collected her win. ‘I can say one thing for him: anger makes him a more interesting lover.’
Dora scowled. ‘Really, Ruby, I do not want to know. He could be my brother-in-law one day.’
‘You still mean to marry?’ An edge developed in Ruby’s tone.
‘Is there any reason why I should not– a reason that does not concern your own interests? What do you think you would do in my place?’
‘Look around for a richer man?’ A little of Ruby’s old mischief returned. ‘Arthur wants me to hold a party to introduce you to some dukes and earls. I think he has it in his head that you are after a title and riches and would accept being a mistress of a higher member of the nobility and jilt a younger son.’
‘He doesn’t know me very well.’ Dora won the next point as Ruby could never concentrate on remembering the cards.
‘He is merely judging as he sees. Most women would think like that.’ She played a low diamond that was bound to be beaten by Dora.
‘Would they? Don’t you think most women would prefer to marry for love?’ Dora thought of the choices of Jane Austen’s characters. For Elinor and Edmund, it was love in a cottage– albeit a decent vicarage. The loss of his fortune was presented as less of a tragedy than the possibility that he would have to marry the awful Lucy Steele. ‘Besides, Jacob is independently wealthy. I’m not choosing poverty if I marry him.’
‘You’ve been reading too many novels,’ grumbled Ruby, showing she must’ve tapped into Dora’s thoughts, or more likely, watched her in too many green rooms waiting to go on stage with the latest novel in hand. ‘The playwrights have it right. Love leads to death, betrayal or comedy.’
‘You are not a romantic then?’
‘Romance is the icing on the cake. If you don’t have the cake, what good is the icing? It leaves you holding a sticky mess in your hand.’
Dora laughed at that. It was for comments like this that she loved Ruby.
‘If the viscount says he will continue to keep you even if Jacob and I marry, will you be content?’ Dora played a low card, hoping to give Ruby the win.
‘You did that on purpose.’ Ruby collected the point. ‘I would rather not risk his rejection.’
‘But Jacob and I cannot live our lives to please you.’ She placed a high card down.
Ruby conceded the trick. ‘Why not?’ But she said it with a laugh, knowing she was being outrageous. ‘Can you not wait until I have secured the viscount’s affections? He likes me well enough, but I wouldn’t say it’s a strong attachment, not yet. Idon’t want to be out on the street with the babe on the way– that’s what you might bring about.’
