‘I thought so. Neither of us sang then. You are in for a surprise.’
‘A good or a bad one?’ he asked plaintively.
‘You’ll have to wait for this evening to find out.’
Ruby came in like a thunderstorm in red silk. She grasped Dora’s shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks.
‘My first engagement in London!’ she said. ‘A private party– how delightful. They are so much better than public concerts, do you not agree?’ She turned to her hosts. ‘Mr Austen, Mrs Austen, charmed.’ She dipped a curtsey. She spared Jane Austen only a nod and smile of acknowledgment. ‘Lead on, Dora. We must practise until we are perfect!’ That had not been her motto when in the Northern Players. There she had been of the school of ‘it will be all right on the night.’
As Dora expected, Ruby lost some of her London airs and graces when the door was closed on the practice room and she was alone with her tribe of theatrical folk. She teased Hugo, flirted with Ren and walked carefully around Susan.
Dora drew her aside during the run-through of Hugo and Ren’s song and explained the hidden agenda for the evening, without mentioning the details of the report that the bidders wanted. This wasn’t because she didn’t trust Ruby, but because she knew her friend would simply not be interested.
‘I take it that the viscount approves of your participation here?’ Dora asked.
Ruby fluttered her fingers, the new rings glittering. ‘He said I was to amuse myself in his absence.’
‘Oh?’
‘He’s gone north to fetch his family back for the season. When his wife is in town, he won’t be able to spend every evening with me, he explained.’
‘Is this what he envisaged as amusing yourself?’
Ruby bit her lip. ‘Perhaps not. But as long as no report of this gets into the papers, need he know?’
‘We certainly aren’t aiming for the society column, or if we make it into it, it will be one of those insipid “Mr and Mrs Austen, a private party at home” remarks with no details.’
‘Then all will be well.’ Ruby’s gaze settled on Julien at the piano. ‘That’s the newcomte, I take it? He now must sing for his supper?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Jacob had told her that the latecomtemight have been a better manager of his money than his reputation among the ton suggested. ‘But I think he prefers it to sitting at home in that big empty house of his.’
‘Hmm.’ Ruby settled herself into her most becoming pose, shoulders back, head tilted so she looked up through her lashes at her interlocutors, winsome and defenceless. ‘I will go and introduce myself.’
‘Be gentle. He has just lost both his parents in a brutal fashion.’
When she left, Jane, who had been observing the rehearsal from a quiet corner while sewing a costume for Ren, came over to Dora.
‘That’s your friend, the one you spoke of?’
‘It is.’
‘A flamboyant person. Would it be fair to say trouble follows her?’
‘No more than it does me. In fact, I’m worse.’ Dora grinned.
‘I meant in the area of love?’
‘Ah, well, it has left her in a certain situation, as you doubtless noticed. She means to be good, but most moralists would find fault with her behaviour.’
‘Charming but dangerous to gentlemen?’
‘Yes, but don’t you think we women are in far more danger from them, than they from us?’
‘True. Still, the lady adventurer is a curious role. I look forward to hearing her perform.’
‘I notice you haven’t made yourself known to her?’
It was Jane’s turn to laugh. ‘She would not know what to do with a woman like me.’
