"I shall not," she said. "You must not think that you would have been anything more than a temporary diversion, Jack."
''With you, Serena,'' he said,' 'I would not have dreamed of thinking any such thing."
14
Diana had not been strictly honest with Bridget. She had come home from her ride to the castle with the Marquess of Kenwood her mind and her emotions ina turmoil. And because guilt was the predominant emotion, she had lashed out at the marquess, not to his face, but to her maid, who had come to her room to help her change for luncheon.
It was not entirely Bridget's fault, then, that the following day, when she arrived for the same purpose, she was the bringer of unwelcome tidings.
"Oooh, mum," she said, "I shall be glad to see the back of that man, I shall. Thinks he should be treated like a lord in the kitchen, he does, just because he's servant to the most fashionable gentleman in London—his words, mum, not mine. I could tell him a thing or two, I could. I could tell him that my mistress is the prettiest lady in all of England. But it isn't worth tangling with the likes of him, it isn't."
"You are quite right, Bridget," Diana said soothingly, stepping free of her riding skirt and undoing the buttons of her blouse. "Sometimes there is more dignity in saying nothing than in arguing with someone who is unable to mink reasonably."
"Anyway," Bridget said, "hedon'thave an enviable job, mum. Who would want to be man to his lordship?"
Silence greeted this opinion as the silk blouse slid down Diana's arms and into her maid's hands. But silence rarely deterred Bridget. She was always ready to fill it.
"Shocking goings-on, mum," she continued, "though I should keep my mouth shut and not saynothing, him being my betters and all."
"Has Lord Kenwood done something to upset you?" Diana asked, turning her back on Bridget so that the maid could button the muslin dress she had put on.
"He tried to sweet-talk me this morning, mum," Bridget said indignantly. "He stood outside this very room, he did, bowing and smiling and asking me how I did just as if I was any lady. I didn't know where to put myself mum, I was that flustered. ButI wasn't having none of it neither. I'm not as foolish as that Betsy."
"Betsy?"
"One of the upstairs maids, mum," Bridget said. "Always in his room she is.And kissing him outside his door this very morning, the brazen hussy.I would die a thousand deaths, mum, before I would behave like that."
"I suppose that is her business," Diana said primly."And his lordship's."
"Yes, mum." But Bridget had worked herself into an irrepressible state of indignation. "And then that lady right after he kissed the maid and sweet-talked me. It's none of my business; you are quite right mum. Buther amarried lady and all."
"Lady Huntingdon was here this morning?" Diana's tone was quite casual. She was thumbing through a book while Bridget hung up her riding clothes.
"And they went into the greenhouse together," Bridget said."Just the two of them.And she was clinging to him, Dick said—him being an undergroom, mum—as if she could barely wait until they was inside with the door closed on them."
"Dick had no business saying any such thing," Diana said, putting the book down. "I am surprised someone did not reprimand him for doing so."
"Mrs. Carling did, mum," Bridget admitted. "But still and all, it goes to prove that youwasquite right about him. He is not a proper gentleman."
"Well," Diana said briskly, "we will be away from here in a little more than a week, Bridget, and we need never see him again."
"Though he is a very handsome gent," Bridget said. "And hedohave a lovely smile."
* * *
The Earl and Countess of Rotherham were resting in the countess's sitting room later that day after another game of croquet on the lower lawn in which they and all their guests had participated.
"You are not overtaxing your energy, dear heart?" the earl asked in some concern as his wife sank down beside him with a sigh and lifted her feet to wiggle her toes in her slippers.
She looked at him and smiled. "Absolutely not," she said. "You know that having our family about us is the breath of life to me, dearest. It has been a happy time, and of course the best day is still to come. The weather has been kind, has it not?"
He stretched one arm along the back of the love seat and massaged her neck gently. "You should rest more," he said. "I hate to say it, dear heart, and to me you will always be the girl who captivated my heart, but neither of us is growing any younger, you know."
"And I would have it no other way," she said, patting his knee. "If I could take one minute away from my life, dearest, I would not do it, for I would not know which happy minute to give up. I was just hoping—it would have made the evening of your birthday even more perfect than perfect, you see—that there would be at least one announcement to make at the ball."
He chuckled. "I suppose if young people are too foolish to be persuaded of the advantages of matrimony," he said, "they must be left to their misery."
"Now with Russell and Barbara it is understandable," she said. "I am not at all worried about those two. They are both very young. And I would not expect that they would have anything more than a private understanding until at least after he has finished university.But Ernest and Angela, dearest.And dear Diana and Jack."
