“At least ten years, my lady,” the hoverer with nothing else to do said.
She transferred her gaze to him. “You must be mistaken,” she said sweetly. “I would have guessed at least twenty.”
“At least that much, my lady,” he said.
“Thetonreally ought to be made aware that it was she who put that notice in the papers,” she said. “Everyone ought to be able to trust that what the papers tell them is true and accurate. She is clever. It is how widows of no beauty acquire second husbands, I suppose. It is a little pathetic, is it not? But very dishonest. Dishonesty is something I cannot bear. My poor dear Colin. Could he possibly have known what today would bring him?”
Lord Ede looked at her, one cynical eyebrow raised. “He has been waltzing with her at balls,” he said. “He was waltzingandlaughing with her during the ball that put an end to her betrothal. And he was kissing her in Hyde Park the following afternoon.”
“She is very clever,” she said. “I will give her her due on that. Lady Dunmore, on the other hand, is very stupid and ill-bred, and I am happier than I can say that Colin will not be marrying her daughter. She is an insipid girl, would you not say, Ede? Her beauty is much overrated.”
“I daresay Lady Dunmore was upset when she wrote you that letter,” he said.
“And no wonder,” she said, “when she was expecting to see in the paper this morning that her daughter—herseconddaughter, I might add—had netted the greatest matrimonial prize of the Season. She was presumptuous. And to blameme, Ede, was the outside of enough. I have never said anything to encourage her ambitions. Quite the contrary.”
Lord Ede was accustomed to her blatant lies and scarcely blinked. So too apparently were the other occupants of the room, who did not blink at all.
“My dearest Colin is only betrothed to the dowdy widow,” she said. “They are not married yet. I wonder…”
The hoverer with the handkerchief cleared his throat and she turned her attention upon him.
“It is said, my lady,” he told her, “that Lord Hodges is a friend of Mr. Ormsbridge and has accepted his invitation to the Ormsbridge ball this evening. It is said that it will be one of the grand squeezes of the Season. It would seem possible, even probable, that he would take his newly betrothed with him.”
“Oh, surely not, my lady,” the hoverer who had fetched the lemonade said, sounding shocked. “Not when the lady is in such utter disgrace with theton.”
“I believe,” Lord Ede said, sounding faintly amused, “the lady has backbone.”
“Indeed?” Lady Hodges said. “She has my compliments. But will she make such a bold move? And will Lady Dunmore and Miss Lydia Dunmore attend the ball too? It would seem more than likely when the Season is already well advanced and the poor girl has no suitor of any significance.” She turned her head to contemplate her daughter, who was sitting silently nearby.
“Lady Overfield may prove a worthy opponent,” Lord Ede said, drawing his snuffbox from his pocket again and flicking open the lid with his thumb. “So may Hodges.”
“He is merely being stubborn,” she said with a dismissive wave of one hand. “He is doing this to defy me, the foolish boy—if, that is, he knew about this morning’s announcement in advance. He knows he has always been my favorite and so feels the need to assert his independence of me even if that means doing something as unutterably rash as affiancing himself to a woman twenty years his senior.At leasttwenty years. He will come to heel. He loves me.”
He made her a mocking bow as he took a pinch of snuff and sniffed it up each nostril.
Lady Hodges was looking again at her daughter, who had just been informed that she was not her mother’s favorite.
“Blanche and Elwood, my dears,” she said, “you must go to a ball tonight. The outing will do you good.”
•••
Wren and Alexander, returning from their walk in the park with the baby, thought her mad. And then Wren rushed at her and hugged her tightly and declared that it wasjustwhat she might have expected of Elizabeth.
“I have never known anyone more courageous,” she declared, forgetting the enormous courage that had taken her last year from being a lifelong hermit to becoming the socially active Countess of Riverdale.
Alexander still thought her mad and blamed Colin for making such a reckless suggestion.
Elizabeth’s mother, returning from her outing with Aunt Lilian, was aghast, but then caught her daughter up in a hug even tighter than Wren’s had been.
“It isjustthe sort of thing you would do,” she said. “Foolish, foolish Lizzie. We must let the family know.”
Aunt Lilian nodded. “Richard and I did not intend to go even though we accepted our invitation,” she said. “I must return home, Althea, to let him know we will be going after all. I am not sure about Susan and Alvin or Sidney, but I shall send notes around to them without any delay.”
“It is still madness,” Alexander said. “Even the full force of our two families may not be sufficient to save you from deep humiliation, Lizzie. Colin ought to have known better. I suppose it was his suggestion.”
“Yes,” she said, smiling at him. “And he held my arm behind my back and twisted it until I said yes.”
He tutted and shook his head. “What did I do to deserve such a headstrong sister?” he muttered.
