Lady Orrick pursed her lips briefly. “That’s not what I had in mind,” she said severely.
“It’s all right, Aunt Penelope,” Susannah interjected. “I would like to stay.”
Penelope frowned doubtfully.
“And I assure you, I will not mind if they all go out,” Catherine said. “It was a long journey,” she added coaxingly.
“Very properly said,” Lady Harth stated, nodding in approval. “Susannah, show Catherine to her room.”
“Immediately, Aunt Alicia,” Susannah said, making a little curtsy.
Lady Orrick’s frown deepened. When she had seen the twins work their manipulative ways upon Alicia to get her to give them a London Season, Penelope suggested to her sister that she present all of their nieces who had not been presented. She desired that the twins succeed beyond their expectations and perhaps learn a lesson against manipulating others. Unfortunately, she neglected to consider the possibility of continued manipulation on the part of Aldric’s daughters. Now she worried that the twins, flaunting their position as daughters of an Earl, would make life miserable for their cousins.
To make matters worse, she would not be in London to deflect the worst of their mischief. She had promised her daughter, Marianne, to be present at her third confinement. Penelope shook her head in self-disgust. This was very ill-planned.
She watched Susannah and Catherine turn to ascend the stairs. She knew they could be cruelly ignored in favor of the spoiled twins. Twin cats, that’s what they were. Still, Catherine did not seem to be as drab a little thing as they had all supposed, and it appeared she had a quick wit as well as a kind heart.
It really is too bad that I must leave tomorrow, she thought.I would be willing to wager that Catherine will prove to be a more beautiful flower than either Lady Iris or Lady Dahlia.
Well, she would return to London for the ball Alicia would be giving later in the Season in the debutantes’ honor. It was an event she was beginning to anticipate.
Susannah led Catherine to her room, then stood uncertainly in the doorway. She was lonely in Aunt Alicia’s household, and she had hoped Catherine and she could form a friendship, for Iris and Dahlia were neither friendly nor kind. She felt she was suffering through each day until the Season was over and she could return to her parents’ home in Portsmouth.
She shifted nervously from foot to foot, her large brown eyes wide, as she watched Catherine warmly greet a smiling, frizzy-haired maid. In awe, she watched them giggle together like school friends. Then she witnessed the strangest thing of all. Catherine removed her dowdy bonnet, tossing it carelessly into a corner of the room before she reached up to the tight bun at the back of her head and rapidly pulled out a handful of hairpins. A glorious tumble of wavy auburn hair fell past her shoulders. Catherine leaned forward to shake her head then flung her head back, raking her fingers through the thick auburn waves as they settled back away from her face.
“What a relief!” Catherine massaged her scalp, her eyes half-closed, and a smile of sheer bliss curving her lips upward, her face aglow.
“But—but—you’re beautiful!” Susannah blurted out.
Startled, Catherine turned toward the doorway. She had forgotten all about her cousin. Truthfully, she assumed she’d want to leave her presence as quickly as the others did.
Behind her, Bethie giggled again.
She cast a glance of reproof at her maid before crossing the room to take her cousin’s hands in hers. She looked into her eyes, mentally framing a careful reply when she noted the shy vulnerability in Susannah’s wide-eyed gaze. Impulsively, she squeezed her cousin’s small hands reassuringly, a bright smile sending sparkle to her eyes and dimples to her cheeks.
“Can I trust you to keep a secret?” Catherine asked.
“Of course,” Susannah said, puzzled.
Catherine hooked an arm around Susannah’s waist and drew her into the room, seating her on a brocade-covered bench at the foot of the bed. Catherine studied her shy cousin a moment, then nodded and began to pace the room.
“I came to London under duress. I never desired a London Season. I was coerced into coming by my well-meaning family.”
“Family? But Aunt Alicia said you were all alone, except for your mother.”
“Hardly,” Catherine said drily, coming to sit next to Susannah on the bench. “My mother and I live with my grandmother, and a few miles away live my uncle and his wife. Shortly, if my Aunt Deirdre's predictions are true, I will also be acquiring a stepfather and two stepbrothers.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind that, for Mother is lonely and too cowed by my grandmother. And Squire Leftwich does care for her. He and his sons need her, whereas Grandmother and I don’t,” she finished ruefully.
Catherine stared into the dancing flames in the fireplace. “Unfortunately,” she said slowly, “Mother has this notion that she cannot look to her happiness until she knows I am comfortably situated. Such nonsense. Anyway, Aunt Deirdre and Grandmother felt the squire might be more inclined to press his suit, and Mother more inclined to accept if I were not around.”
“I see.”
Catherine glanced at Susannah’s serious expression before turning back to her contemplation of the flickering flames in the hearth. “Then there is the matter of my inheritance,” she added, frowning at her thoughts.
"Inheritance?” Susannah asked, then blushed, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what. . . .Really, it is no business of mine.”
Catherine returned her full attention to her cousin, laughing at Susannah’s evident confusion. “Do not be embarrassed. I know Aunt Alicia has painted a gloomy picture of my life, but her renderings are without basis. They are cut from the cloth of her imagination. That is what bothered me the most about coming to London--the knowledge that Aunt Alicia considered me a nothing.”
