Susannah laughed. “I’m sure you will.”
“How did Aunt Alicia go from dwindling invitations to presiding over the coming-out of four nieces?”
“It started with Lady Iris and Lady Dahlia. Evidently, they wrote a very heartrending letter to our aunt, lamenting how they would not be able to use some Norwich silk shawls she sent them for Christmas because their stepmother would not bestir herself to present them or take them to places where they could wear the shawls and show them to advantage. Aunt Alicia hates the new countess, for she is middle-class and makes no excuses for it. And because she bore Uncle Aldric three male babies, whereas Lily Abshire, who was the Earl’s first wife and mother of the twins, died in childbirth. And the first countess was a great friend of Aunt Alicia’s too.”
“So in a fit of pique at her sister-in-law, Aunt Alicia decided to present the twins,” Catherine said. “But why are we here?”
“I believe that was Aunt Penelope’s doing. She realized the twins were trying to play off Aunt Alicia’s dislike for their stepmother, so she thought she’d help them succeed well beyond their expectations.”
Catherine nodded in understanding. She rose from the bench to pace the room as she listened.
“She somehow planted the idea in Aunt Alicia’s head that she would be readily admired for presenting four nieces in a single Season,” Susannah explained. “Making agrandgesture. She was correct.”
“So, enter Susannah and Catherine.”
“Yes,” Susannah replied quietly. She folded her hands in her lap and leaned back against a bedpost.
Catherine stopped her pacing by the window. Outside, the rain continued, a steady patter against the glass obscuring the street below. “Well, I believe it is obvious that our cousins are still simmering about our encroachment on their Season. They wished to be the only flowers in the Shreveton bouquet; instead, the Shreveton arrangement contains flowers and thorns.”
“But sometimes, Miss, it’s the plants wot have thorns that have the prettier flowers,” Bethie said sagely, tucking the last of Catherine’s things away in a drawer.
CHAPTER 5
“Please watch the linens, Miss Catherine!” Bethie implored three mornings later as she watched her young mistress gesture with her cup of hot chocolate as she talked with Susannah, seated with her on the end of the bed. The little maid tossed a muslin dress over her arm to take belowstairs for pressing. “Mrs. Harmond takes a very dim view of stains on the linens and will hold me accountable if there’s so much as a drop of chocolate on ’em,” she said, crossing to the bedroom door.
“Fustian,” Catherine said as Bethie closed the door behind her. She took a sip of chocolate. “It’s me the housekeeper must find fault with to curry favor with Lady Iris and Lady Dahlia. After all, they are the daughters of an Earl. What do you think, Susannah? Shall we just spill a drop to give Mrs. Harmond something to decry? It might be better than having her search out something.”
Susannah laughed. “Cynicism does not become you, cousin. Besides, you’ll spoil the game. Most of the fun lies in looking for faults, not in finding them.
“True.” Catherine uncurled her legs from under her and swung them around to the floor. “Or, in the case of Aunt Alicia, making up faults and assigning them to another."
“I think she does that to force attention away from her clumsiness.”
“What do you mean?” Catherine asked, looking back over her shoulder at her cousin.
“She acts as if it doesn’t exist and ignores all accidents she creates, but I’m sure at one time she was unmercifully teased. Most likely, she now strikes first before someone can strike at her. Recall how she was at the dressmaker’s?"
“When she knocked over all those bolts of fabrics?” Catherine nodded. “I thought the modiste would burst her stays! Especially when Aunt Alicia stepped on that white lace and left a dirty footprint.” She stood up and walked toward the fireplace.
“But notice, she did not comment on Aunt Alicia’s clumsiness,” Susannah said, tightening the fastening of her dressing gown.
“Of course not. Aunt Alicia is a valued patroness! And remember when she wouldn’t go into the apothecary’s? She deemed it beneath her. She probably was afraid she’d break something in there, what with all those bottles, vials, and casks. Sometimes I can almost feel sorry for her; it must be lonely to be so formidable yet so clumsy. I remember the evening I arrived, I thought the sparsely decorated house was due to a lack of funds. Never would I have dreamed that our proper and aristocratic aunt was prone to accidents and had long ago broken all the decorative accoutrements of the house.”
“Accidents! Sometimes she’s a walking disaster! It’s no wonder she has trouble retaining servants. Frankly, I’m surprised John stayed after that hot tea incident.”
Catherine laughed and nodded. “It does make me curious, though, to meet the Earl. What sort of man could put up with her?”
“He’ll be here for our ball. Aunt Alicia couldn’t get him to stay in London for the Season. Though she may be formidable to others, he does not dance merrily to her piping,” Susannah pointed out.
“Neither does her son, for that matter.” Catherine refilled her cup from the silver chocolate pot Bethie had placed on the table near the fireplace, then offered it to Susannah. Susannah nodded and Catherine carried the silver pot to her.
“Remember that Miss Brownlow who was also at the dressmaker’s?” she asked as she poured the chocolate into her cousin’s cup. “Her attentions to Aunt Alicia were nauseating. It was patently obvious she would like to be the Viscountess St. Ryne and the next Countess of Seaverness.” She set the empty pot down, then wrapped her hands around her cup, savoring its warmth. “I don’t blame Justin for leaving the country. In Yorkshire, I experienced the same kind of pursuit, a pursuit for what I can bring financially to a marriage. My appearance, who I am, that was just a bonus. It is very lowering and the reason I have decided to forgo that institution.”
“Thus, the real reason for this masquerade,” Susannah said softly.
“Yes,” Catherine admitted, smiling sadly.
Bethie’s soft knock at the door interrupted them. Catherine bade her maid enter, then turned to see Susannah doubtfully shaking her head.
