“Out of style!” protested Lucy. “But it’s the heirloom suite, passed down from countess to countess!”
Jewitt looked at her impassively.
Lucy relented. “All right, but isn’t there anything here I could wear?”
Sarah Jewitt turned back to the box, picking up and discarding various items until she came to sapphires set in silver filigree. “These, my lady, are quite exceptional stones. The balance is good, and it will not seem garish and tawdry.” She pulled out a delicate necklace for which most of the stones were modest in size save for the pear-shaped pendant in the front. There were matching drop earrings.
“Oh, yes! Yes! That’s perfect,” said Lucy. She turned around so Jewitt could fasten the necklace about her throat, then she leaned toward the mirror to put on the earrings. Done, she danced out into the center of the room and twirled around. “How do I look?” she asked Leona.
Leona rose from the dressing table as Jewitt gathered up the jewelry and replaced it in the casket. She went over to Lucy. “Like a princess, a princess in a fairytale about to meet your handsome prince.”
Lady Lucille laughed delightedly. “That is exactly how I feel! Oh, Leona, this is the happiest night of my life!”
“Yet,” Leona reminded her impishly. “There’s still your wedding night to come.”
Lucy blushed and nodded happily. “Quick, get your shawl and fan and let’s go downstairs together. Jewitt, do you have the casket?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“You can take it to Nigel’s valet now, and then you can go enjoy yourself.”
“No, my lady, not until I see you safely in bed after the ball. You might need me to fix a hem or redress your hair. I’ll not desert you tonight. Nor you neither, Miss Leonard, should you need me.”
Lucy impulsively skipped forward to hug her dresser. “You may not sparkle and shine like those jewels do, but you are a gem.”
Jewitt murmured athank you, her bland expression never changing.
Leona still thought Jewitt was a peculiar person, but she seemed dedicated enough to her mistress, and ultimately that was all that mattered. She hooked her arm with Lady Lucille’s, and together they went to stand at the top of the staircase for their grand entrance.
CHAPTER 11
“Doing the pretty,eh?” The soft, rasping voice held a hint of humor.
Deveraux spun around to see a tall, lean man behind him. “Jack! You rotten blackguard! Or should I say,my lord?Keirsmyth, I’d about given up on you. Thought the notion of returning to England and your relatives might prove too much for you to stomach.”
The marques grabbed Deveraux’s hand in a firm grip.
“Came with Turcott this afternoon. Told your people we’d meet with you later. But what’s this about a weak stomach? I always could handle the worst swill better than anyone!”
“That’s because your stomach was embalmed long ago,” chided Fitzhugh, coming up beside them. “It’s so liquor-soaked nothing could faze it!”
The man smiled crookedly and shrugged. “I like to keep it that way. Perpetually. Self-preservation. But, I have risked sycophantic opportunings from my multitudinous relations so that I might be here for this august occasion. I’m anxious to meet this sister of yours, Deveraux. Anxious to see just who could capture this frippery fellow’s heart. Who knows, if I’d joined you when you sold out, it might have been I, the prospective groom!”
David Fitzhugh laughed. “Stubble it, Keirsmyth. You wouldn’t have possessed the presence of mind to recognize a gem when you saw one.”
Keirsmyth’s crooked smile grew. “Perhaps, my little gamecock. Perhaps. But when do I meet this paragon of virtues?”
“Soon. And it is not one you’ll meet, but two,” Deveraux said, clapping him on the back.
“Two?” Keirsmyth drawled. He languidly drew an enameled gold snuff-box from his elegant waistcoat pocket and flicked it open, taking a small pinch of the aromatic mixture. “I feel I am baited. Now how should there be two? You see me before you all agog with curiosity.”
Deveraux laughed. “Our second paragon is Miss Leona Leonard.”
“Leona Leonard?” Keirsmyth’s high brow wrinkled in thought. “Good Gawd! You can’t mean Cheat’m Charlie’s sister? A paragon?”
Deveraux nodded. “I can honestly say that Miss Leonard would undoubtedly have led Leonard’s troops to better effect.”
“High praise, indeed! Though not difficult to accomplish when one considers how dismally our dear friend Charlie failed. Though to give the devil his due, he has pulled his ship out of the River Tick by marrying Madame Roussault.”
