“Cousin, that is not a route to happiness.”
Catherine grinned ruefully. “I know. I just don’t like people, no matter how well-meaning, trying to run my life. I do miss riding Gwyneth, my horse, though. I much prefer riding towalking. I swear I have never walked so much as I have the last few days in London!”
“If only there were some way you could ride without destroying your character.”
“You know, Miss, maybe there is,” Bethie put in slowly as she picked up the hot chocolate tray.
“How?”
“A disguise for a disguise,” Bethie said.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“Wot if you rode heavily veiled, Miss? You know, in an outfit no one’s seen?”
“It would certainly set tongues wagging,” Susannah said, handing the maid her chocolate cup.
“True, but the gossip will be speculating as to my identity, not gossiping about Catherine Shreveton,” Catherine said, thinking of the possibilities. “I could have an elegant riding habit made and ride through the park heavily veiled, a mystery woman.”
Bethie nodded excitedly.
“I don’t know, Catherine. If Society were to discover the hoax, you would surely be ostracized,” Susannah warned.
“Would that be so bad? Then I could return that much sooner to Yorkshire.”
“Then again, if it were discovered that you are not the little charity case Aunt Alicia has been presenting you to be, Society may turn on her, thinking she is trying to save you for her son,” her cousin pointed out.
“I hadn’t thought of that. Though Aunt Alicia is stuffy, I don’t believe she deserves that interpretation. Well, we will just have to be sure no one discovers my secret. First of all, I must have a new riding habit. Something positively dashing!"
“That’s the ticket, Miss Catherine!” Bethie said, gathering up the last of the chocolate dishes and carrying them to the door.
“And how do you propose to get out from under Aunt Alicia’s eye in order to find such a costume?” Susannah asked.
Catherine smiled. “I think I can count on Iris and Dahlia to help.”
“Those two cats? They’d never do anything for us willingly.”
“Precisely. But they will go out of their way to see that we don’t get what we want, so we’ll just have to convince them that we love shopping with them.”
“I don’t know that my acting abilities are that great,” Susannah said drily.
Catherine laughed. “Leave that to me. Lately, I’ve had plenty of practice.”
Four hours later,Susannah and Catherine walked down Bond Street. A few paces in front of them walked the Ladies Iris and Dahlia, both sporting sour expressions. Behind them came an excited Bethie and the grim-faced Emma, Lady Iris and Lady Dahlia’s maid. The twins were dressed in pastel pink and blue gowns while Susannah and Catherine marched behind them in serviceable white muslin gowns with dark blue spencers.
Since breakfast, Catherine and Susannah had stayed close to the twins, agreeing with their decisions and eager to share a shopping excursion.
“We know you two, with your beauty and rank, will attract the most eligible gentlemen to your sides. It is a great boon to us,” Catherine had stated earlier that morning, “to share a London Season with you, for we are bound to meet far more eligible young men than would normally be possible for us to mingle with.”
Susannah had not known where to look while Catherine complimented their cousins. The twins smiled in tight-lipped unison.
Not long after they entered Bond Street, Iris, dressed in pink, began to complain of a headache. Susannah and Catherine murmured words of condolence while Dahlia became exceedingly solicitous of her sister’s welfare, querying her every twenty paces or so on the state of her health. Iris’s lamentations became stronger until Emma decreed they all must return to Harth House for Lady Iris’s sake.
Lady Iris argued that she only needed to rest a while. Perhaps at Gunther’s, she suggested, where she could partake of a cooling ice. “But please, do go on without me,” she said prettily, effecting a wan smile. “It is too fine a spring day to waste.”
“Oh, we couldn’t, not at all!” Catherine protested. “What would Aunt Alicia say?”
“No need to worry her. I’m sure I am just fatigued and in need of a little rest and refreshment.”
