Penelope held a hand over her eyes and shook her head. The skein was tangled more than she’d imagined. She definitely had her work cut out for her in the week before the ball.
CHAPTER 13
Lady Orrick sighed and folded her hands in her lap as she considered her niece’s wan complexion. “I must admit, you don’t look at all well. Your skin appears to have a sallow cast, except for those two bright feverish spots on your cheeks. Have you taken a chill?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” Catherine listlessly reassured her, absently twitching a rug over her legs.
Lady Orrick got up and helped lay it in place, tucking the ends around Catherine as she lounged back on the daybed in her room. She touched the back of her hand against Catherine’s forehead briefly before resuming her seat. “What you need is a good bracing cup of tea. And, I think, a sympathetic ear into which you can pour out your troubles.”
Catherine laughed slightly. “What troubles I have are of my creation. I fear I’m merely being punished for my folly.”
“In what way?” Lady Orrick asked, pouring out the tea and handing a cup to her niece.
“Aunt Penelope, please do not patronize me. I’ve had enough of that from Aunt Alicia.”
“Good. I’m glad to see you can get angry. Maybe it will shake you out of that pit of doldrums you’ve fallen into."
"It isn’t the first time I’ve fallen into that pit. Only this time I don’t think a beautiful gown is going to be able to pull me out of it.”
“What gown?”
Catherine laughed. “The gown Madame Vaussard made for me that I did not order. She made it because she thought there would come a time when I wished to end the masquerade.”
“She knew about it?”
“Oh, yes.” Catherine smiled ruefully. “Perhaps I’d best start at the beginning and tell you everything. It all started, as you may have guessed when Mother received the invitation from Aunt Alicia to bring me out.”
It took Catherine almost an hour to tell her aunt the whole tale, punctuated as it was by little questions of clarification, laughter, and tears from Lady Orrick. When she was finished, her aunt sat on the edge of the daybed and clasped Catherine’s hands.
“You love him, don’t you?” she said softly.
Catherine went very still. “Who?”
“The Marquis of Stefton,” Lady Orrick said kindly.
Catherine blanched. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she tossed out shrilly. She tried to pull her hands out of her aunt’s grasp, but her aunt held them fast.
“That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I’m not ashamed,” she denied hotly, then capitulated. “It’s just that—just that he doesn’t love me. To him, I’m just Sir Eugene Burke’s troublesome niece. And I refuse to be like the other young ladies who fawn over him, attempting all stratagems to gain at least his attention, if not his regard. I didn’t mean to fall in love with him at all. For the longest time I found him to be the most arrogant, disagreeable man of my acquaintance.”
‘‘But you did.”
“Yes,” Catherine said softly, bowing her head to hide the sparkle of unshed tears in her eyes. “And it hurts,” she whispered. “I wish I’d never come to London, or at least never instigated this awful masquerade. If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have felt compelled to bring me to Society’s notice and therefore spend time in my company. What a fool I’ve been. I see now why my family thought I should come to London. I’ve been so naive.”
“Now don’t you start feeling sorry for yourself and falling back into those doldrums,” Penelope advised in a motherly scold. She squeezed Catherine’s hands, then released them. “How do you think I came to learn of this little masquerade of yours?”
“From Aunt Alicia, I suppose.”
“No. I learned it from your uncle and Stefton.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Mrs. Dawes wrote to your relatives in Yorkshire about yourhoydenish behavior--that’s her description, not mine.”
Catherine grimaced. “I didn’t even consider that possibility."
"It greatly upset Sir Eugene, for he is very proud of you. Anyway, he had to go to Nottingham to attend a horse fair and told Mr. Dawes he would come to London afterward. Dawes told the Marquis of Sir Eugene’s plans. Stefton, bless him, said that would be disastrous for you, so he went to Nottingham to meet your uncle and stop him from taking any rash action. Now, why do you suppose he did that? I’ve never known Stefton to do anything for anyone.” Lady Orrick looked pointedly at her niece.
