“He is engaged with other guests,” Lizzy said. “Shall we rescue him?” They excused themselves, Lady Catherine parading first through a thickening rain of miasma.
“Emma,” said Georgiana’s voice.
“Yes?” I said, forcing the expected smile, my gaze on a lady’s bare forearm swelling into huge, red pustules.
Georgiana’s voice came again, urgently. “Listen to me.” Melody flitted through my mind, then I heard it in my ears, a barely hummed tune beneath the bustle of the crowd. Layers of crumpled fear folded into tolerable apprehension. The trickling miasma thinned to flickering illusion, a conjurer’s trick that could be ignored.
“Is that better?” Georgiana asked. “The world was all dissonance about you.”
“Much better, thank you,” I said, although fear still scrabbled at the undersideof my mind. Had I been this bad at Hartfield? No wonder Harriet had guessed the truth.
I realized Mary Bennet stood at Georgiana’s shoulder. “Good evening, Mary.” At first, I thought the daring color she wore was a trick of my mind, but the hues shifted too subtly with the light and shadow. “What a beautiful gown.”
Mary wrapped her arms around herself and muttered, “I regret it already.” Her dress was night-black satin and vivid crimson, with more crimson than black. The dark, slim sleeves and dagged cuffs exposed red lining and black lace.
“It is beautiful,” Georgiana told her. “I am so happy you wore it.” Her middle finger grazed the side of Mary’s wrist, the touch gone almost before I saw. Their gazes locked, and their posture became so still they could have been caught in unseen chains.
Feeling extraneous, an intruder who had stumbled onto a private intimacy, I looked away, hunting unsuccessfully for Harriet. Imperfect clothes snagged my gaze, but at least the crowd was no longer putrid madness.
Instead of Harriet, Mr. Tinsdale emerged from the throng. He bowed. “Miss Woodhouse. You look bright as a summer day.”
Unease tensed my cheeks, but I forced an untroubled expression. This was his proposed meeting—the chance to secure Harriet’s status through a listing inDebrett’s. “You are kind, sir.”
“I see you are acquainted with Miss Darcy.” He bowed to Georgiana, who returned a polite greeting. His gaze shifted to Mary’s dramatic form. An impressed smile stretched his mustache.
“I know who you are,” Mary said with scathing distaste. “An introduction will not serve us well.”
Georgiana blanched. Mr. Tinsdale frowned. “We have never met. Miss?”
Mary uttered a scoffing laugh, apparently at his foolishness for ignoring her advice. “Bennet. Mary Bennet.”
Mr. Tinsdale’s barrel chest puffed. His face reddened. “NotthatMary Bennet. The one who writes offensive letters to newspapers and parades her black-clad Marys?”
Mary smiled fiercely. “NotthatRosdan Tinsdale, the Jacobin turned royalist who parades his Blackcoat bigots?”
“Excuse us,” Georgiana said with a brilliant smile and whirled Mary into the crowd. I caught Mary’s indignant “Andhe is a Tory!” before they were out of earshot.
“How exciting,” I said with a hostess’s smile.
“Quite. You met her through Miss Darcy, I suppose.”
“Yes.” I felt an unprecedented urge to defend Mary, but I did not dare. Once Harriet was secure, I could purge this unpleasant man from our lives.
“Miss Darcy, at least, is a valuable acquaintance. I was intrigued to learn you are a guest at Chathford House. When we last met, I had no idea you were so close to the Darcys.” He paused meaningfully. “That you had suchprivilegedaccess.”
He did not know I had left Chathford House. But it was not the house that interested him. It was the Darcys.
“The Darcys are good friends,” I confirmed, then added firmly, “both to myself and to Harriet.Iwas intrigued to learn you would be meeting Mr. Debrett. Perhaps he could correct a tiresome oversight. Harriet’s remarkable affinity for draca should be publicly recorded.”
It had not occurred to me to call her “remarkable” before, but it sounded wonderfully important.
“That… disadvantaged woman has the ability to bind?” Mr. Tinsdale frowned and crossed his thick arms.
Despite his offensive tone, I settled for a nod.
His jaw worked as if chewing a tough piece of mutton. “I will speak frankly. You know the Darcys are caretakers of an extraordinary creature. The government is eager to protect the beast, so much that they would transgress on the Darcys’ rights. I, however, wish to protect the Darcys. Shield them from embarrassing inquiries.”
I had no idea what that meant. “What inquiries?”
