Churston’s polite smile was skeptical.
“Sloane reminds me of Soane,” said Sir Norman. “An architect, but also a collector. I’ve been told he has all kinds of antiquities in his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and admits select people to view them.”
“Including ladies?” Ariana asked.
“I’ve not heard that he refuses them,” Sir Norman replied. “Or you could visit the Egyptian Hall, Lady Ariana. The place was built in the Egyptian style, but I can’t say it’s accurate.”
“Napoleon’s carriage is housed there, is it not?” Churston said. “More your thing, I’m sure, Lady Ariana.”
Ariana was saved from making a caustic comment when her mother exclaimed, “Oh yes! I heard that when it was first displayed, the place was packed with tonnish gawkers.”
“Mayhem,” Lady Cawle agreed. “As when Napoleon was on board ship in Plymouth harbor. People traveled down from London to try to catch a glimpse.”
“He had been our direst enemy for so long,” Ariana said.
“The most appropriate treatment for a villain is to ignore him,” stated Lady Cawle. “Some people seek notoriety.”
Sir Norman was bold enough to challenge this view of Napoleon, and a lively discussion swirled about the ex-emperor’s aims, abilities, and ambitions. It was an unusual dinner conversation, but Ariana enjoyed it. She noticed, however, that Lord Churston played little part. Did he disapprove, or was he simply dull-witted?Whichever, she was beginning to fear that he would not do.
They didn’t linger after the meal, but left for the theater, scurrying under umbrellas to the two carriages. Lady Cawle and Sir Norman used her town carriage and the rest had a hired one. It was from a livery, however, and almost as fine.
As they rattled over cobblestones, Ariana became nervous again. The trip to Peake’s house had exposed her to some fashionable people, but they’d all seemed more interested in life on the moon than in her. This would be a different sort of affair—one where many of the theatergoers would be there to see and be seen.
As soon as she entered the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, she felt her peculiarity. Even with tall Lord Churston at her side and Kynaston nearby, she was the focus of stares. All she could do was ignore them as she and the others went up to the boxes.
Thus far, Churston’s height was all she’d discovered in his favor. After suggesting that the museum might overstretch her mind, he’d had nothing interesting to say at dinner.
She’d ceased trying to draw out conversation, but as they went slowly up the stairs, he remarked, “Bit of a crush.” A little later he added, “Not as much as usual. Mourning, you know.”
It was only polite to do her part. “Do you prefer plays or opera, my lord?” Ariana asked.
“Plays, as long as they make some sense. There’s a great deal of nonsense on the stage.”
“Isn’t nonsense sometimes the point, my lord? ConsiderA Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
“Ah well, but that’s Shakespeare, Lady Ariana. I was thinking more of the modern nonsense such asladies running off with highwaymen and gentlemen marrying dairymaids.”
“Perhaps it’s hard to write a play about ordinary people doing ordinary things.”
He surprised her by agreeing, but then added, “Not much point to theater at all, really, is there? But people will go, even the lower orders. Not good for them. Gives them ideas.”
He was not only dull but pompous, and thought his every opinion correct. Intolerable.
When they reached the Cawle box, Ariana sat with relief, for when she was seated, her height was less obvious. Churston took a seat beside her, but she couldn’t expect perfection. Lady Cawle had taken a seat at the front, with Sir Norman and Ariana’s mother. Kynaston was somewhere behind her, which made Ariana distinctly nervous.
To cover it, she raised the subject of the gas-lighting in the theater, and to her relief, Churston talked sensibly enough about it and the increased safety of gaslit streets. She moved on to the current social unrest, and he pointed out the poor harvests of 1816, which had made it worse, and how they had arisen from the eruption of Mount Tambora.
Ariana was beginning to think he’d do after all until he said, “But I mustn’t bore you with such matters, Lady Ariana.”
“I’m not at all bored.”
“Now, now, you don’t have to humor me.” He actually patted her hand. “I know you’ll be more concerned about the style of hats and the latest dances.”
Fortunately the performance began then, but as Ariana focused on the stage, she accepted that he was ahopeless case. Thank heavens the play was excellent and made the evening worthwhile.
At the first intermission the ladies remained in the box and a stream of people came to pay their respects to Lady Cawle and her guests. Kynaston remained at the back, a darkly silent presence. Was he pining for drink?
Then Ariana had to pay attention to a new arrival. Lord Blacknorton was another of Lady Cawle’s listed possibilities, but Ariana knew from the start that he’d never do. It was shallow to reject any man for his appearance, but there it was. She had to assume that Blacknorton had shaved before attending the theater, but his heavy jaw was already dark. His black brows almost met in the middle and his short hair was a spiky thatch. Even his spatulate fingers were furred with black and she feared he could be thick with hair all over.
