“And I promised to go and watch Sydnam and David paint,” Anne said. “Megan will be waiting to go with me.”
“Wilma,” Lauren said, “your parties are always in the very best of good taste. Do come with us and give your opinion on the decorations in the ballroom and the arrangement of the tables in the supper room, will you?”
She paused and looked at Portia.
“Miss Hunt,” she said, “perhaps you will keep his grace company for a while? He will think we are deserting him so soon after coming upon him.”
“Not at all, Lady Ravensberg,” he assured her. “But I have been told, Miss Hunt, that the view from the top of the hill over there is well worth the rather steep climb. Would you care to come with me to see?”
“I would be delighted,” she told him.
“Joseph will beveryfortunate,” Wilma said after they had moved out of earshot, “if the Duke of McLeith does not steal Miss Hunt from right beneath his nose. And who could blame him? Or her? I never thought to be ashamed of my own brother, butreally…”
“I have been more than a little annoyed with him myself,” Gwen said, linking her arm through Wilma’s. “Keeping such a secret from us, indeed, just as if we were all stern judges instead offamily.AndI am annoyed with Neville. He knew all along, did he not, Lily?”
“He did,” Lily said, “but he did not tell even me. One must admire his loyalty, Gwen. But I wish we had known sooner. Lizzie is a very sweet child, is she not?”
“She looks like Joseph,” Lauren said. “She is going to be a beauty.”
“She isblind,” Wilma protested.
“I have a feeling,” Anne said, “that she is not going to allow that fact to be an affliction to her. Now that everyone knows about her, it is going to be very interesting to watch her development.”
Wilma held her peace.
They all went about their various tasks when they reached the house and left the comforting of Miss Hunt to the Duke of McLeith.
22
“What on earth did I do to deserve such a tumultuous summer?” Claudia asked.
It was a rhetorical question, but Eleanor attempted an answer anyway.
“You decided to go to London,” she said, “and I encouraged you. I even urged you to stay for longer than you had originally planned.”
“Mr. Hatchard was evasive about Edna’s and Flora’s employers,” Claudia said. “Susanna persuaded Frances to sing and invited me to stay for the concert. She sent the Marquess of Attingsborough to escort me to London because he was in Bath at the time—and he happened to have a daughter he wished to place at the school. Charlie chose this particular spring to leave Scotland for the first time in years. And you just happen to be the sister of the Duchess of Bewcastle and accepted an invitation to bring the charity girls here and so I have been tripping over Bedwyns at every turn since I left Bath. And…and…and so the list goes on. How do we ever discover the root cause of any effect, Eleanor? Do we trace it back to Adam and Eve?Theywere a pair to cause any imaginable catastrophe.”
“No, no, Claudia.” Eleanor came to stand behind her at the dressing table in her bedchamber. “You will pull your hair out by the roots if you drag it back so severely. Here.” She took the brush from Claudia’s hand and loosened the knot at her neck so that her hair fell more softly over her head. She fussed a little over the knot itself. “That is better. Now you look far more as if you are going to a ball. I do like that green muslin. It is very elegant. You showed it to me in Bath, but I have not seen it on you until tonight.”
“Whyam I going to the ball?” Claudia asked. “Why are you not the one going and I the one staying?”
“Because,” Eleanor said, her eyes twinkling as they met Claudia’s in the mirror, “you are the one those women insulted yesterday, and it is important to Lady Redfield and her daughter-in-law that you make an appearance. And because you have never hidden from a challenge. Because you have promised to dance the opening set with the Duke of McLeith even if youdidmake it clear to him this morning that you will not marry him, poor man. Because someone has to stay with the girls, and it is generally known and accepted that Ineverattend balls or other lavish entertainments.”
“You have made your point,” Claudia said dryly, getting to her feet. “And also I attend such entertainments because I sometimes consider themobligations—unlike some persons who will remain nameless.”
“And you will go,” Eleanor said, “because it may be the last time you see him.”
Claudia looked sharply at her.“Him?”
Eleanor picked up Claudia’s paisley shawl from the bed and held it out to her.
“I have misunderstood all summer,” she said. “I thought it was the Duke of McLeith, but I was wrong. I am sorry. I really am. Everyone is.”
“Everyone?”
“Christine,” Eleanor said. “Eve, Morgan, Freyja…”
“Lady Hallmere?”
