“My favourite blue silk! How lovely to see it again… and you, Brandon. I thought you would have gone back to Stonywell by now.”
“Lady Rennington told me to stay with her, my lady. She was sure you’d turn up sooner or later.”
“She must have great powers of foresight if she guessed I would turn up here,” Izzy said, laughing. “Is Samuel here too? And my carriage? I should be so glad to have my own carriage again.”
“The master took the carriage, my lady, and Samuel, too.”
“Did he, now? I wonder why. But he did not take you or my gowns, for which I am very grateful. Living out of one small box, one grows excessively bored with the same three gowns.”
“My lady, did you leave your diamond pendant behind somewhere?” Brandon said. “I can’t find it in the jewel box.”
Izzy laughed again. “Indeed I did. I left it at Garthwaite and Sons, in York.”
“Did the clasp break? For it didn’t need cleaning, I’d swear to that.”
“No, nothing like that. I was short of money and my horrid husband had written to the bank to tell them not to give me any. But Mr Garthwaite was most accommodating.”
“Oh, my lady! You neverpawnedyour lovely necklace!”
“Pawned? No, no. Merely he advanced me a loan, which I shall repay… or Lord Farramont will, I hope, for it would take me quite a few quarters to repay such a sum. Should I wear the sapphires, tonight? The duchess is very showy in town, and I cannot believe she lapses into informality here.”
“Not her! Everything but the tiara, according to Miss Garth, who looks after her. Lady Rennington has been wearing her diamonds every night — the full set.”
“Definitely the sapphires, then. How many are we for dinner?”
“Forty-two, my lady, and how you’ll all fit around the table I can’t imagine.”
Izzy clapped her hands in delight. “Excellent! I love a party.”
“Never was a truer word spoken,” muttered Brandon, but Izzy thought she detected a hint of a smile.
Dinner was indeed a crush, with two long tables squeezed into a dining room large enough for only one, if the guests were to be comfortable. It was necessary to draw one’s chair close to the table to allow the footmen room to manoeuvre behind, and a raised elbow while eating was liable to joggle the slice of mutton right off one’s neighbour’s fork.
Izzy minded not a bit. She was surrounded by delightful people who were all in the mood to be entertained. The duke’s Berkeley Square house was one place where she could always be sure of lively company, and so it was here, too. Dinners at Harringdon Hall had been filled with a certain strain, since everyone deeply resented her interference in the Sydney’sproposed marriage. Marsden Hall had not been precisely amusing, either.
In fact, she could not remember a single enjoyable meal since she had left Stonywell. The night before her departure to the Cotterills, they had sat down eighteen to dinner, and a charming time of it they had had. It was no one in particular, just the locals — a baron’s heir, the squire, the parson and their womenfolk — but they all knew each other well, and were suitably amusing. The parson, in particular, was an accomplished flirt, and the baron’s heir a definite wit. How much she had enjoyed that evening, presiding over a table where everyone was having a wonderful time, with Ian watching her steadily from his place at the other end, a little smile on his lips.
Then the very next day that appalling letter had arrived and her whole life had disintegrated around her, anger had consumed her and she had begun her journeying. Where was that anger now? Still burning, somewhere deep inside but she could not reach it, for some reason. She was surrounded by lively company, so she sparkled like the sapphires at her throat, laughing and teasing and being as amusing as she could, but somehow it took more effort than usual.
How very odd. What was the matter with her?
But she knew the answer to that. That powerful flame of anger was all but extinguished now by an even more powerful feeling — fear. She had never been much of a gambler, but this journey was nothing but reckless folly. Five years ago, she had settled for the safe option — for Ian and his steadiness, dull as that might be. At least with Ian she knew what she was getting.
Now she had embarked on a crazy quest to relive her youth, perhaps to make a different choice. It had seemed like such a good idea when she set out. But now, lost and dispirited andlonely, she was very much afraid that she had thrown away every chance for happiness.
No, not afraid —terrified.
17: Strathinver Castle
After dinner, Izzy wandered about the saloon as usual, a glass of something in her hand. The instrument had been opened in the room next door, and quite a few of the ladies had wandered off to listen to the performances, so the saloon was quiet, only a few guests sitting about in quiet conversation, embroidery lying unregarded on their knees.
Mama bustled over to intercept Izzy. “This is the perfect opportunity for a comfortable coze, is it not? You can tell me all about your travels — where you have been and who you have seen, for although Ian is an excellent correspondent, and wrote to me every day to tell me of his progress, I have heard nothing since coming here and he had only tracked you as far as Whitby in the last letter. Where did you go from there — to Scarborough?”
“Ian wrote to you every day?”
“And to your father, too, and probably to Henry at Stonywell. Every time he had new information about you, he wrote, for he knew we were all worried about you. So… Scarborough?”
“Yes. We stayed there for three days, but it was very dreary.” Could she tell Mama that she was waiting at Scarborough to hear if Godfrey Marsden had returned to Marsden Hall? No, that sounded very particular. But she could not avoid mentioning him. “We went south again, and called in at Marsden Hall, since we were so close.”
