She eyed Phoebe with a defiant gleam.
‘Should I even ask?’ her sister replied in a voice of great sufferance.
‘But of course!’ Sophie smiled winningly. ‘The newest darling of the ton, Viscountess Damerel, will escort me!’
ChapterFive
THE ARCHERY PARTY
Another week later
‘In fairness, my sister, the Viscountess Damerel, would have been happy to escort me, were it not for the inconvenience of her honeymoon,’ Sophie said airily, accepting the bow from Ursula.
‘Inconvenience?’ Ursula queried with a frown.
‘Well, she may not have called it an inconvenience exactly,’ Sophie amended, colouring a little, ‘or used those precise words, but she did agree the timing could have been better. And I, for one, will never understand the fuss about the exhibition when we all wear undergarments– plus these are French, which is hardly the same at all!’
‘Silk stays and drawers?’ Aurelia smirked. ‘You’re right, they’re very different to our boring muslin affairs.’
‘Silkthread,’ Sophie corrected knowledgeably, taking her place at the shooting line. ‘But cotton in the main and anyway, it’s an exhibition of ladies’ fashion, not ladies’ unmentionables! In truth, I am much more intrigued by the Duchesse du Barry’s new troubadour style than anything else. A square neckline coupled with Renaissance pearls and silk puffs is such an interesting offshoot ofRomanticism, don’t you think?’
There was a moment’s impressed silence while Sophie accepted an arrow from simpering Lord Riley, who offered to place it against the bow for her.
She declined.
‘It’s only fifty yards to the target. How difficult can it be?’ she smiled confidently, stepping up to the shooting line.
‘You’d be surprised,’ Isabella muttered from the garden table, stirring her tea from six to twelve o clock as she’d been taught.
Which was precisely the moment that both a small and distant visitor appeared on the Hamptons’s grand lawn steps, and Sophie let her arrow fly. ‘Oh!’ Sophie mouthed in sudden realisation, wondering if this would be the first and last archery party to which she’d ever be invited.
‘Good Lord!’
‘Duck!’
‘Not one ofourguests at least!’
Fortunately, the sudden chorus of alarm alerted the visitor to his impending doom and he dodged the missile with a grace that made Sophie’s spirits sink further. Of all the gentlemen in London.
‘It was distracting!’ she defended hotly, as Lord Riley confiscated the bow without so much as a simpering word.
‘Good grief, it’s Lord Rotherby,’ Isabella muttered faintly. ‘My mother would never have forgiven us had we murdered him— Lord Rotherby, Good afternoon!’ she exclaimed in the same breath as he made his way towards them. ‘I do trust you are quite well?’
‘Still alive, Miss Hampton, which is always a bonus!’
Lord Rotherby’s moss-green eyes danced as he strode up to the small party.
‘And rest assured my business is with Lord Hampton. I have not arrived merely to provide your delightful party with target practice.’
Lord Riley guffawed loudly, as Lord Rotherby swept into a graceful bow.
‘Oh, what a pity you aren’t staying, Lord Rotherby,’ Aurelia said with a sigh. ‘Miss Fairfax here was just trying to persuade Miss Hampton of the virtues of the new scandalous ladies’ fashion exhibition, and I understand you’requitethe authority?’
‘On exhibitions, or scandalous ladies’ fashion in general?’ Lord Rotherby replied in an amused tone. ‘And I was under the impression that the new exhibition had been deemed unsuitable for debutantes? Either way, my personal view is that ladies’ clothing should be as scandalous as possible, of course.’
There was another low guffaw, while Isabella covered her embarrassment with an offering of extra thin ginger stem biscuits. ‘I really can’t apologise enough for themishapwith the arrow, Lord Rotherby,’ she said, turning the shade of their Sèvres teapot. ‘I’m sure no one was actually trying to murder you, least of all Miss Fairfax.’
‘Oh, I’m not sure that’s entirely the case, is it, Miss Fairfax?’ Lord Rotherby enquired, making short work of two of the proffered biscuits. ‘I wager it might have been quite satisfying for many reasons.’
