‘Why do you not have a husband yet, Miss Austen? You should be married and with child yourself by now. Are you simply fussy, or is there something the matter with you?’ I intoned, looking down my nose at her, and Jane let out a mock groan of despair.
***
Carriages began arriving promptly at two o’clock the next afternoon. Suitably prepared conversation-wise and having double-checked that my padded corset was on straight (Oh the horror if my baby bump was crooked! How on earth would I explain that?), I calmly bowed and nodded as each of the ladies was introduced. They all seemed respectable and well-to-do. Of course, there were the usual polite enquiries after my health when they saw that I was expecting, but I handled it with aplomb. Jane nodded at me to let me know none of them suspected anything was amiss.
Lady Claridge and her daughter were the last to arrive, having made sure that everyone was here and ready for their entrance.
‘She probably told the driver to do a loop around the park as she was early,’ muttered Jane in my ear.
Indeed, the noise level rose considerably as soon as Lady Claridge was introduced by the butler, and she swept into the room. Everyone immediately stopped what they were saying and stood to attention as if the queen were here. Swathed in peach silk, she was a handsome tall woman in her midforties with carefully styled blonde hair. Though her looks were past their bloom, she was still beautiful, and I got the impression she was determined to use them to their full advantage while she still had them.
She grasped Elizabeth’s hands and placed a resoundingkiss on her cheek, exclaiming, ‘Darling, how lovely to see you! What a good idea to have a soirée!’ She went around the room in a similar fashion, greeting everyone as if they were long-lost friends ...
Until she reached Jane and me and stopped short. We had remained seated on the sofa, but now Elizabeth came over and hastily introduced us. ‘Henrietta, this is my friend Mrs Felicity Fitzroy from Derbyshire and my sister-in-law Miss Jane Austen, who are visiting us at present.’
I grasped Jane’s arm and put on a show of levering myself to my feet.
‘Oh no, please do not trouble yourself, Mrs Fitzroy. I can see you are incapacitated.’ She eyed my round belly. ‘Congratulations on your impending bundle of joy.’ She said it flatly like it was going to be anything but, which amused me.
‘Thank you, Lady Claridge.’
‘Please call me Henrietta. We are all friends here.’
‘Very well, and you must call us Felicity and Jane.’
We all inclined our heads to each other politely.
I looked around. I had been so busy watching Henrietta circulating that I forgot that there was another lady to our party.
‘I believe you have a daughter? Did she come with you?’
Henrietta looked around blankly. ‘Oh yes, April ishere somewhere. She has probably been commandeered by Fanny to see her dolls upstairs. She will be down presently.’
Maids started bringing in the tea-things, and my mouth watered at the spread being laid. There were triangles of cucumber sandwiches, a Madeira cake, and a lemon drizzle cake, as well as a platter of petits fours with pink-and-white icing. But Elizabeth was doling out generous slices of cake, and I worried there may not be anything left for April. I took a couple of petits fours for her just in case. If anyone remarked on it, I would say I was eating for two.
Henrietta decided that Jane and I were the people at the tea party that needed her attention most and settled herself on the adjacent sofa. I felt rather than saw Jane stiffen beside me, and I knew we were in for an interrogation.
Relax, Felicity,I told myself.She wants to converse because we are new acquaintances.
Before she could get going, though, the door swung open to reveal Fanny, a smaller version of Elizabeth, with her blue eyes and snub nose. She was tugging on the hand of a pretty young woman with soft brown hair dressed in dark-blue silk.
Fanny wasn’t shy in announcing, ‘I have brought April to have some tea with you all. She was more interested in staying upstairs with me and my dolls, but Iinsisted.’ Fanny tsked, giving a rather good impression of her mother.
The elder girl’s cheeks flushed, and she sidled shyly into the room and slipped into the space next to Henrietta. Elizabeth handed her a cup of tea, and she sipped it quietly. I felt sorry for her and tried to catch her eye and smile, but she seemed intent on focusing on the floor. She did not look remotely interested in hearing about the latest fashions or their ladies’ preparations for the London Season.It’s a pity Lucinda isn’t here. They would have been able to talk about books,I thought.
Jane must’ve had the same thought as she discreetly moved over to sit beside April, and they were soon engaged in a discussion about what April was currently reading.
Henrietta leaned towards me and whispered conspiratorially, ‘Do not mind my daughter. She likes books more than people.’
‘That is not always a bad thing,’ I replied.
‘Indeed,’ said Henrietta, looking at me closely.
‘I only mean my sister, Harriet, is a bit the same way. But when she met her husband, it turned out they shared the same interest in reading, and I believe Harriet would not have captured his interest so completely if she had not had an interest in books.’
Henrietta looked appeased. ‘I did not think of it that way. How wonderful.’
I could see her mind working. She was thinking thatperhaps she would allow April to read her books after all if it would mean hooking a husband.You have me to thank for your mama not hounding you in future about your reading habits, April,I thought, feeling pleased I could help the girl indirectly.
