And to pass all the time in-between, Charley had buried her nose in the books she’d brought with no one to interrupt her but her father—who was just as likely to be reading himself.
“Where in America do you live?” Lady Tabetha’s question was at last something that Charley could warm to. “I hear it is dangerous and wild.”
“When one ventures from a city, it can be.” Charley was almost tempted to make up some story that would have their hair standing on end. Once a bear had broken into their kitchen in the middle of the night and that had been harrowing. She could embellish on that, she supposed…
But she would not. Because although she took issue with various practices embraced by some of her countrymen, America was not, in fact, uncivilized. Philadelphia boasted theaters and mercantile shops and churches…
She supposed one might meet with dangerous and wild threats when venturing outside of the cities.
Which posed an altogether different variety of dangers.
“Our home and our main distillery sit just outside of Philadelphia.” Using her hands to draw in the air, Charley took it upon herself to explain where the states lined up along the coast as precisely as she could without a pen and paper. She pointed out where the capital was located as well as Williamsburg and Boston and New York and other significant places.
When Lady Tabetha’s eyes glazed over, Charley fumbled a moment, absently shooed a moth away, and then dropped her hands.
And when she did so, an almost harmonic moan arose from the group of gentlemen seated behind the pianoforte.
Lady Tabetha glanced over her shoulder and giggled. “Aside from my overbearing brother, aren’t they positively divine?”
“Our brother is not overbearing,” the older girl chastised her younger sister. “And his friends are far too old for you.”
“They’re mostly thirty, and it’s well known that ladies mature earlier than gentlemen, making such a match ideal. You’d know some of this if you bothered to give the least amount of attention to matters of the heart.” Tabetha turned to Charley. “And my brother is most certainly overbearing. He attempts to manage every detail of my life, no matter how inconsequential.”
Charley blinked and then wondered which of the fastidious-looking gentlemen was such a domineering brute. But in the next moment, Lady Tabetha’s attention was caught by the arrival of some other, younger gentlemen and now she fluttered her lashes in their direction.
Perhaps Tabetha’s brother was only being protective. A naïve young lady could easily fall prey to a practiced lout.
Charley waved at the annoying moth one more time and then hugged her arms in front of her. Standing amongst these people, it was easy to see where her mother had gotten many of her… mannerisms. Her habits.
And although Charley had not appeared in Philadelphia society since her mother had grown ill, she didn’t feel nearly as out of place as she’d imagined she would.
This unsettled her.
Because she was not the sort of person who could live her life pursuing entertainment for herself daily. She required purpose. When she awoke each day, she needed to know that something awaited her, whether it be a task or chore or the implementing of a new idea.
She had to do something that mattered.Shehad to matter.
Various sounds of laugher floated through the room, none very loud or overly gregarious. All of the guests seemed to carry themselves in a similar fashion. They held their drinks the same way, with a vague smile and a vapid look in their eyes.
An odd tingling danced down her spine and she glanced sideways.
One of the men standing at the far end of the room watched her. He didn’t smile or acknowledge her in any way but watched her with eyes the color of a winter lake. And he studied her as though he was working out a puzzle. Of course, she could not help but acknowledge that, of all the men in his vicinity, he was by far the most handsome.
His shoulders were broad, but not like a laborer, and he wore his fashionable coat without looking stiff or uncomfortable. His waist was trim, and his legs, long and slim. He seemed fit and he wasn’t as pale as most Englishmen.
But it was the very air about him that struck her. Something intangible. He didn’t exude aristocratic arrogance but rather an awareness that he was utterly in control of his surroundings. The feeling that such a person was presently summing her up irked her.
“I imagine you’re here to land a husband. I’m to have my come-out this Season. I’ve positively had to wait forever.” Charley turned her attention back to Lady Tabetha in time to see a rosy pink flood the younger girl’s cheeks. Rather than detract from the girl’s appearance, it made her look even prettier.
Not for the first time, Charley wondered why these two ladies were being so kind to her. She was a stranger to them. Had their mother insisted they take her in hand to prevent the American guest from doing anything that would be an embarrassment?
“Is that why you came to England—to marry?” Lady Bethany persisted.
“Good heavens, no.” Her grandmother had been rather frank in that luring a gentleman to the altar was precisely what she expected of her. “I’m only here to meet my grandparents. And attend to business with my father.” Just the thought of visiting a few of the age-old distilleries sent a thrill through her. Marriage couldn’t be further from her mind.
“I doubt I will marry either,” Lady Bethany announced with a sad-sounding sigh, picking a tiny piece of thread off her sister’s sleeve.
“Well I certainly intend to, and I intend to marry well.” Tabetha brushed her sister’s hand away. “There is no greater calling than to be a wife and mother but why should a girl limit herself to that? Wouldn’t it be spectacular to be a duchess?”
