“It is my fondest wish, my lord,” Daniel lied smoothly.
“That is a very handsome waistcoat, my lord.” Eva looked at the multi-colored front panels and was rewarded with a smile as the elderly gentleman puffed out his chest.
“The gal obviously has style, Stratton,” Lord Diproth said, then wheezed off to the left.
“You now have his undying devotion,” Daniel said as they once again started moving. “Perhaps I should rethink my waistcoats,” he added, looking at his chest.
“I would give it some thought, your Grace.” Eva whispered.
“You have a smart mouth, wife.”
“Yes, I believe I do.”
Her teasing delighted him. She was growing in confidence daily.
“Dear Lord, Grandmother has seen us.” Daniel groaned as she signaled that she wished their presence at her side. “Brace yourself, wife, we must obey.”
“Oh dear, must we?”
“I fear it is inevitable,” Daniel whispered. “She is not above shrieking my name across a room filled with guests if the mood strikes her.”
The Dowager Duchess was seated with two other ladies, both elderly and equally sharp-eyed. As Eva and the Duke approached, it was clear she’d been the subject of their conversation because - unlike a younger lady who would drop her eyes, blush and immediately and cease talking – each of these three tartars kept on eyeing her up and down and even continuing to discuss her.
“I did not request that material in that style!” the Dowager Duchess snapped as Eva curtsied.
“Thank the Lord for small mercies,” Daniel whispered in her ear after he had bowed deeply before the three elderly matrons. Then, holding her close, he made the introductions. “Lady Fairlie, Lady Dunbar, allow me to introduce my wife, the Duchess of Stratton.”
Eva curtsied.
“Leave the girl alone, Beatrice, she looks lovely. Had you stuffed her into one of your ill-fitting, old-fashioned dresses, she would have looked frumpy.” Lady Dunbar’s faded brown eyes twinkled with wicked laughter. “It is lovely to meet you, my dear.”
Eva looked at the Dowager Duchess, awaiting her scathing reply, but she merely glared and said nothing to reprimand Lady Dunbar.
“Run along, Daniel, and fetch us something to drink while we have a visit with your duchess.” Lady Dunbar dismissed Daniel as though he were an errant schoolboy.
Dear Lord, they would eat her alive, Eva thought as she allowed a paper-thin hand to pull her down onto the already full chaise. She kept hold of Daniel’s arm until the last possible minute but knew that unless she wanted to cause a scene, she would have to release him.
He looked down at her and she could see the uncertainty in his eyes.
“I’m parched, Grandson, yet still you stand there!”
His bow was insultingly brief this time, as was the word he hissed and then he was leaving her. Eva watched his long, lithe form disappear from her view.
“My husband had a set of shoulders to rival those.” Lady Fairlie sighed.
“And a rather nice pair of legs, if I remember correctly,” the Dowager Duchess added.
“And the curls of an Adonis. Do you remember, Agatha, how they used to curl under the brim of his hat?” Lady Dunbar said.
Eva’s surprise must have shown on her face because Lady Fairlie remarked, “We are old, dear, not dead.”
“Indeed, the younger set forget that we have been around a long time and there is nothing that surprises us.” Lady Dunbar surveyed the guests before her.
“They think that with age comes stupidity, yet with age merely comes cunning, my dear granddaughter, and it would pay you to remember that.”
Granddaughter. How wonderful that felt. Eva looked at the elderly trio. Anyone foolish enough to think these three were not awake on all fronts was an idiot, indeed. Their bodies may have been old, but their minds were as sharp as ever.
“Now we must discuss your ball, Granddaughter. I will, of course, have it at my house as your husband’s is not large enough.”
