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IT WAS A CONFUSINGafternoon.
Lady Gosforth made a point of introducing her to every caller as “My honored young guest, Lady Hewitt,” which bewildered Tessa, as surely the point of making her attend was to let people know she was looking for a post as a companion.
The visitors’ responses varied.Most were initially startled, and gave Tessa narrow looks, but good manners prevailed and they murmured a polite enough greeting.Several, however, pokered up indignantly, looking as though they would refuse to acknowledge her, but Lady Gosforth simply trained her lorgnette on them and waited until they condescended to greet Tessa, which they did with chilly hauteur.Not that she expected any kind of warmth, but Lady Gosforth’s insistence on her guests’ acceptance of Tessa confused her.
The old lady despised her, so what was she playing at?
There were several awkward moments.One was when Lady Gosforth, seeing her seated in a far corner made a point of calling her forward and instructing her to sit closer, pointing to a space between two ladies seated on thechaise longue.The ladies were not pleased and, as she reluctantly took the seat indicated, they made a point of twitching their skirts aside, as if they feared to be contaminated by her proximity.
One of them, a lady who had greeted her with ice dripping from every word, moved so far to the end of the chaise that the slightest nudge would have sent her sprawling to the floor.Tessa was tempted, but restrained herself.She was here to get a job.
Both ladies left soon afterward, cutting their visit ostentatiously short, and Tessa took the opportunity to move back to her previous seat.
Conversation soon became general—though Tessa had no doubt that she would be gossiped about later—and the serving of tea or sherry and dainty little cakes and biscuits helped relax the atmosphere.Each visit only lasted twenty minutes or so, and as some ladies left, others arrived.Few ladies addressed Tessa directly and when they did, Lady Gosforth answered for her.
In that respect it was almost like being married again.
They talked of people she didn’t know, scandals she had no interest in, plays and operas she had no idea about—she’d never been to the theatre—and the weather.The weather changed so frequently in London it was always a safe subject of conversation.
Heartily bored, Tessa sipped her tea and nibbled on a biscuit and listened.If only she had something to do with her hands, but she had never learned embroidery or tatting or crochet or knitting, and wouldn’t wish anyone to witness her beginner efforts.
But it was something of a relief not to have to make conversation herself.It wasn’t a skill she’d ever developed.In both her marriages, visitors—male or female—had not been encouraged and she’d been required to stay at home most of the time.She’d been quite a chatterbox at first, but she’d soon learned that men preferred to do the talking.As her first husband told her a number of times, “I didn’t marry you for your conversation, girl.”
She’d never once had other ladies over for tea and cakes and chat, or had to exert herself to facilitate a conversation.It was quite a skill, she realized, one which, as a companion, she supposed she would have to develop.
And it was quite interesting considering which of the ladies she might like to become a companion to.None of them, she decided.While they were polite enough under Lady Gosforth’s gimlet eye, she could tell that beneath the facade of good manners, most of them knew something of her history and despised her for it.
In any case, it didn’t seem as though any of them needed a companion, for they mostly arrived in pairs.Only one of the ladies arrived with a companion in tow, a drab-looking female of about forty, and though she was greeted by everyone—some as an afterthought—she took a seat at the back of the room and spent the remainder of the visit in silence, ignored by all.And one lady sat with an older woman she addressed as ‘cousin,’ but the way the older woman addressed her was dismissive, verging on rude.Tessa decided that she was also a companion.
Now that she’d written that application to Yorkshire, she felt more hopeful.Lady Gosforth’s strictures didn’t bother her.She would be much more comfortable working with an employer who was not a member of theton, someone who would know nothing of her marriages, and have no opinion about them.
To pass the time Tessa entertained herself by deciding which animal each lady looked most like.
Slowly the number of visitors dwindled, and Tessa was surprised to see one of the last to arrive was Lord Alverleigh.There had been very few male visitors up to then, and his arrival caused something of a stir among the ladies present.They sat straighter, were chattier and smilier and talked a great deal more.Fans fanned briskly, and young ladies blushed, though it wasn’t at all hot in the room.And everyone tried to engage him in conversation.He responded politely but briefly, and made no attempt to encourage any of them.
He did however pay attention to Tessa, and asked her several questions, which were innocuous enough but the damage was done.The visiting ladies noted his attention to her, and Tessa could see they were drawing conclusions—erroneous ones.She wanted to explain that she had no interest in him, no interest in marrying every again.But of course she couldn’t.
Finally the last visitor—except for Lord Alverleigh—left.
“Well, Marcus,” Lady Gosforth said, “what do have to say for yourself, coming at this hour, when you know it is one of my ‘at home’ afternoons?”
“And are you not ‘at home’ to me?”He raised a sardonic eyebrow.“And here I was thinking I could come and go whenever I wish in my own home.”
She snorted.“You know very well what I mean.”
He turned to Tessa.“And how did you fare in the ordeal by hens—I mean ladies—that my aunt subjected you to?”His gray eyes gleamed.
Very aware that his aunt had stiffened at his words, Tessa said, “It was most interesting, and no ordeal at all.Everyone was very k—polite.”
His eyebrow arched sardonically.Had he noted her switch from ‘kind’ to ‘polite’?
“Of course they were polite,” Lady Gosforth snapped.“My friends would not be otherwise.”
“They would not dare,” her nephew murmured.
“Marcus, before you go, I wish to speak to you—privately—in the small sitting room,” the old lady said.She turned to Tessa.“I will dine at home this evening.You will join me.”
