He focused on the tiny little buttons in the back of the dress that started at the dip of her waist and went all the way up her luscious, long neck.
“There,” he said when he buttoned the last button.
Cordelia didn’t bother changing her soiled stockings but pulled on a pair of house slippers and dashed to the door. She turned as she touched the handle. “Do I look presentable?”
“You look lovely.”
He thought he saw her smile as she left the room. Thomas walked through their shared dressing room to his own bedroom. Thayne was not there. He was probably performing the duties of butler. Thomas took off his own boots and soiled tweeds. He stacked the clothes carefully, knowing the efforts that Thayne went through to keep his togs in good shape. Thomas dressed himself in a velvet smoking suit and combed his own hair.
Thomas went down to meet his guests. Cordelia was escorting Lord and Lady Esher into the house, when his cousin Oliver and his wife, Lois, arrived in a carriage. Thayne opened the door and Oliver and Lois stepped out. Oliver took a cigar out of his mouth and passed it to Lois, who smoked it. She placed her clawlike hand on her husband’s arm.
“Oliver, Lois, so good to see you,” Thomas said. “Thayne will show you to your bedchambers, and then we’ll have tea in the sitting room.”
“Has Cook made my jam tarts?” Oliver asked.
“With Devonshire cream,” Thomas assured him.
“Come, Lois,” he said jovially. “There’s not a moment to lose.”
Lois took another puff of the cigar and followed her husband inside the house. Cordelia walked back out at the same time. Lois tossed the cigar on the stone steps and hugged Cordelia. Thomas could tell that it took all of Thayne’s self-control not to pick the cigar stub up. Cordelia stepped out of the embrace, beaming, and Thomas would have forgiven Lois a dozen cigar stubs on his front steps. Once his cousin was inside, he signaled to a footman who picked up the cigar stub.
Cordelia smiled and stood by him. “Four down, two dozen more guests to go.”
Thomas impulsively squeezed her hand. “We’ve got this, partner.”
“You’d better believe it, partner,” she said, and squeezed his hand back before letting go to welcome his uncle and aunt, the Marquess and Marchioness of Grimsby. His mother’s brother stepped out of the carriage. Lord Grimsby wore the same vague expression that his mother often did. He had gray hair and a large forehead. He was slender like Thomas but not as tall. His wife stepped out of the carriage next. She had a small aristocratic head, with a big beak of a nose and a massive bosom. Her brown curls looked like corkscrews around her wrinkled face, and her mouth wore a sour expression. Why did his mother invite them? There wasn’t a more tedious pair among all the English nobility.
“Uncle, Aunt,” Thomas said, “allow me to introduce my wife, Cordelia.”
She curtsied with a grace of a dancer.
“Well, well,” Lord Grimsby spoke as if Cordelia wasn’t present. “I would never have supposed she was an American. Quite refined. Quite pretty too.”
Thomas blushed for his uncle’s bad manners, but the ordeal was far from over.
“I’ve never attended a party hosted by an American before,” Lady Grimsby said haughtily. “Consider yourself fortunate, Thomas, that I was able, for your mother’s sake, to overlook my scruples.”
He swallowed. “We are glad that you are here. Please allow Thayne to show you to your rooms.”
“I daresay I know where to go,” Lady Grimsby stated, and took her husband’s arm and walked inside the house in a regal manner.
Thomas leaned in to whisper in Cordelia’s ear. “Please tell me that you have embarrassing relatives. Lots of embarrassing relatives that you are going to introduce me to in America the next time that we visit.”
“Yes, but they don’t have such fancy titles,” she said with a saucy smile.
Her face was close enough to kiss. All he needed to do was lean a few more inches, but he heard the sound of another carriage approaching and straightened back up. Whether it was guests or their servants, he couldn’t be caught kissing his wife.
35
Cordelia was ready for a nap after welcoming all their noble guests. Her mind was still reeling over Stuyvesant’s unexpected arrival and the tree branch almost hitting her and Lucy. But she did not have time to process either experience. She was the hostess. Miss Vaughn helped her dress into a lovely evening gown of blue satin, with an elegantly embroidered peacock on the bodice and a square-cut neckline. Her long gloves and dancing slippers were tinted the exact same blue as her dress—and sable scarf, for a touch of drama. Cordelia usually didn’t wear jewels at dinner, for she didn’t want to emphasize the disparity between her own circumstances and those of Penelope’s. But tonight she wore a diamond dog collar that elongated her neck, several studded bracelets, and her wedding ring. She touched her ears that felt conspicuous without the matching earrings—the diamond earrings she’d bartered away for the simple delivery of a letter.
How different her life might have been if Mabel had delivered it like she’d promised to. She shook her head, her curls lightly bouncing around her face. Cordelia was not going to think about past mistakes, or even her future life. This was her first time hosting a dinner party, and she wanted to get everything just right. She put in her pearl drop earrings.
There was a knock on the door to the dressing room.
“Come in, Thomas,” she called.
Thomas opened the door and she caught her breath. He’d never looked so handsome before than he did now in his black dinner suit, with his hair swept back. He took her hand and kissed it lightly. “You sparkle brighter than any gem.”
