“Lottie?” he said.
“Is she a toff? She looks like a toff.”
“She is familiar with the world that can offer you more than this one.”
“If she’s not looking down on you, love, don’t you be looking down on her,” Jewel added.
“Ain’t lookin’ down on ’er, Jewel. Want to be like ’er. Bet she could get a fancy bloke with deep pockets to take ’er to the altar. That’s the kind of permanent position I’m lookin’ fer. One beneath a rich bloke.”
Althea couldn’t help it. Laughing, she had a feeling she was going to have conversations with these women unlike any she’d ever had in the posh parlors of London’s elite.
He sighed deeply. “Lottie—”
“It’s fine,” Althea assured him. “Even the toffs dream of that.”
She was delighted by the ruddy hue that unexpectedly stained his cheeks. The women were suddenly out of their chairs and circling her. She suspected they’d been testing her, and she’d somehow earned good marks.
“Ladies, before we get started with today’s exercise,” she said, “I’d like you to tell me what you might want to do if you can’t be beneath a rich bloke.”
They started laughing and talking all at once.
“I’ll leave you to it,” he said near her ear before walking from the room.
“Ladies,” she said, “I can’t hear anyone if you’re all talking at the same time. Why don’t we move the chairs into a circle and get to know one another a bit better?”
Once they were all gathered, Lottie asked, “Do you like your bedchamber?”
Althea was surprised the young woman would care. “I do, yes. I find the colors very calming.”
Lottie grinned. “That’s what I was ’oping fer when I chose the wallpaper and counterpane.”
“You’re the one who designed it?”
“Lottie does all the rooms,” Pearl said.
She did? Well, that was interesting. It was also a possible alternative to her current occupation. “This room?”
Lottie grinned, lifted her shoulders. “All the rooms.”
“I find the parlor an interesting contrast to this room.”
The woman just blinked at her.
“Why did you decorate the parlor as you did?”
“Oh, that was for the blokes. They like to see naughty bits. Makes ’em think they’re bein’ just as naughty.”
She leaned forward slightly. “If it wasn’t a receiving room for a brothel, how would you decorate it?”
With her brow so deeply furrowed, she appeared incredibly serious as though she’d been asked if Parliament should pass a particular piece of legislation. “In blues and yellows, I think, ’cuz of the way sun comes in through the windows in the mornin’.”
Althea could envision it. The woman had the right of it. The colors would be perfect.
As she grilled the other ladies for the next half hour, she began to get a sense of their interests and how she might guide them toward other avenues. Once that was established, she moved on.
“I’d like to discuss your attire for these lessons. Since I’m striving to teach you how to be a lady, it might help if you didn’t see yourself as someone comfortable revealing... quite so much. You must have proper attire that you wear when you go shopping.”
They all nodded. Good. She’d encourage them to wear that.
