“It will be quite all right. You will not be alone.”
“You’re coming?” she asked hopefully.
Her aunt chuckled. “Me? No. Your cousins are all coming, all three of them. Their husbands are away on a hunting trip, but the three ladies will be there. They will come this afternoon and collect you. The maids will do you up, and you will let them. You will go to Lady Farside’s, and they will find you capable partners, gentlemen who are light on their feet, to dance with, so you do not have to worry about not knowing the steps. They will also tell you which dances are easy and which are not.”
Frances bit her lip, her stomach fluttering. This wasn’t what she wanted.
Dancing? Conversing? With none but her cousins for company, cousins she had not seen in years and years?
It did not sound like something she would enjoy. But she knew she couldn’t go against her aunt, who had been so kind and generous to her.
If Aunt Eugenia thought that she could find her a husband despite all the evidence that stood against her, Frances was not going to stand in her way. Perhaps her aunt simply had to learn with time that all Frances could ever hope to be was a lady’s companion, nothing above her proper station.
“It will be splendid,” Aunt Eugenia said and placed one hand over Frances’s, patting it lightly.
Even such small displays of affection made Frances uncomfortable, not because she didn’t like the sensation of her aunt’s hand on hers, but because she wasn’t used to it. Her father hadn’t shown her affection since she was a small child, and even the idea of Isabella ever showing her any kindness was laughable.
“Before I forget, we are going to have a guest.”
“A guest?”
“Yes. My godson, James Ellery, the Duke of Somerset, will come to stay with us for a while.”
Frances’s stomach dropped. She had just gotten used to being here and somewhat acclimated to the daily routine, and now someone was coming to stay with them. Someone of such consequence, no less. She didn’t know how to behave around such an elevated gentleman. She had never met one before.
“Do not look so alarmed,” Aunt Eugenia said with a laugh. “He will not trouble you, and he will only stay for a fortnight at most.”
A fortnight. A fortnight might as well be an age.
