The doors at the far end of the ballroom opened. Primrose came through them in white muslin with a blue sash, her auburn hair dressed simply, her chin lifted. When she reached the centre of the room and made her curtsey, she did it with a grace that owed everything to her poise.
Violet’s hand found Henry’s arm. She did not trust her voice. “She is magnificent,” she managed.
“She is a Thornwick woman,” Henry said. “Was there any doubt?”
Her mother and sisters had assembled near the south windows. Lady Thornwick was in a blue silk, the younger girls scrubbed and wide-eyed, in brand new ball gowns. Thetonglanced at them, whispered, laughed behind their fans.A baron’s daughters dressed by charity, Mad Madelyn, the Hampstead nobodies.She had heard worse about herself. But hearing it in her own home from the guests who were drinking her champagne, was a different kind of cut.
Henry released her without a word and crossed the ballroom. She watched him go. Every pair of eyes in the room followed him. He reached the south windows, and he stopped before her mother and he bowed. Not the shallow inclination a duke offers to an inferior. A proper bow, the bow of a man greeting his mother-in-law with the deepest respect.
She could not hear what he said, but she saw her mother’s face startle and soften. She saw Henry offer his arm, and she saw her mother take it, and she saw her husband lead her mother into the room as though she were the most important woman in it.
Violet pressed her fingers to her mouth. She would not cry in a ballroom. She would not.
Chapter forty
Three Women
Violet
“You have outdone yourself, Your Grace.”
Violet turned. Lady Cranbrook stood at her elbow in dark blue silk, her silver hair swept up, her eyes carrying the sharpness that Violet had learned to trust above all other qualities in a woman.
Cranbrook surveyed the room with unhurried attention. “Come. There are people you should meet.”
Violet followed.
They made a circuit of the room. Cranbrook introduced her to the Duchess of Banbury, who had been a patroness of Almack’s for thirty years and whose approval could open doors that a duchess’s title alone could not. Banbury looked at Violet the way one looks at a piece of furniture one is not certain belongs in the room. She offered a smile that did not reach past her teeth.
“How charming,” Banbury said. “And how brave of you to host so soon after… well.”
Violet smiled through her gritted teeth.
“Her Grace has been rather occupied,” Cranbrook said in a pleasant voice. “She has been saving her husband’s life.”
Banbury’s smile stiffened.
“I was there, you understand. I saw it myself.” Cranbrook raised her champagne glass as if to toast. “The duke was dying. The physicians had exhausted their remedies. Her Grace identified the poison, prepared the antidote, and administered it herself.” She paused. “I use the word ‘antidote’ loosely. She brought him back from near death. It was the most remarkable thing I have witnessed, and I have witnessed a great deal.”
Banbury’s expression had rearranged itself considerably. “I see.”
“I thought you might,” Cranbrook said. “Shall we?”
They moved from group to group and circled back through the supper room and past the card tables. Violet was amazed that the whispers that followed her were no longer the hiss of suspicion but the murmur of curiosity.
Cranbrook leaned toward her, her fan covering her mouth. “This is precisely why a ball is a perfect place to influence opinions. We have planted the seed here, my dear. All we need to do is watch it grow and fruit.”
They found Lady Thornwick near the windows, standing alone.
“Mama,” Violet said.
Lady Thornwick turned. Her eyes went bright.
Cranbrook stepped forward and took Lady Thornwick’s hand. Then she took Violet’s in her other hand. The three women stood at the edge of the ballroom while the music played, and the candles blazed and thetonturned its circles around them.
The evening wore on. The candles burned lower. She went to find her husband who was sitting, at last, in a chair near the windows, his colour pale. He was holding the green book. She sat beside him and tucked her hand into his arm.
“I received Harris’s report a few minutes ago,” he said.
