“Not at all.” Verity placed an arm around her cousin’s rigid shoulders. “And besides, their tawdry gossip matters not to us. Can only wound if we allow it. So let them blather on.”
Aunt Theo nodded. “Since Byron and Brummel absconded, everyone knows the rags have to invent stories for the titillation of their readers. And remember, today’s papers are tomorrow’s kitty soil box.”
Verity nodded too as her aunt bounced the patient feline upon her bosom. A faint silvering about the whiskers betrayed some age although its eyes were a clear amber – watchful and penetrating. “Aunt…” Verity frowned. “That’s not a new cat you’ve acquired, is it?”
“Which cat?”
Sephi rolled her eyes and raised a brow.
“Oh, well…him! No, no. This is Colonel Brandon. You’ve just never noticed him before as he doesn’t cry for attention or circle every female ankle that passes. He just sits and…guards.” She batted her lashes, all innocence. “Oh, and I bumped into Mrs Tait and accepted her invitation on all our behalf to a dinner.” Colonel Brandon’s purr was deep as thunder. “Must be off!”
“No, wait!” shouted Sephi.
“You did what?” yelled Verity.
The door closed.
Silence.
“Well. I’m not going.”
“Nor me.”
“All those people staring. And I know exactly what they’ll be thinking.”
Verity wasn’t sure about that but… “Agreed. We won’t go then.”
“As a matter of fact, Cousin, I think it might be a good idea foryouto attend.” Sephi’s lips pursed. “You need to start socialising more and it is only next door. You can return home if…if you feel uncomfortable.”
“Ha!” Verity tapped her foot. “As you should then attend also.”
“You know I cannot. For I trulyama scarlet woman.”
“Oh, Sephi, with a little more time no one will remember.” She brushed back a fugitive curl from her cousin’s coiffure. “And it was not your fault. A young girl is never warned against the well-practised lures of a libertine. It was just an…error of judgement, on your part.”
“Not in Astley’s Amphitheatre! With the lauded libertine of the Season. Who instead of marrying me as he’d said, publicly disavowed me. Even the clowns laughed. Not everyone makes that much of an error of judgement.”
Well, no.“But your father was wrong to cut you off. To throw you out.”
“Was he? I was so bird-witted. And if it wasn’t for you, I’d be peddling my dubious wares as a courtesan.”
“No you wouldn’t.”
Sephi glanced askew.
“No. You’d be a famed modiste instead, like you’ve always wanted to be. Or shall be, if you accept my offer.”
Sephi mumbled under her breath so Verity hugged her shoulders once more. Her cousin was a wonder with cloth and colour and would make a fine modiste. Verity had offered to help but it was not money or skill that held Sephi back: thatlibidinous libertine had ruined more than just her reputation – but also her confidence and spirit.
Now a bleak mistrust obscured the true Sephi like an opaque varnish over a bright and beautiful portrait.
“I’ll try to extricate us both from the dinner then. I like Mrs Tait very much but she does get a glint in her eye when we chat on the front steps. I think she considers the two of us a project.”
“For marriage?” Sephi pulled a face and fiddled with some brushes. “Pah! I’ve seen the gentlemen she invites for dinners – all the latest bucks and nobs of Town – we won’t do for them. I don’t know how she gets so many acceptances as theTonprigs must hoist their noses at her being from trade.”
“Two ways: one, Mrs Tait is vivacious, pretty and gentlemen can’t seem to say no. And two, her daughter Juliet’s dowry is six thousand.”
Sephi let out a whistle. “Well, I still think you should attend. And besides, it’s time you also stopped thinking about…him.”
