Before Kitty could question her mother’s meaning, or scold her because she very well knew her meaning, a stern-looking older gentleman stepped forward. He was a rather frightening visage and looked as if he were on the edge of a fury. He was accompanied by Miss Danworth.
“Lord Childress,” Lady Penderton said, her voice strangely devoid of its usual friendliness.
The lord bowed.
“This is my daughter, Miss Dell,” the baroness said to him.
Lord Childress looked at Kitty in what felt like a critical manner. She had already gleaned hints that he was not the most pleasant person in the world. She thought she could see now how he’d earned the reputation.
She curtsied and it seemed as if he barely acknowledged it.
“I suppose I might leave my daughter in your care?” he said to the baroness. It did not exactly sound like a question and he did not wait for an answer. “I have another engagement and will return later.”
“Of course,” Lady Penderton said, though she could not entirely keep out a note of surprise.
“I imagine I’ll have to fight my way through that ridiculous display I just came in on,” he said. With that, he turned on his heel and strode off.
There was an awkward silence in his wake.
Finally, Miss Danworth broke it. “I apologize for my father, Lady Penderton, and you are not to fret over it. Nobody need look after me, I am quite accustomed to looking after myself.”
Lady Penderton smiled kindly at Miss Danworth. “No doubt you are, but nonetheless you are to come to me for anything you need. One never knows when one may rip a hem or have a pin disappear from one’s hair.”
“Very kind,” Miss Danworth said.
Kitty, herself, hardly knew what to say. Her own father would never have acted so. The man had talked of his daughter as if she were a grocer’s box and he only looked for a counter to put her on.
Lady Penderton’s attention was turned to an acquaintance and Miss Danworth leaned close to Kitty and said quietly, “Now that you have encountered my dreaded father, not even the Palaskar collection shall be enough to tempt you to my house.”
“Not at all!” Kitty said. Though, really, Miss Danworth might be right. She would not relish encountering Lord Childress in his own house if he could barely be civil at a ball.
“But perhaps you might visit me at my house?” Kitty said. “I have not yet seen you there. I cannot claim to have anything as interesting as the Palaskar collection, but our cook does make a divine savarin if that would tempt you.”
“You are very kind, Miss Dell,” Miss Danworth said. “Though my father does not allow me many calls. Particularly he would not approve it if there is a single gentleman in the house who does not come into at least an earldom.”
Kitty almost recoiled. What was said was in a different tone, almost as if the cool demeanor that had been so recently dropped had been put back on again. And what was actually said! Lord Childress would not think Frederick elevated enough? Lord Childress was only a viscount, after all, not so very high over a baron.
She supposed the lord had grand plans for his daughter. Kitty was grateful her own father did not dictate to her in such a manner.
“And here comes Lord Dalton,” Miss Danworth said, in an even cooler tone. “He will thrill us both with his amusing personality and jolly wit.”
Though Kitty did not know Lord Dalton so very well, she certainly understood that comment to be mocking of his general seriousness.
“Miss Danworth. Miss Dell,” Lord Dalton said, in the tone lacking all jollity that Kitty had been accustomed to. “May I?”
Miss Danworth handed over her card and said, “I was just telling Miss Dell how amusing you can be. Your lightheartedness is striking.”
“My lightheartedness is only equal to your own,” Lord Dalton said, seeming not at all offended by the slight.
“Perhaps I am only not lighthearted in your presence,” Miss Danworth said.
“Perhaps I jest all the day long, until I encounter you. Though neither circumstance seems likely.”
Kitty hardly knew where to look. Perhaps she was not sophisticated enough, but she failed to understand the way they spoke to one another. Were they joking? Were they not?
As it happened, there was little time to debate the matter. Lady Hathaway’s Viking ship was bringing guests in with alacrity and Kitty’s card began to fill.
*
