Four footmen who had come in now lined the far wall as if it needed holding up. More footmen filed in with a tea tray, cakes, tarts, carefully peeled and cut fruit, and the dreaded butter and dill sandwiches. Meanwhile, both dogs’ ears perked up, they sniffed the air, and they slowly turned toward Georgiana.
The queen seemed to notice the interest and said, “Do you like dogs, Miss Wilcox? I hope you do, as I cannot abide those that don’t. Particularly women who pretend to be afraid of them. I have just got one of my ladies over the fault as I was quite determined in it. How she imagined she would serve me and at the same time shriek at my dear little ones, I know not.”
“I adore dogs, Your Majesty,” Georgiana said.
The Pomeranians had been slowly making their way round the table and toward Georgiana. As she watched them, she thought they seemed rather cautious—curious, an occasional nervous wag of the tail, but not the unbridled enthusiasm of her father’s hunting dogs.
The queen poured the tea, and Georgiana took that fact in with interest. She had not been sure if a queen would pour her own tea and had rather expected some servant to do it. A servantwason hand to take the cups from her and deliver them to Lady Mendleton and herself, so that at least was a slightly different operation.
“Do choose something,” the queen said, waving her hands in the direction of the trays on the table. “I recommend the butter and dill sandwiches. I, personally, cannot abide them, but all my guests seem to adore them.”
Both Georgiana and Lady Mendleton dutifully put one on their small china plates.
“Lady Mendleton,” the queen said, “I have heard of your latest project—The Society of Sponsoring Ladies, I believe it’s called?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lady Mendleton said.
“Very interesting,” the queen said. “I have always thought that lack of coin ought not hold back a suitable young woman from taking her rightful place, so I deem it a fine notion. Though, I do pity the girl who is thrust into Lady Heathway’s clutches.”
Both Lady Mendleton and Georgiana were startled by the comment and Georgiana had to suppress her urge to laugh. It was all too true—whoever landed in Lady Heathway’s house would likely have a time of it, though she had not expected anybody to ever make the comment. She supposed that was one of the privileges of being the queen, one need not even be afraid of Lady Heathway.
“She can be a trying woman,” the queen said. “Though, I expect she will do her best, in the end. She always does, I think.”
Georgiana only nodded at the statement, as she would not know what to say to it and, in any case, her entire plan revolved around saying as little as possible. Having taken a bite of the sandwich, she was not certain she could have said anything if she wished to. The butter was unbelievably thick and the dill…well, it was dill. Quite a lot of dill. She swallowed the wretched thing as soon as she was able and took a sip of tea to attempt to obliterate its memory. She quietly placed her plate on the table, strategically behind a vase of flowers, and hoped it would not be noticed.
The Pomeranians had made their way around the table and were now at Georgiana’s feet. She thought she might dare scratch their ears and casually reached down. They did not flinch, nor bite, but rather leaned into her hands.
Once they had consented to be scratched, it seemed the ice was broken between them. They hopped on the settee and settled themselves as best they could on her lap, occasionally quietly sniffing at the greased napkin in her bodice.
“Miss Wilcox!” the queen exclaimed. “You have the gift, I see. So very rarely do my dogs take to anybody so quickly. Lord Langley quite despairs of them, or so he tells me. It is not his fault that they do not warm to him though, they don’t like men.”
Georgiana only smiled down at her two new friends, thinking that ought to be sufficient.
“Alas,” the queen said, “they will have you quite cornered and immobile now that they have settled themselves. I am afraid you will not be able to eat further sandwiches as that would unsettle them. It will be Lady Mendleton’s good luck to have them all to herself.”
“I had much rather have the company of dogs than food, ma’am,” Georgiana said. While that would not always be the truth, it certainly was the truth in the face ofthoseparticular sandwiches.
Lady Mendleton, looking down at the butter and dill sandwiches with some hint of sadness, said, “Georgiana is so charming, ma’am, certainly the dogs must sense it.”
“Nonsense,” the queen said dismissively, “they care nothing for charm, I can assure you. But they have a remarkable ability to sense who they can trust, and that is what they have done here.”
“You’re very kind, ma’am,” Georgiana said, having taken to petting heads, one on either side of her. She had debated the greased handkerchief gambit before she’d left the house, but now she was very glad she had done it. She had made two new friends, and they were friends the queen liked very much. As she had told Lord Langley, the importance of the visit was not so much to impress the queen, but to impress Lady Mendleton and assure her that her choice to sponsor Georgiana had been correct.
That, she was certain she had done. Though poor Lady Mendleton had been left with the dreaded sandwiches.
Georgiana hoped the visit might in some little way make up for her lack of accomplishments and recent disaster on Minerva in the park.
The queen and Lady Mendleton then took to discussing different acquaintances, and Georgiana was grateful for it. She would not be expected to comment on the Duchess of Stanbury’s new habit of wearing brocade, which the queen thought was ludicrous and Lady Mendleton thought not to mention she’d had some like dresses made herself. Georgiana was fairly certain that after hearing that pronouncement, the lady’s newly-made brocades would find themselves given to Jenny and never thought of again.
They traded opinions on Lord Alvanley’s latest witticisms, and both ladies were agreed that hewasthe wit of the day. Some, according to the ladies, thought Mr. Brummel might challenge Lord Alvanley as the wittiest, but the queen was of the opinion that Brummel was often too cutting and it would ruin him some day. Let a lord find himself the butt of a joke from a mere mister once too often and he would weary of it. She also thought that while it was a fine thing for a man to take pride in his appearance and dress carefully, Brummel took it to such an extreme as to strike her as rather feminine about it. One should, Queen Charlotte said, aspire more to Lord Langley’s style of dress—exceedingly well done but not looking as if half the day was spent on it.
This, naturally, pleased Lady Mendleton beyond anything. Of course it would, a way into any mother’s heart must be hearing of some approbation of her children.
And so they went on. Georgiana nodded when it seemed right, but otherwise employed herself in gently stroking the Pomeranians’ heads as they gently snored on her lap.
They discussed Lord Ryland’s unusual dining room and Georgiana discovered she had been correct in speculating that he had indeed knocked some walls down to transform it to its current enormous dimensions.
Suddenly, the queen said, “Miss Wilcox, do tell me how you were clever enough to unravel Lord Ryland’s mystery presented at his ball.”
