There were a few others, too. There were two matrons in particular who he would have welcomed, but they had no interest in it. As far as Percival could tell, they had both allowed their husbands to imagine that they were the brains of the operation and did not wish for the illusion to be shattered.
Someday though, he would encounter a lady with a keen intellect who was the right age and not yet married. He looked forward to that day and he would not hesitate in his pursuit of her. He was determined to marry such a lady.
After all, how else could it be? He must marry his intellectual equal and when he did so, he would afford her every opportunity to pursue her educated interests. Theirs would be no ordinary dining table, but rather filled with interesting and erudite conversation.
He had not met such a lady yet, but he was confident that he would. Each year, ladies as yet unknown to him arrived to Town to take their place in society. Perhaps she was even now in a carriage, poised to enter his life.
“Does Lady Rawley know about the salon next Tuesday?” Makepeace said quietly.
“I do not know, but there is worse news,” Percival said.
“There cannot be,” Makepeace said, thereby summing up his opinion of Lady Rawley joining the society.
“Oh, I can assure you there is,” Percival said. He handed Makepeace the note to read for himself.
His butler read the missive and Percival noted perspiration spring upon his brow.
“She brings hertroupe?” he said.
Percival nodded sadly.
“She rewrites the ending toOthello?” Makepeace whispered.
“Indeed,” Percival said. “So, perhaps Desdemona does not die after all.”
“Lord help us.”
“I certainly hope so,” Percival said, “as I do not know who else could help us.”
Chapter Two
Cordelia had soughtout her father and he’d been apprised that the famed actress Mrs. Dorothy Jordan was to dine with them that evening.
He did not meet the idea with the same unbounded enthusiasm that everybody else did, but then he did not fight against it either. The Earl of Westmont was a comfortable and calm sort of person and unless something was on fire, he was not likely to be unhappy. He had long operated on the idea that once a thing his daughters thought up got going, turning it round again would be as pointless as Sisyphus pushing his boulder.
The earl’s butler, Tattleton, had been at the earl’s side when the news was relayed, and that person had rather stronger feelings about it.
Tattleton had gasped and whispered, “An actress!”
But then, poor Tattleton had seemed to grow more tremulous year by year, so Cordelia could not take the sentiment too much to heart. None of them knew what affected him so, but their relocation to Town always seemed to bring on his frayed nerves.
Cordelia thought perhaps the noise and bustle of the town was too much for his constitution.
They were already seated in a private dining room when Mrs. Jordan was escorted in by what seemed to be half the staff of the inn.
They’d since had a jolly dinner and Cordelia thought her father enjoyed himself more than he thought he would. Mrs. Jordan, being of a comedic bent, was a wit of the first order. Her repartee flew like lightning seeking ground.
The dessert course came round and the innkeeper brought in a bottle of port for the earl.
“Ah, Mrs. Jordan,” the earl said, “shall you take port? I ask because we did dine with a French lady once who indulged in it. One never knows what various people’s habits might be—I suppose the theater has its own traditions.”
“The Frenchwoman was Madame Tussaud,” Juliet said for further clarification. “You might have seen her wax figures at the Lyceum two years ago. She was very fond of port and drank three glasses in a matter of minutes.”
Mrs. Jordan said, “I am not opposed to port on occasion, but whenever I am…in a certain condition, I lose all taste for it.”
This silenced the party, as nobody wished to inquire into the Duke of Clarence’s whereabouts while his mistress traveled the countryside alone.
“Mrs. Jordan,” Miss Mayton said, always willing to step into an awkward breach, “you are in for quite the treat this evening. We will have a very special surprise, but first I will read aloud from a novel we have just begun.”
