“The water is being heated for your bath and I,” Quinn said, rising, “will poke around the dining room to ensure the footmen have got the places set correctly with the right porcelain andcrystal. I sent Jeffrey in there with a ruler an hour ago, so it should be in order.”
Roland rose too. The time was fast approaching that Lady Serenity would step through his doors. It felt a rather momentous occasion, as it was not just a dinner. It would be an opportunity for the lady to have a look at his house. The house that, with any luck, she would become the mistress of.
*
Charles had returnedthe stupid dog he’d borrowed from Mr. Robbins. What a morning. He’d had some idea that the dog and Lady Serenity’s dog might take to each other, but they had not. At the very least, he’d hoped to interrupt whatever progress Thorpe was making with the lady. He had not got anywhere with that either.
Rather, he’d been relegated to walking beside Lady Verity with the housekeeper bringing up the rear. Had he ever had to listen to such drivel in his life? What was the girl thinking to invent a litany of facts that were not facts at all? Ancient peoples had once kept spaniels to warn of floods? Noah, himself, relied on his spaniel to know when to get on his boat? The girl was deranged.
It was possible they were all deranged. The youngest had practically shouted something he supposed was meant to be an apology about some letter she sent that Thorpe claimed he’d not bothered to read. The other one, Lady Winny or some such, seemed always to be scowling. And then Lady Serenity herself. If she preferred Thorpe, it did not say much forhermind.
He’d seen the hand brushing that had gone on.
It began to occur to him that merely presenting himself was not proving sufficient to divert Lady Serenity’s attention from his brother. Perhaps she was set on becoming a duchess. Butthen, she hardly seemed to have enough sense for such practical ambitions.
Now there was to be the dinner at the ungodly hour of six o’clock on account of Lady Vera or Velma or whatever her name was not being able to stay awake. The girl should be in the nursery under the strict control of a starched governess, not shouting out apologies and attending dinners. He would go mad if he were seated next to her.
He must do something to move things in his direction. Thorpe was positively smug at the moment. The high and mighty marquess believed he was winning. It could not be allowed to stand. If Thorpe were to prevail it would be a competition lost. Thorpe would wed the lady, and Charles’ defeat would be thrown in his face in perpetuity.
He just must think of something that would once and for all turn the lady’s attentions away from his brother.
*
Serenity had chosenher very best dress to wear to Lord Thorpe’s house. She’d been saving it for the most special of occasions and what could top this?
It was the darkest green silk dress with a matching velvet overlaid skirt that fell down from either side of her hips and showed the silk underneath to good effect. A gold thread band, patterned as lace, wound round the waist of the silk as the only embellishment. She wore one of her mother’s necklaces, a square cut emerald in a gold setting. She was determined to wear the most delicate green satin slippers, despite the damp of the pavement.
As Mrs. Right had fussed with her hair, she could hardly breathe. She’d forced some deep breaths in and counseledherself to stop being such a ninny. It was only that she was soon to walk into his house.Hishouse.
She’d gone downstairs and found the rest of the family waiting in the great hall, including Valor. Serenity was pulled up short regarding her youngest sister’s alarming appearance.
Rather than the usual silk ribbon tying back Valor’s hair, it had been swept up in a style suited to a lady twice her age. She’d also raided somebody’s jewelry box, Winsome’s, she thought. They all had such pieces, inherited from their mother. Except for Valor, as she’d been so young when they’d made their choices of the various jewels that she’d chosen the most worthless but most colorful. Including the enameled parrot pin she wore on a regular basis. This night, she’d donned a heavy pearl necklace and a pearl-encrusted tiara that was too big for her head and in danger of slipping down over her eyes.
“Goodness,” Serenity said, staring at her youngest sister.
“I know,” Valor said, looking pleased as Punch. “It’s my first dinner out in society, so I convinced Mrs. Right to put up my hair so I could look elegant.”
“Well now,” the duke said, “a hundred points for originality, I’d call it. Shall we proceed? We do not have far to travel, but it gets on six.”
They set off and as Lord Thorpe lived just two doors down, they arrived in moments. A very starched butler took them into the drawing room, where Lord Thorpe and Lord Charles were waiting.
As the greetings went round, Serenity could not help but to notice the rather wide eyes upon encountering Valor’s current mode of dress. She could also not help but notice that Valor took it as a compliment.
“It goes together, you see,” Valor said. “The necklace and tiara are both pearls, so they match.”
“Indeed, yes, they certainly do,” Lord Thorpe said.
Two footmen entered carrying silver trays and handed out crystal coupes of chilled champagne.
“Good idea, I may take up the habit myself—champagne before dinner to grease the convivial wheels,” the duke said.
It was indeed a charming idea and the coupes given to Winsome, Valor and Verity were just a quarter filled to supply a few sips. Though, there was something faintly ridiculous in the sight of Valor weighed down by pearls, her hair swept high, sipping from a coupe and then wrinkling her nose over it and putting it on a table.
The drawing room was of similar dimensions as their own, but far different in appearance. It had a man’s stamp on it with dark leather abounding. Bookshelves of leatherbound books lined the far wall and ran over top of the fireplace. Where there were not books, there were various portraits of the family. One in particular struck her as being most probably Lord Thorpe’s mother, based on the style of the lady’s dress. She was exceedingly pretty.
It was a manly room, but a very fine room.
The starched butler once more appeared. “My lord, you may go through at any time.”
