“Lady Verity?” Lilith asked, hardly believing her own eyes. Why was she here? She must have discovered Lilith was the author of the print. Was she to be denounced? Was everybody to know what she’d done?
Lady Verity crossed the room and took her by the hands. “Lady Lilith, how well you look! I apologize for barging in unexpectedly, but I did not know when your at-home day was and I was determined to see you. You do not mind it?”
Lilith shook her head. It was an extremely odd and exceedingly friendly greeting if it was a prelude to any recriminations about the print.
“I’ll arrange tea,” Clara said, bobbing a curtsy and running from the room.
“Might I sit?” Lady Verity asked.
“Yes, of course,” Lilith said.
They sat on the sofa of the cramped room that was used as a drawing room of sorts. “What a pleasant room,” Lady Verity said. “It’s sunny, which is always so cheerful.”
Lilith looked around. Certainly, for a lady like this, a lady who lived on Grosvenor Square in a fine house, there was nothing particularly pleasant about the room. Was she being mocked? Was it being pointed out to her that the room was small and the furnishings worn?
“I did so long to see you,” Lady Verity said, “I found I could not delay longer.”
Certainly the lady knew about the print and had come to gloat over her success. Lilith found herself too tired to even fight against it. “You’ve won, Lady Verity. I freely admit it. Do your worst.”
Lady Verity seemed entirely startled by the admission. “If by won,” she said slowly, “you mean Lord Wembly. Yes, we are engaged. I have not come to do my worst, whatever that would entail. I came because I know what it is to be heartbroken, and you do not have sisters to commiserate with. You did love him, I imagine?”
Lilith was sent into a tailspin. She’d come as a sister? It was preposterous.
“I can see that you do, or at least did,” Lady Verity said, shaking her head sadly. “But I am of the belief that fate has a plan for all of us. Whoever is truly meant for you will appear. I am quite sure of it.”
This was too much. Who was she to speak in such a manner? Was she to act the local vicar counseling one of his flock? “Oh yes, fate has a plan for me all right,” she said bitterly. “I will be forced to wed a man in trade who is ten years my senior because of my father’s reduced circumstances. Lord Wembly might have prevented all that. He is very rich and does not require a dowry, which I do not have. But as you said, fate had something else in store.”
Clara came into the room with their sad-looking tea tray. Lilith wished there had been no tea coming at all. She wished Lady Verity to leave, and she certainly did not wish the lady to note the difference between this paltry service and what she was used to at home.
“Did you love Lord Wembly, though?” Lady Verity asked.
“I liked him well enough,” Lilith said, pouring the tea and spilling some of it on the linen that covered the cracked porcelain tray.
“But you see, I love him,” Lady Verity said. “I really, really love him and do not give a toss for his money. I would love him if he had nothing at all.”
That was the absolute limit. She would love him if he had nothing at all. “Oh yes, why not?” she said. “It is insanely easy to imagine one would not mind doing without funds when one has never experienced it. I can assure you it is not so easy when youhaveexperienced it.”
Lady Verity took her cup from Lilith’s shaking hands. “I see. But will your father really press you to wed a gentleman you do not like?”
“What choice will we have? If I return to Town next year, will there magically be a gentleman turned up who does not give a toss for my lack of funds?”
“It’s all to do with the dowry,” Lady Verity said, tapping her finger on her chin.
Lilith was really beginning to wonder if Lady Verity were dense or if she were feigning ignorance. Of course it was all to do with the dowry!
“I have an idea,” she said. “I will write to the queen. She is imposing, frightening really, but she is very kind. She helped me, I do not see why she would not help you in some fashion. Yes, I will do it.”
“Write to the queen?”
“Yes, goodness, I imagine she does not understand your circumstances. How could she? I, myself, did not entirely understand. But I really believe she might be willing to do something. I do not know what, but if you are suddenly called to Buckingham and Lady Pembroke is to escort you and Lord Dartmouth meets the carriage, do not be frightened!”
Lilith did not know quite what to make of it. Lady Verity wished to write the queen on her behalf. Lilith believed she would do it, too. She had expected Lady Verity to swan in and gloat over her victory, but instead she was devising a ridiculous scheme to try to help. It was not a scheme that had a hope of producing anything, but nevertheless.
That print she’d devised about Lady Verity, that print that had begun to haunt her, loomed large in her mind.
“I can see you are dubious over the idea,” Lady Verity said. “But just think, the queen summoned me over that mocking print that went round. As you can imagine, I thought the very worst when I walked into the palace. I thought I might be sent back to Yorkshire, or even to prison because The Royal Society was caught up in it. I still don’t know if it’s a crime to mock an institution with a royal seal. That is not what happened, though. The queen was determined to help me, and she did help me. By the by, she composed that print of Lord Wembly on a fainting couch, she was that on my side of things.”
Lilith burst into tears. She could not hold it in longer. She could face anger, but not pity. Not kindness when there should be ridicule.
