Chapter Four
Leland had beenall but forced to accompany his grandmother to the palace for the queen’s drawing room. As he did not have sisters, he’d never had cause to attend one. Though, he’d heard tell of the preposterous gowns the ladies being presented would be forced to wear, mostly to do with the complaints over the backbreaking cost of them.
Now, they were in a reception room while the ladies who would make their curtsies and the matrons who accompanied them were elsewhere. Apparently, after each made their successful curtsy, they would be escorted here to be congratulated.
The room was filled with pacing fathers and older brothers, they all looked as if they’d sent their young lady off to a campaign of war.
“Why are they all so nervous looking?” he asked the dowager. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“The girl could fall, that’s what. She’s got to curtsy very low, practically to a kneel. Then she has to back out. As she is doing all that, she is encased in a hot air balloon of a dress. It’s everybody’s nightmare, a girl would never live it down. I expect the queen insists on that ridiculous court dress for the excitement of it. Will she or will she not fall over.”
He nodded. The whole thing sounded ghastly.
“Come, take me to a sideboard,” the dowager said. “I expect the palace has come up with something worth having. Then, we’ll standthere with a good view of the doors and you can see who comes through it that you like. Ignore what they’re wearing!”
Leland held out his arm. He had no intention of following his grandmother’s directives, but a glass of claret might go some way toward smoothing this experience. In any case, the whole point of why he’d come was to keep an eye on the dowager and ensure she did not commit him to a wedding of her choosing. And, if he were to be entirely honest, he understood that Lady Winsome would be presented.
As they approached the sideboard, Leland spotted Lord Landry. He’d not seen the fellow in an age, as he did not ever come to Town. What in the world was he doing in the palace for the queen’s drawing room? He had no sister to be presented.
“Landry,” he said, as the dowager plowed ahead to the sideboard. “What brings you here?”
Landry, who looked very downcast, said, “Forced to come. Family’s idea. My cousin, Lady Lisbeth, is doing her curtsy.”
“Oh I see,” Leland said, though he really did not. He had several cousins who had made their curtsy and he’d never been dragged here for it. “I’m here only to keep a tight rein on my grandmother.”
Very suddenly, Landry grabbed his coat sleeve. “I’m supposed to be introduced to ladies. They want to get me married! Ganged up on me about it. The family.”
“Ah,” Leland said, “well, certainly, it might be thought to be the right time?”
“That’s what they say. But women, Manderbey, do not you find them…a little bit frightening? With all their…ways?”
“Um perhaps only my dowager,” Leland said, not entirely sure what Landry was getting at.
The Lord Chamberlain had flung open the doors and the first lady to get through her curtsy was announced. There would be a regular stream from now on, Leland supposed.
The dowager approached with a piece of cheese in one hand and a glass of Canary in the other. Leland stared at the cheese. “Good God, did they not offer a plate and linen?”
“Can’t be bothered with it,” the dowager said. “Who’s going to scold an old and infirm lady over it? I’ll claim I’m senile if they do.”
“I see. Dowager, I believe you have met Lord Landry, a viscount from the next county over.”
“I remember. What’s brought you here?”
Lord Landry looked a bit panicked over the question and Leland supposed he was attempting to decide if he should point to his cousin being presented or that the family wanted to marry him off.
The Lord Chamberlain announced, “Lady Winsome Nicolet, daughter of the Duke of Pelham, accompanied by the Countess of Marchfield.”
Leland turned. There she was. From the bodice up, she was spectacular. Not even the absurd ostrich feathers could take away from her piles of blonde waves and the copper strands running through it, picking up the light. She was in high color, her cheeks suffused pink and her pretty blue eyes sparkling.
Of course, below the bodice the dress was absolutely preposterous. Leland began to think that if too many more ladies thusly attired entered the reception room, there would not be much space to maneuver through it.
Her father, the duke, collected her and they were heads together. Then he nodded and led her to the sideboard. Oddly, Lady Marchfield had not come very far inside the doors and now she turned around and walked out, much to the Lord Chamberlain’s surprise.
Leland had not been paying the least attention to the conversation between the dowager and Landry. Now, he walked off without so much as a by your leave.
“Your Grace, Lady Winsome,” he said, as the duke poured his daughter a glass of champagne.
“Lord Manderbey,” Lady Winsome said. “I pray you do not expect a curtsy while I’m in this dress. One was all I can manage.”
