Page 28 of An Enchantress for an Earl

Lady Fotheringhampton drew herself up, obviously thrilled to pass on whatever the drama was.

“Which niece? Why Lady Petrina Carrington, of course. And as to what scandalous thing – well, that’s what makes it so intriguing – no one knows, for certain. There are many things whispered of, but it is supposed to have happened this last spring, and been hushed up by the family. I am determined to discover exactly what it was!

“It was exactly nothing. My niece is a virtuous and well-behaved young woman. This gossip is the worst of slander, spread by some small-minded person who is obviously jealous of her accomplishments.”

“But surely… there cannot be whispers like this without there being some grain of truth at the base of it?”

“Balderdash! Petrina would not be party to scandal, ever, and I shall tell everyone I know that fact.”

Violet was fascinated. She had never seen the two ladies disagree before.

And, having just met Lady Petrina, she was inclined to agree with Lady Gillieston – she could not imagine Lady Petrina doing anything particularly scandalous at all. But what was strangest about the whole thing was to hear Lady Gillieston decrying someone, anyone, for spreading gossip. Given that the Lady was one of the biggest purveyors of gossip in the ton, the counterpoint was comic, extremely.

Violet’s mother appeared to be finding the conversation equally strange, and Violet suspected that she was struggling to prevent herself from laughing. The Duchess took what Violet thought was a steadying breath, and spoke again.

“I must agree that gossip can appear, invented out of whole cloth, with no grain of truth needed. But still, this does seem strange, and attempting to find out more about just exactly what she is supposed to have done might then make it easier for you, Lady Gillieston, to disprove the matter. Perhaps you should put your considerable skills for sniffing out what the ton would like to see safely hidden to work again, and try to trace this back to its starting point?”

The two women stopped glaring at each other, and turned to regard the Duchess. Violet was sure that, for a moment, the friendships of decades hung in the balance. Then they both nodded, and said, almost in unison.

“You’re right. Let us be about it at once.”

And with that, they turned, and set off across the ballroom, two women on a mission.

Violet stifled a giggle. Her mother, not looking at her, spoke under her breath, accompanied by an odd strangling noise.

“Violet! Don’t! Or I shall not be able to contain myself.”

Violet clenched her teeth, and forcibly prevented herself from laughing. Iris appeared at that moment, returned to them after dancing, and looked at both of them with a face filled with confusion.

“Why do you both look as if you have just swallowed one of Nanny’s healing possets? The kind with the close resemblance to green slime?”

The Duchess went quite pink with the effort of holding in her laughter, and Violet managed to utter, in the strangest voice, a command to her sister.

“Iris, I will tell you at home, but please, say nothing more now.”

“Well! Now I will die from curiosity, waiting until we get home. You are so cruel sometimes, Violet.”

“Yes.”

Iris blinked, having expected argument, not agreement, and turned rather huffily away from them as her partner for the next dance set appeared beside her.

Soon, Violet was claimed for that dance too, thankfully by an elderly gentleman who was always kind, and simply liked dancing. But as she moved through the steps of the dance, her mind was elsewhere, and her eyes roamed the room, watching the progress of Lady Fotheringhampton and Lady Gillieston as they worked their way about, talking to absolutely everyone. Iris was not the only one who would die of curiosity – Violet wanted to know what the two ladies were discovering.

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Villeham gritted his teeth, even as he danced with Miss Witherspoon. Every conversation he had walked past, this last two hours, had been about Lady Petrina – but not about how scandalous she was – nothing so satisfying – no, they had all been talking about the fact that Lady Gillieston had declared the whole rumour unfounded, and to be ignored.

That woman had influence – far too much influence – and if she kept this up, then the threat to the sister would fail before it had barely begun. Perhaps he would have to take Cater’s idea rather more seriously than he had hoped for.

He spent the rest of the evening considering ways in which he might arrange for Lady Violet Gardenbrook to be threatened, and for that to be used against Lord Merryfield. He was, sad to say, discovering that, on this matter, he was not as imaginative as would have been useful.

Still, there was a week or so until the demonstration – surely he could think of something by then.

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Arryn gave his father a wry grin as they settled into the carriage after the Ball, but they did not speak until they reached home, and Petrina had gone up to her room. Then, they settled in Arryn’s study, with brandy.

“It seems that our aunt feels family loyalty more strongly than even the lure of gossip. We did not need to co-opt her assistance. By the time that we returned to the ballroom, she had already begun her campaign on Petrina’s behalf, and even managed to recruit Lady Fotheringhampton to assist.”