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'Yes, indeed! A veritable Pink of the Ton!' said Miss Wychwood. 'I am wholly spell-bound – particularly by the elegance of his neckcloth! How long did it take you to achieve anything so beautiful, Ninian?'
'Hours!' he replied, blushing. 'It's the Oriental, you know, and I do think I've succeeded pretty well with it. Now do, pray, stop poking bogey at me, ma'am!' He turned to pick up from the table on which he had laid them two tight posies, and presented them with awkward grace, saying: 'Pray, ma'am, do me the honour to accept of these few flowers! And this one, Lucy, is for you!'
The ladies received these tributes with becoming gratitude, Lucilla being particularly struck by her posy's being composed of pink and white hyacinths, a circumstance which made her exclaim: 'How clever of you, Ninian! Did you guess that I was going to wear my pink gown?'
'Well, no!' he confessed. 'But the girl who made the posies up for me asked what you looked like, and when I told her you were dark, and not yet out, she said that pink and white flowers would best become you. And I must say,' he added handsomely, looking her over, 'pink does become you, Lucy! I never saw you look so pretty before!'
Miss Wychwood, admiring her own posy, which was made up of spring blossoms ranging in colour from palest mauve to deep purple, realized with an inward chuckle that Ninian had probably described her to the helpful florist as a lady somewhat stricken in years. She refrained from quizzing him, and, with even greater nobility, refrained from telling him that posies, tied up with long ribbons, wound round stalks encased in silver paper, however proper for balls, were not commonly carried by ladies at rout-parties.
Some two hours later she had the satisfaction of knowing that not only was her party a success, but so too was her protégée. She received her guests with Lucilla beside her, and had nothing to blush for in Lucilla's manners. Not for the first time she handed a silent tribute to Mrs Amber, who, whatever her errors, had demonstrably instructed the child in all the rules governing polite behaviour. The wild rose colour that flushed her cheeks when she was embarrassed, and her occasional gaucheries did her no disservice in the eyes of Bath's most influential hostesses, even old Mrs Mandeville, that most rigid critic, who had already gratified Annis by appearing at the rout, saying to her: 'A nice gal, my dear. I don't know where you picked her up, or why you're sponsoring her, but if she's a Carleton I should say that she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and you'll have no difficulty in buckling her to an eligible gentleman!'
Mr Carleton was amongst the last to appear. Miss Wychwood had released Lucilla from her post at her side, but was herself still standing at the entrance to the drawing-room when he came leisurely up the stairs. Lord Beckenham, who, from the moment of his arrival, had been hovering solicitously about her, no sooner saw who was approaching than he withdrew immediately from her vicinity, muttering that it would be better if he and 'that fellow' didn't come face to face. His abrupt retreat d
id not escape Mr Carleton's hawklike eyes; he said as he bowed slightly, and carried Miss Wychwood's gloved hand to his lips: 'If looks could kill I should be stretched lifeless on the threshold! How do you do, ma'am? Accept my felicitations on being able to hold such a brilliant Assembly thus early in the Season!' He put up his glass, and through it surveyed the crowded room. 'All the rank and fashion of Bath, I collect,' he said. 'Who, in God's name, is the formidable dame in the wig and enough feathers to furnish an ostrich with plumage for two of her kind?'
'That, sir,' said Miss Wychwood, controlling a quivering lip, 'is Mrs Wendlebury, one of the leaders of Bath Society. Only Mrs Mandeville's approval is more necessary than hers for a girl making her first appearance in Bath. She has brought her widowed daughter, and her granddaughter, to my party tonight which I count amongst my triumphs!'
He lowered his glass, and directed one of his penetrating looks at her. 'I wish you will tell me why you are putting yourself to so much trouble for my tiresome niece?' he said unexpectedly.
'I don't find her tiresome,' she replied. 'Indeed, she has provided me with a great deal of amusement! When I met her, I was feeling sadly languid and bored, but that, thanks to her, is a thing of the past. Come, I must make you known to Mrs Stinchcombe! Her eldest daughter and Lucilla have struck up a great friendship, and I am persuaded she will wish to make your acquaintance.'
She led him inexorably away to where Mrs Stinchcombe was seated beside Mrs Mandeville on an elegant settee, pushed against the wall, and performed the introductions. To her surprise, Mrs Mandeville said: 'No need to present him to me, child! His mama and I were bosom-bows, and I knew him when he was in his cradle! Well, Oliver, how do you do? Are you that pretty child's guardian? When Annis told me that she was a Carleton, and the ward of her uncle, it did cross my mind that you might be the uncle, but it didn't seem to me to be possible!'
'It doesn't seem possible to me either, ma'am,' he said ruefully.
She cast him a shrewd glance. 'Makes you feel older than you thought you were, does it? High time you did, if all I hear about you is true! But that's no bread-and-butter of mine! I like your little niece: not fully fledged yet, but a bud of promise. Don't you agree, ma'am?'
'Yes, I do indeed,' answered Mrs Stinchcombe. 'She casts the rest into the shade.' She smiled up at Mr Carleton, and said: 'You will certainly have enough on your hands when she comes out, driving away ineligible suitors, sir!'
'You shouldn't have invited Kilbride tonight, Annis,' said Mrs Mandeville, in her forthright fashion. 'An engaging scamp, I grant you, but dangerous.'
Avoiding Mr Carleton's eyes, Annis responded with a lightness she was far from feeling: 'I'm afraid my hand was forced, ma'am!'
'In what way, Miss Wychwood?' asked Mr Carleton, more than a hint of steel in his voice.
She was obliged to look at him, read condemnation in his face, and was goaded by vexation into making him a sharp answer. 'Lucilla forced my hand, sir, by inviting him, and begging me to endorse the invitation! As he was standing beside her at the time, what could I do but say I should be happy to see him here tonight?' She saw his brows draw together, and added quickly: 'Pray don't blame her! She knew him to be a friend of mine, and I had told her she might invite whom she liked.'
'Well, it was a pity,' said Mrs Stinchcombe, 'but I don't think any harm will come of it. From what I can see, he will find it a hard matter to get up a flirtation with her! Young Elmore is playing watch-dog, and is sticking to her as close as a court plaster!'
Miss Wychwood soon found that this was true: Ninian was obviously standing guard over Lucilla, which would have been amusing had his hostess been in the mood to be amused. Whether he was protecting her from Kilbride, or from Harry Beckenham, each of whom was making her the object of his gallantry, was a moot point: Miss Wychwood could only be thankful that his jealously possessive instinct had prompted him to behave very much like a dog guarding a bone; and to derive a certain amount of satisfaction from the realization that Lucilla was showing no preference for either of these dashing blades, but was merely enjoying, quite innocently, the novel experience of being a Success.
A cold supper had been laid out in the dining-room. It was informal, but most of the very young gentlemen present had engaged the very young ladies of their choices to go down to it under their escorts, and just as Miss Wychwood, an accomplished hostess, had matched the dowagers with appropriate partners, she found herself being confronted by Lord Beckenham, begging for the honour of leading her down to supper. She felt that nothing more was wanting to set the seal on the most unenjoyable evening of any she had ever spent but there seemed to be no way of escaping this added scourge, and she was about to smile politely, and to lay her hand on his arm, when Mr Carleton, standing, unperceived, immediately behind her, said: 'Too late, Beckenham! Miss Wychwood is promised to me! Are you ready to go now, ma'am?'
She found herself in a quandary. If she repudiated this engagement a quarrel between the two men would be the inevitable outcome: Beckenham's face had already assumed an alarmingly purple hue. Anything, she decided, would be preferable to a brawl in her house! She forced a smile to her lips, and said, mendaciously, but placably: 'I'm afraid I did promise to let Mr Carleton take me down to supper, Beckenham! Will you oblige me very much by taking Maria down in my stead?'
Mr Carleton, having drawn her hand within his arm, and led her inexorably out of the room, said reproachfully, as they began to go downstairs: 'You know, that was quite unworthy of you, my child! To have fobbed your most distinguished suitor off on to your cousin will very likely have made him your enemy for life!'
'I know, but what else could I do, when she was the only lady left in the room, and you had claimed – falsely, as you well know! – that I had promised to go down with you? Heaven knows there is no one I wouldn't liefer be with!' she said bitterly.
'Come, come, that's trying it on much too rare and thick!' he told her. 'You can't gammon me into believing that you would prefer Beckenham's company to mine!'
'Well, I would!' she asserted. 'For I know very well you only wish to be with me so that you may pinch at me for having invited Denis Kilbride to my party, and I won't endure it, and so I warn you! What right have you, pray, to dictate to me on whom I invite or do not invite to my parties?'
'Lay all those bristles!' he recommended. 'You are not going to come to cuffs with me, my girl, so don't be so ready to show hackle for no reason at all! I may deplore your taste in admirers, but I don't presume to meddle in what is no concern of mine. And when I pinch at you, it won't be in public, I promise you!'
Slightly mollified, she said, in a more moderate tone: 'Well, I will own, sir, that it was no wish of mine to include Kilbride amongst my guests. Indeed, I said all I could, within the bounds of civility, to make him think he would find the party a dead bore. And when that didn't answer I invited Harry Beckenham, and his friend, and Major Beverley, and – oh, several others as well!'
'In the belief that they might cut Kilbride out, or the hope that I might not notice him amongst so many dashers?'
