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The only thoughts she should be having about her cousin were schemes to involve herself in his quest to find the Beaumartin Chalice, and that was likely to be difficult enough to banish all other considerations from her mind. Elinor smoothed down the skirts of her new evening dress and went next door to see if her mother was ready to go down.
The door diagonally across from hers opened at the same time. Of course, the marquesa had managed to secure a chamber next to Theo’s. Why was she not surprised?
‘Ma’am.’ Elinor curtsied, realising as she did so that her punctilious behaviour was a way of subtly pointing out the other woman’s seniority.
‘My dear Miss Ravenhurst—Elinor, is it not?—call me Ana. We are going to be friends.’
‘I am sure we are.’ Elinor managed a warm smile of utter insincerity. ‘I look forward to discovering what interests we have in common.’
The other woman’s brows drew together sharply, then she laughed. ‘Interests in common besides Teó? Indeed, yes. And I look forward to meeting your esteemed mother.’ She swept off down the corridor, a tall, slender lesson in elegance, her mass of golden brown hair coiled at her nape, her severe gown emphasising her figure with every step.
‘Ouch,’ Elinor muttered as she opened her mother’s chamber door. She had hoped to be subtle and had been neatly countered by the other woman’s alarming frankness. She saw Elinor as a rival for Theo—a pitiable one, no doubt—and she was quite prepared to make that clear.
‘I have just met the Marquesa de Cordovilla, another of the guests,’ she remarked, wondering whether to say anything about the woman. The marquesa would go through a polite drawing room like a shark through a school of fish. Her mother might be amused. On the other hand, like a ship of war, she might simply train her powerful guns on the other woman and fire a broadside.
‘Indeed? What is there in that to amuse you?’ Lady James settled a handsome toque on her grey curls and nodded decisively at her reflection in the mirror. When she chose to dress up, she did it with a vengeance and usually with an ulterior motive.
‘She is somewhat unconventional. And she does not like me.’
‘Indeed? Why is that? It appears extreme on a fleeting encounter.’
‘I met her in St Père when I was with Theo. I believe she is…attracted to him and thinks I am a rival.’
Elinor expected her mother to give a snort of amusement, probably encompassing both disbelief that any titled lady might desire her nephew and that anyone should see Elinor as competition. Instead she fixed her daughter with a disconcertingly direct look. ‘One of Theophilus’s past lovers?’ she enquired.
‘Mama!’
‘Do not be namby-pamby, girl. He’s a man; a lady of your age is not ignorant of these matters, she simply pretends not to see them. What is the woman doing here? Or was she invited to distract Julie from Theophilus and keep her attention on the count, for whom I assume she is intended?’
She had thought her mother too absorbed in the chateau’s antiquarian curiosities to have done more than notice its inhabitants in passing; this degree of cynical insight was fascinating. She had not thought it worth commenting on the possibility that the marquesa saw Elinor as any kind of rival. That, of course, was too ridiculous. But the marquesa would soon see that for herself once she realised that Theo saw her merely as his friend and relative.
‘I believe the marquesa came to visit the chateau in passing because of her interest in art and antiques and was invited to join the party. She is in much the same business as Theo, I understand.’
‘The company promises to be reasonably congenial,’ Lady James commented, picking up her fan and reticule and getting to her feet. ‘Is that one of your new gowns, Elinor?’
‘Yes, Mama. I think madame has done excellent work with it.’
‘Hmm. Where are your pearls?’
‘I did not bring them, Mama. I thought it unlikely I would need jewellery on our journey.’
‘Jeanie!’ The maid emerged from the dressing room with her mistress’s stole over her arm. ‘Fetch out my jewellery case again.’ She removed the key on its long chain from her reticule and opened the box. ‘The amethyst and diamond set, I think.’
‘I thought you did not believe in unmarried girls wearing diamonds or coloured gem stones, Mama.’ The ornaments glittered and sparked as Lady James lifted them out and laid them on the dressing table.
‘I do not. But you are past the age where one need worry about that, Elinor. The earrings and necklace, I think—this is merely a family dinner.’
‘Yes, Mama.’ Elinor hooked the drops into her ears, feeling the unfamiliar cold caress as they swung against her neck. Jeanie fastened the necklace, rosettes of amethysts interspersed with diamonds, and stood back to admire the effect.
‘You look very fine, Miss Elinor.’
‘Yes, I do.’ Startled into agreement, Elinor looked into the mirror. Theo had been quite right about the colour of the silk: it made the pale skin of her neck and shoulders gleam. The softness of her hairstyle continued to work its magic on her face and the sophistication of the jewels gave her a confidence she had never felt before.
‘It would have been better if you had kept your hat on and had not burned your nose,’ her mother added, flattening her mood somewhat. ‘Still, you do not appear a complete hoyden.’
Exchanging a wry smile with Jeanie, Elinor followed her mother to the door. Burned nose or not, she felt suddenly more confident of holding her own with the marquesa.
Chapter Nine
