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Chapter 14
An Arrangement is Reached
“Sophia!” Clara squealed, rushing over to her friend at the gates of the Fletcher estate. Clara nearly wrapped her arms around her and jumped with joy, but a quick glance from Sophia to the other partygoers who lingered in the entryway helped her restrain her enthusiasm.
“I am so glad you were able to make it, Clara,” Sophia said, taking Clara’s hand and squeezing it lovingly. “It is a pleasure to see you again, Your Grace, Mr Morton,” she added with a delicate curtsy to each of the men trailing Clara. Edward and Christopher returned her greeting genially before the Duke made his way further into the estate to greet their fellow attendees.
The Fletcher household was smaller than the St. Georges’, naturally, but was larger than the Fitzroys’ house and more elaborately decorated than either. From what Edward had told her about his friend Jonathan, this was entirely within his character: the man was reputed to be a terrible wastrel and fop, and he was entirely too happy to play into this preconception at every opportunity.
“Please do not feel compelled to indulge in every foolish activity he suggests. Nor every dram of liquor he offers, Miss Clara,” Edward had told her in the carriage ride over. “The same goes for you, Your Grace,” he added to Christopher, who looked dour as ever. Miss Forsythe had fallen asleep not two minutes after the carriage departed, and Clara took care to step out the door before she had a chance to be awakened.
In accordance with Fletcher’s reputation, where the St. George estate was only sparsely ornamented with antique paintings and Grecian statues, the Fletcher house was an orgiastic outburst of vivid colours, rich wallpapers, musical instruments and stuffed specimens of exotic animals and mementoes from foreign lands. Clara thought she would like nothing more than to spend the evening examining every tawdry inch of the place.
Unfortunately, she remembered with a sigh, she was here to attend a dinner party. By now she had learned to dread such affairs, and had been dreading this evening all the more on learning her half-sisters would be in attendance.
“Just another opportunity to make a fool of myself in front of London’s upper crust,” she had complained to Edward when he quietly informed her of their invitation. He had been sympathetic to her worries, of course, and volunteered to jump to her rescue if Helena and Judith grew too aggressive in their ridicule. But really, Clara would have chosen to stay home if that would not have been seen as a slight.
Sure enough, as soon as Mr Fletcher’s manservant announced her presence when they entered the grand foyer where the party was in its early stages, Clara felt the room ice over. A cackle came from a conspicuously blonde corner of the foyer, and Clara prepared herself for another evening of mockery and embarrassment.
Why couldn’t we simply have stayed at home? she wondered. Or better yet, the Duke could have come on his own, and perhaps Edward and I could have stolen a quiet moment together… She felt her cheeks redden as this thought continued on to its usual conclusion.
“Clara, something has happened, hasn’t it?” Sophia asked quietly, leading Clara by the hand to one side of the spacious salon. “I can see it in your eyes, I’m sure.”
Clara shot a glance at Edward, who was introducing Christopher to a handsomely-dressed older man. “I don’t know what you mean, Sophia,” she said, but knew as she bit her lip shyly that Sophia could not help but catch on. As she suspected, her friend excitedly clutched her arm hard enough to leave a bruise, stifling a squeal of surprise with a hand to her mouth.
“Oh, Clara, tell me all about it!”
“Later,” Clara muttered, giving her a significant look. “I promise, I’ll tell you, but not now.” Sophia mimed keeping her mouth closed, but could not stop from bouncing with exhilaration.
From behind them came a voice dripping with ice. “It is so generous of Mr Fletcher to invite your sort to social engagements, don’t you think?”
Clara mustered whatever self-control she had and managed to remove the sneer from her face before turning to see the gangly form of Helena before her, flanked by Judith and a handful of their cronies.
“To say nothing of how kind it is of our host to ignore all that rude whispering in corners at his party,” she added with a serpentine smile.
“With one of her little friends, no less,” Judith said, nodding and lifting a hand to her round face as if to stifle the laughter that spilled out of her. “And without even introducing herself to him. Most kind indeed!”
From the corner of her eye, Clara could see Sophia begin to puff herself up, her face reddening at this undisguised abuse. But as she opened her mouth—surely intending to return these slights with a blast from her infamous temper—Clara stepped forward with a wide smile on her face.
Fortune favours the bold, she reminded herself, and with a quick intake of breath, she made her move.
“Helena,” she said sweetly. As Clara glided forward Helena recoiled, a look of fear and disgust on her face, but was stopped in place by Clara planting a quick kiss near either cheek in the style of the Continent. As intended, the manoeuver seemed to disarm her sister, who froze in a most unbecoming posture of revulsion. Clara repeated this greeting with Judith, who took it little better, but did not argue in sight of their crowd of followers.
“I am so happy to see you both here,” said Clara. “I know our last meeting was rather tense, and it’s such a relief to put that unpleasantness behind us.”
Helena and Judith exchanged a look of bewilderment. Clearing her throat, Judith answered with a somewhat shaky scowl, “I’m sure I don’t know what you—”
“Oh, but how rude of me!” Clara interrupted, putting a hand to her forehead as though just recollecting something. “I had invitations all written and ready to hand to you personally, and I forgot them at home. Wasn’t that silly of me, Sophia?”
Catching on quickly, Sophia nodded with a knowing smile. “Most silly.”
“I do hope you can forgive me as I simply invite you verbally, sisters,” Clara continued. “I’m afraid I am still learning the proper protocol for these things, and I do hope you will continue to be patient with me as I try to catch up with social expectations. I am trying ever so hard to act properly, but my poor upbringing makes such a feat most difficult.”
Amid the whispering that had broken out among the women surrounding them, Judith hesitantly raised her voice to ask, “Invitations? Invitations to—”
“To tea, that’s right! I was anticipating the three of us could have tea on the afternoon of June sixteenth.” Clara reached out quickly and took Helena’s hand in her left hand, Judith’s in her right. She could feel each sister try to pull away, but their eyes were as much on the acquaintances that surrounded them as on Clara.
“You will come, won’t you?” Clara asked in a loud, plaintive voice. “Oh, please say that you will! I should hate to lose the opportunity to better get to know my family just because of some difficulty with our social calendars.”
