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“Indeed, for she has the power to turn one out looking like an angel or a positive fright. I hope I am not terribly vain, Eloise, but I should very much dislike to look a fright.”
~~~~~
‘To Miss Belinda Jupp, St Peter’s Road, Sagborough, West Riding. My dearest friend, we have a dog! One of the new footmen knew of a litter and Pa and Will went to choose one and bring it home. We were not allowed to go, for it was not the sort of neighbourhood a respectable lady would venture, Mama said. That was a disappointment, and the dog himself (for it is a boy dog) is also a disappointment. Pa says it was the best of them, but it is a queer sort of creature, with one ear that sticks up and another that flops down, and it does not like to be carried, and what is the point of a lap dog which cannot be carried? However, now that he has been bathed, he looks tolerably respectable and Pa says that his manners will improve with time. I confess it is unsettling that he scratches at the doors, chews the tassels on Mama’s favourite footstool, and gets under the feet of the footmen. We have lost a vase of flowers and a whole tray of tea things and Mama has said he is to be confined somewhere at mealtimes, in case of mishap. We have tried taking him out for walks, but he whines whenever he is restrained by the lead, and then he sits down and refuses to move. It is very wearing, when what we really wanted was a sweet little dog we could carry about, like the lady two doors away from us, whose dog is a little darling. We have not yet settled on a name for him, and since Mama has said that one more misdemeanour will see him going straight back where he came from, we do not like to get too attached to him or name him. Your despondent friend, Rosie.’
5: A Little Shopping
MAY
Will’s brother Johnny arrived from Cambridge for a visit in the midst of the family’s retrenchment after Lady Failsworthy’s departure.
“Excellent!” Will said, as he watched his brother unpack by the simple expedient of turning his portmanteau upside down. “You must know a few people who will be in town this spring. Can you manage a few introductions, just to get the ladies’ wheels turning?”
“Lord, I have no time for social niceties,” Johnny said. “I have to go back on Monday, so that gives me only two days to do my shopping.”
“Shopping? Is that what has drawn you to the metropolis, brother? And I see why.” He picked up a limp and crumpled neck cloth from the floor. “You need to repair your wardrobe.”
Johnny looked up with a grin. “Not everyone is a dandy like you, Will. It will not matter if I am a trifle dishevelled for a few days, for I shall be going nowhere. I am only here to buy books for Chadwell. Pa gave me a free hand and a sum of money for the purpose, and I mean to get as much reading matter as I can for the amount. Do you want to come with me? You must have some idea of where the best booksellers are.”
Passing over the question of books, Will kept to the important point. “Why did you not bring Matlock with you? I suppose you will expect Lester to see to you while you are here. It is very thoughtless of you, Johnny.”
“No, Pa said I could have the use of Enoch. This place is crawling with footmen, so he is not needed for anything but valet duties.”
“Oh, you have arranged it with Pa, have you?”
“I have. Booksellers, Will?”
“How should I know? Stepmother might have an idea. As for not going anywhere, true enough, but we have guests for dinner tonight. You will have to dress for that, you know.”
“Oh, I shall have a tray in my room. I am in the middle of a fascinating book,Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen, and it is impossible to read on those crowded public stage coaches.”
Will heaved a resigned sigh. “Lord, you are so bookish, brother. It is not natural, and no good will come of it.”
Johnny only laughed. “You are just jealous because you were never a Wrangler. You have all the dash and charm and the way with women, not to mention the vast inheritance, so I hope you will not begrudge me this one claim to renown, modest as it is.”
That made Will laugh too. Johnny may have his head buried in his books, but he had his own charm, and Will was not impervious to it. “I begrudge you nothing, for you have earned your renown — which is not so modest as all that, even if you were not Senior Wrangler. As for the tray in your room, I regret to inform you that it is quite out of the question. For myself I should not mind if you fail to eat altogether, which you are quite likely to do if that book is so fascinating, but Stepmother will not permit you to hide away. You will have to dine with us tonight.”
Johnny pulled a face. “Must I? Will she expect silk knee breeches and stockings? For I brought none with me.”
“I can lend you some,” Will said soothingly. “And you will be well advised to remember some acquaintance or other who might be helpful to us.”
Johnny sighed. “I cannot think of anyone. I will ask Landers when I go back to Cambridge. His father is a viscount… or is it his brother? I forget. But he might know people.”
The dinner guests were two of Pa’s City acquaintances, their wives and the two daughters of one of them. Despite Stepmother’s misgivings about opening their doors to the merchant class, she looked pleased enough to have six extra covers on the table and to receive the compliments showered upon her for her hospitality. The guests admired everything put before them, and since they ate heartily it was to be supposed that their praise was no mere form of words.
When the ladies retired to the drawing room upstairs, the men gathered around Pa and the port decanter.
“This is a fine thing, Fletcher,” one merchant said, “to be showing the women how well you live. I dare say my Belle will be wanting a house in Grosvenor Square, too. Cheapside will be nothing to her now.”
“What are your neighbours like?” the other said. “Dukes and dowagers, I make no doubt.”
“We haven’t the least idea,” Pa said, laughing. “We see them coming and going, but never a card do we get from any of them. It’s not like Sagborough, that much is certain.”
“Nor like Cheapside, either. We’d give you a better welcome than that. What kind of people would see a new neighbour arrive, and not pay a call? It’s naught but common courtesy.”
“The aristocracy is different,” Will said uneasily. “They would no more call on the merchant class than we would mingle with street sweepers.”
“Aye, they see us as encroaching mushrooms, no doubt,” Pa said easily. “It’s a pity, though, for I suspect Mrs Fletcher is going to be vastly disappointed if we don’t rub shoulders with a lord or two while we’re here. Well, I shall just have to cheer her up with some jewels. Where is the best place to buy some good pieces — diamonds and the like?”
