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One of the most treasured invitations came from Lady Carrbridge. The Fletchers were invited to a grand ball at Marford House. Stepmother was inclined to set this great piece of condescension at Eloise’s door, but Will privately thought it was due more to Rosie. She was the Incomparable, and that was enough to grant her admission almost everywhere. Still, it meant that Stepmother’s attitude softened towards Eloise, so Will was pleased about that.
He was pleased about a great deal just then. Life felt rather good, and if he had still not winkled his way into membership of the most desirable clubs, he knew it would come, in time, and meanwhile Pa’s friends from the City had got him into theirs. It was good to have somewhere to go when he was at a loose end, to have friends to drink with and discuss the topics of the day. He felt as if he had reached some pleasant plane of existence, where he was at ease and where his burning desire to belong to this new society was at least partly assuaged.
And then there was Eloise. On the night of their own ball, when she had cried, she had seemed, for the first time, to be vulnerable and not the prickly, acid-tongued woman he had so disliked. He no longer disliked her, not in the slightest. Day by day and week by week, in shared dances and drives in the park and quiet conversations after dinner, he had grown to like her. Then he had heard her sing — heavens, such a voice! And he could listen to it every day of his life. He had a vision of the two of them sitting in their own drawing room after dinner, when she would play and sing for him. How delightful that would be. And upstairs, there would be a child in the nursery… several children, in time. How happy they would be together! And how glad he was that Eloise had looked at him and his future inheritance, and inveigled him into offering for her.
The only complication to this pleasant period was the return of Mr Somerwell. He spent more than an hour closeted away with Pa, full of apology for overstepping the mark.
“I was so enchanted with her great beauty that I lost my head for a moment,” he said, although how a man well into his fourth decade of life should lose his head over any woman, no matter how beautiful, was a difficult question to answer.
Pa accepted the apology, and Will was brought in to receive his share and to shake Somerwell’s hand, but there could be no assurance that Rosie would be so understanding.
“You have lost her good opinion, Somerwell, possibly for ever,” Pa said. “For myself, I have no objection to you trying to win it back, but I’ll not influence her one way or the other, and so I warn you. She’s a sensible girl, my Rosie, but I’ll not have her browbeaten, and you’re not to be alone with her again, understand? If you ever come to the point of wanting to offer for her—”
“I shall! Indeed I shall!” Somerwell cried.
“—it will be entirely up to Rosie whether she chooses to hear you or not.”
“I see how it is,” Somerwell said, crestfallen. “You have other, better, prospects for her now. I hear that Albury—”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Pa said shortly. “It’s nothing to me who she marries in the end, or whether she marries at all, so long as she’s happy. I won’t see her pushed into it, that’s all. So I wish you good fortune, Somerwell, but you have an uphill task ahead of you.”
Somerwell’s face cleared again. “If you will not stand in my way, sir, then I shall win my true love in the end.”
But Will could not like him, and watched him with suspicion as he began to pay court to Rosie once more.
~~~~~
The ball at Marford House gave them a taste of entertainment at a level that none of the Fletchers had ever imagined. Every room was transformed into a magical place where even the jaded palates of the highest ranks in the land might be refreshed. Instead of the vases of flowers and potted shrubs of their own ball, there were whole hedges clothed in silk blossoms and dragonflies so delicate that they fluttered gently as the crowds passed by. Instead of plain candles in sconces, flaming torches lit every corridor and massive trees laden with mirrored lights illuminated the furthest corners of the ballroom. Brightly coloured silks suspended from the ceiling transformed the room into a medieval pavilion decorated with shields and lances and heraldic symbols. In an ante-chamber, champagne and four kinds of punch flowed fountain-like into basins. Bewigged and liveried footmen were everywhere.
“Well, we will have to exert ourselves not to walk about gaping at such splendour,” Stepmother said, as they queued patiently to be announced.
“Do you admire such a display?” Will said.
She hesitated, then said in a whisper, “It is very beautiful, of course, but I cannot prevent myself from wondering what it must cost. I am not one to quibble over the expenditure for such occasions, and one does very much wish to show the family to advantage and not be cheeseparing, but look! Orchids! The whole length of the corridor lined with orchids. And the perfume is glorious but… I had not imagined there were so many in all of London. I shall not tell Madge about all this, you may be sure. She disapproved of the show we put on for our own ball.” She chuckled. “Dear Madge! Such a cross-patch, but I am very fond of her.”
“That is because she has gone back to Hertfordshire,” Will murmured. “We are all very fond of her when she is not here.”
She tried not to laugh, saying sternly, “You are a very wicked boy, Will Fletcher.”
It was not a great surprise to find the ballroom hot, stuffy and unbearably noisy. The Fletchers had learnt not to arrive early for such events, so now they paid the penalty of weaving through the crowds to find a quieter spot. Will’s greater height enabled him to see the Malpas family standing forlorn and unattended on the far side of the room, so they set off with determination to squeeze past raucous groups greeting as long-lost friends those they had seen only the previous night.
They had not taken ten paces, however, before Mr Somerwell materialised from the throng to claim Rosie’s hand for the first two.
“There is to be a minuet danced to open the ball,” he said, “but sadly you will not be called upon on this occasion, Miss Fletcher. Lord Carrbridge is to dance with the Duchess of Dunmorton, to please the duke, who has journeyed from the far north for the occasion. He was noted for his performance of the minuet in his youth, it seems, and so the duchess is to honour him by wearing the costume of those days. It will be quite a spectacle.”
“How charming!” Rosie said. “I hope his grace will be pleased.”
“I am sure he will be, for he dotes on his wife and everything she does pleases him. He is sitting just over there. Should you care to meet him, Miss Fletcher? If your mama permits, of course.”
Her mama was all eagerness to permit it, but Rosie shook her head vehemently.
“No, no, sir! I have no business imposing myself on a duke.”
“Imposing yourself?” Somerwell said. “My dear Miss Fletcher, your charm and beauty guarantee you admittance to any society, no matter how elevated.”
“I must disagree with you, sir,” Rosie said firmly, although her head was lowered so she need not look him in the eye.
“But Rosie, dear—” Stepmother began.
