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‘To Miss R Fletcher, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London. My dearest and much missed friend, Thank you for your last, and for the sketches of your lovely house in Grosvenor Square. Ricky has taken the best of them, and some of the drawings of Chadwell Park, and is to have them framed as a set, to hang on the stairs, he says, where everyone may see them. I am sorry to hear that you have not yet attended any balls or other diversions. We are all gaiety here, with many new faces and the assemblies at the King’s Head have never been fuller. I stood up for every dance at the last, and was obliged to turn away gentlemen disappointed, which I cannot remember happening before. I know this would not be the case if you and your sisters were here, naturally. You are the stars of every gathering. Do not tell Will this, for it would make his head swell, but several young ladies are wearing the willow for him, and profess themselves so moped since he left that life is insupportable. Is it not amusing? And for Will, who was the most unprepossessing boy as a youth! There are two new families moved in, one in Fullers Road and one in Harlington Terrace. Oh yes, and Mr Plymstock’s elder brother has taken a house in St Peter’s Road for the summer, together with his wife, son and three daughters. They have an estate in the North Riding. Ma thinks the eldest daughter might do for Ricky, but Ricky says she will not do at all, for her nose is too long. Mr Robert Plymstock stood up with me for the boulanger at the assembly. He seems very pleasant. Write again soon, dearest Rosie. I long to hear of all your triumphs in London and the distinguished lords and ladies you will meet. Your affectionate friend, Belinda.’
~~~~~
Will’s comment to Tibbs that the ladies were too busy to receive callers was at least partly true. The hours directly after breakfast were fully occupied with lessons from Monsieur Bouchard, and from Miss Hapgood, an elderly lady who came to improve the girls’ diction and try if she might remove the last vestiges of Yorkshire from their speech. Will did not feel that his diction needed improvement, for Harrow and Cambridge had given him enough examples of pure aristocratic speech to emulate, but he sat in on the lessons all the same, and practised in private when he was otherwise unoccupied.
The rest of the morning was given over to shopping and, as soon as the horses had rested from their exertions on the journey from Hertfordshire, to the serious business of leaving cards. Will was not required for the latter, which involved the ladies driving to all Lady Failsworthy’s acquaintances, but his stepmother pressed him to accompany them when they visited shops.
“You are not serious!” he cried. “That is what footmen were invented for, surely, to open doors and carry parcels for ladies. You cannot possibly need me for such excursions.”
They were gathered in the drawing room before dinner, all clustered around the fire, for the evening was chilly, but Stepmother drew him a little aside.
“Will, in the usual way, naturally a footman would fulfil the purpose perfectly, but do consider, if you will. Rosie in all her new finery is bound to attract attention, but no gentleman could possibly approach her. If we had but a few acquaintances of a suitable station in life… but failing that, your presence will allow an admirer to enquire about her.‘Who is that very beautiful young lady you attend?’he might say. Do you see? A gentleman may address another gentleman with such an enquiry, may he not? And then you could give him some hint as to her direction.”
“That would not help,” Will said. “He could hardly march up to our door and present his card, not without a prior introduction.”
“But he could ask his friends in Grosvenor Square, and one of them could be mobilised to make our acquaintance, and provide the means of introduction.”
“They would be unlikely to do that. Let Lady Failsworthy do her job, Stepmother. That is your best means of entrée into society, not having me trail around in your wake like a glorified footman. You will have me in livery and powder next, I dare say.”
She took his refusal in good part, for he was only a small piece of the scheme she was hatching to launch Rosie on society. Each afternoon she went out in the barouche if the sun shone, and the town carriage otherwise, to leave cards at some of the most prestigious addresses in town. Berkeley Square, Hanover Square, Curzon Street, Great Audley Street… she came back with her head full of Lady This and the Honourable That.
Then there were drives in the park, accompanied by Will on horseback, but these outings were less satisfactory, for they knew no one and no one knew them. No passing horseman raised his hat to them, and no carriage pulled alongside to chat. Rosie was much stared at, but no one acknowledged them. And although each day brought more people to throng the paths, still they had no friends in town.
Even in Grosvenor Square, they knew none of their neighbours. The little dog that Rosie had so admired in Hyde Park lived but two doors from the Fletchers, and was seen being walked in the gardens in the middle of the square occasionally, but they had not yet met his owner, and even if they had, there was no guarantee that such a meeting would lead to a friendship or anything more than a nodding acquaintanceship.
Pa found it hard to understand. “Why would neighbours not even call?” he wondered. “It’s very unfriendly not even to leave a card to welcome us to the neighbourhood. I’m not sure I like these London people very much.”
Stepmother only smiled wanly. “The metropolis is very different from the country, or even from Yorkshire.”
“Aye, I’m realising that,” Pa said.
The return calls soon began from those who had received cards, but here too was disappointment, for none of the great ladies or honourables condescended to call.
There was Mrs Preston with her whey-faced daughter, who took one look at Rosie and Angie, glowing with beauty as they sat side by side on a sofa, and pursed up her lips like a prune. She did not return.
Mrs Dunoon was an elderly widow who was delighted to meet them, and confessed at once that she hoped thattheywould introduceherinto society.
“A little card party now and then, but nothing too high, since I only have a very modest jointure. Just once or twice a week… such a treat…”
General and Mrs Howe were pleasant people, but although they had an extensive acquaintance, it was exclusively amongst the military, which Stepmother did not feel was helpful.
Finally, there was Lady Nibbs, and her husband, Sir Tobias Nibbs, who ogled the girls through a quizzing glass and offered to take them to a masquerade ball.
“No need for you ladies to trouble yourselves,” he said airily to Stepmother and Lady Failsworthy, “for m’wife can chaperon the gals just as well as anyone, I dare swear. You can have a night orf and leave the little ladies to us.”
Even Stepmother’s manners were stretched to their limit by that. It was, perhaps, a caller too far. That evening, over the supper tray, Pa said to the butler, “Thank you, Keeble, you and your footmen can take yourselves off now. We can manage.”
Stepmother looked up in surprise. “Harry?”
He frowned at her, and when the servants had withdrawn, he stood in front of the fire. “Now, we need to have a little talk. Lady Failsworthy, you’ve been in London for the best part of a month now, eating at my table and drinking my wine and spending the Lord knows how much replenishing your wardrobe, and I don’t mind any of that, truly I don’t, so long as you do the job you were hired to do.”
“Hired!”Lady Failsworthy sat up a little straighter, every inch of her exuding outrage.
“Aye, hired,” Pa said relentlessly. “I am paying you a fee for your offices here, in case you’d forgotten. That puts you on the same level as my attorney or bailiff, and I expect a sensible return on my investment. What have you produced so far, eh? You don’t answer, madam, so I’ll answer for you — nothing. Nothing worth the trouble, that’s for sure.”
“Harry, I am sure Cousin Pandora’s acquaintances will call in time,” Stepmother said. “Not everyone is in town yet and—“
“Let us not waste any more time,” Pa said. “Lady Failsworthy, what precisely is the degree of your acquaintance with some of these people that you talk about? Lizzie, who is the one you’ve been depending on?”
