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“Don’t be silly! This will be so diverting,” Amelia said with a confidence Justine did not feel and would never feel, even if she lived to be one hundred years old.
“I suggest we carry on. It will only grow worse the longer you contemplate it.” William offered his arm to Justine. “The trick, as they say, is to sally forth.”
“You’re an expert in reticence, are you?” Justine snapped. Not that she meant to—it just happened when she felt so at sea.
He took that in stride. “No. But I am absolutely brimming with common sense. Take my arm before Sutherland throws himself down the steps to take your hand.”
She grasped his arm stiffly, and too tightly. She cleared her throat and lifted her chin. “You realize, don’t you, that people might infer something that is most assuredly not true now that I’ve taken your arm.”
“Horror ofhorrors. But it would be a wee bit awkward for you to strike off on your own as if you are marching into battle.”
“For heaven’s sake, take a breath,” Amelia chided her. “Offer me your arm as well, Douglas, and we’ll all go together, a happy trio, and no one will think anything of it,rendben?” She slipped her hand into the crook of William’s other elbow, taking his arm as she would take the arm of their father, or a close male acquaintance, leaning into him for support.
Justine wished she could be so relaxed.
“Ladies,” William said and began to escort them toward the stairs. Sutherland, having arranged his welcome party, had begun to descend the stairs, but paused halfway down to rearrange them all again.
“It is no’ necessary to appear so disgusted with my arm,” William murmured as they waited for Sutherland to direct his guests.
“Neither is it necessary to appear smug with princesses on either arm,” she murmured back.
“You think this is a look of smugness? No, madam, the look you see on my face is the discomforting pain of being put upon to attend a picture gallery viewing under these circumstances. And if I may,mypained expression is only surpassed byyourpained expression. You might at least appear as if you were no’ dragged here by force.”
“Lord help me, you’re not to tell me what to do, have you forgotten?” But she made herself smile as he suggested.
“Oh, I’ve no’ forgotten a word you’ve said, on my word, and I swear on the graves of all my ancestors, I never will. Good afternoon, Sutherland,” he said loudly.
Sutherland whirled around on his step. “Welcome, welcome!” he called. He began to descend the rest of the steps so eagerly that he looked as if he might suddenly curl into a ball and bounce all the way to their feet.
“Why does he look so gleeful?” Justine whispered. “Did you tell him I’m a devotee of art? Or that I’m without a match and ripe for the plucking?”
William snorted. “There is no’ a titled man in London who doesn’t know you’re without a match and ripe for the plucking. Why do you think they’ve all come? I know Sutherland, and he will seek to astonish you with all that he has and who he knows.”
Justine’s breath was growing shallow again.
“Stop complaining,” Amelia whispered. “I’m quite excited to meet all these interesting people.”
All these...peoplehad Justine’s heart climbing into her throat. She was so fixated on those crowding the windows above that she almost missed Sutherland bouncing onto the last step of the staircase before her.
“My Lord Douglas!” Sutherland said loudly as his flock closed in behind him. The boom of his voice startled Justine and quite possibly knocked a few leaves from the trees. He bowed theatrically over one extended leg. When he lifted, he beamed at Justine. “Your Royal Highness, you do us thegreatesthonor with yourpresence.”
“You are too kind,” Justine said. She was very pleased that her voice didn’t shake in the slightest. “Thank you for your gracious invitation. May I introduce my sister, Princess Amelia?”
Amelia put herself in front of William, ready to consume the attention. “Your Grace,” she said charmingly, and extended her hand, bowing her head, almost as if she thought Sutherland could be a potential suitor. Justine did not expect that she and William would exchange a look at Amelia’s coquettishness, but they did, surprising them both.
Sutherland surged forward so quickly and with so much energy that Amelia reflexively took a tiny step back. Her mother would have pinched her had she been here, and Justine made a note to remind Amelia of that later so they might laugh about it.An Ivanosen stands as a mountain in the face of a challenge.They used to play a game where one of them would stand as a mountain while the other did her best to knock her over.
Sutherland looked as if he indeed might knock Amelia over—he eagerly took her hand and bent over it, welcomed her to his house, then promptly dropped her hand and stepped to one side, to better see Justine.
“Oh.” Justine, too, fought the urge to take a tiny step back.
“Your Royal Highness, howpleasedwe are you have come to see thepicturegallery,” Sutherland crowed. He had a curious habit of swaying forward with certain words, as if to emphasize them, coming terribly close to her person when he did. Twice, he forced Justine to lean backward for fear that his thin lips might land on hers. “You will find we have one of thefinestart collections in all ofLondon. May I introduce my daughter,” he said, gesturing to air. When no one appeared, he smiled and called,“Constance!”
A young woman was trying to step through the crowd at his back and managed to make it just when Sutherland turned sharply in search of her and caught her shoulder with his elbow.
“Ow,” she said, touching a hand to her shoulder, and with a grimace, sank into a curtsy.
“Mydaughter, Lady Constance,” Sutherland said with a proud sway, gesturing to Lady Constance as if she was one of his works of art.
