And away she bustled, as Eloise rushed to follow her. As they crossed the entrance hall, Connie said, “I have to receive them this time, for they have been turned away twice already, but I cannot bring them into the Chinese Saloon.”
“No, indeed,” Eloise said. “The duchesses!”
“Precisely. All those rumours about the Prince of Wales! So indiscreet. I cannot expose the Fletchers to talk of that kind.”
Then a footman was throwing open the doors of the ante-chamber, and Eloise summoned her society smile.
Hewas there. She had not expected that. The mother and daughters she could have dealt with comfortably without turning a hair, but the sight ofhimset her on edge. He lounged against the upright of the fireplace surround, a carved marble figure, as if he owned the house. Why did he have to come, anyway? Why could he not leave her alone?
The footmen were already laying out wine and cakes and teacups, while the greetings were made and respectful bows and curtsies made to Connie, and then to Eloise. Connie was perfectly equal to the occasion. She seemed to move effortlessly from one level of society to another, the duchesses with their royal scandals left behind for the concerns of the society newcomers. Eloise suspected that if she were dropped unexpectedly into some remote parish, Connie would instantly find common cause in receipts for beef jelly and patterns for knitted undergarments for the cottagers.
Mrs Fletcher, eyes aglow with excitement to be received by the marchioness, chattered away to Connie’s overtures, and the younger daughter took her share in the conversation, too. Hair was the main subject under discussion, for Connie had not forgotten her theory that Miss Fletcher would be better suited by short hair.
“Short like yours, Lady Carrbridge?” Mrs Fletcher said. “Curls all over? For I do not think Rosie’s hair would curl that way.”
“No, no, more like the way Lady Caroline Lamb wears her hair, in tiny little wisps of hair around the face. Have you seen it? Her likeness has been seen in all the journals, for she is so admired.”
“I have seen her image, yes,” Mrs Fletcher said thoughtfully. “So, you think much lighter at the front?”
“Especially at the front, but also less at the back. It is too heavy, I think, piled up like that.”
“I thought it might add a little to her height,” Mrs Fletcher said. “She is such a little creature. Both of them are little.”
“Oh yes, like dainty little pixies! But one wants to emphasise such an advantage, for it will make the gentlemen feel so protective. A man does not want a woman as tall as he is.”
“That depends on the man,” Will Fletcher said, from his post beside the fire. “A tall man might be glad to find one who can look him in the eye.”
Insufferable man! He was not looking in Eloise’s direction, but he could hardly be speaking of anyone but her. As if it were not trial enough to be taller than most ladies without him mocking her. Oh, to be as delicate as the Fletcher sisters!
“Very true, Mr Fletcher,” Connie said, throwing Eloise an amused glance. “But in general, a woman who is built on dainty lines would do well to enhance the effect. Now, let me just scribble a note on the back of my card with the address of my hair cutter, and then if you decide to try it, he will make your two lovely girls look even more enchanting, I promise you. And as for colours…”
Eloise sighed. When Connie once got onto the subject of clothes there was no stopping her.
Will Fletcher removed himself from the statue that had been supporting him, and ambled across the room to sit beside her. “How are you, Miss Whittleton? Well, I trust?”
“Perfectly,” she said, perhaps more sharply than she had intended, still cross with him for mocking her height. Guiltily, she added, “And you, sir? The exertions of the season have not yet worn you out, I trust?”
“There have not been so many invitations as to exhaust our thirst for society,” he said, with a wry smile. “However, we have received our first invitation to a ball — Lady Pinner’s. Shall you be there?”
That was a surprise. She had heard the Countess of Pinner spoken of as an ambitious society hostess, still establishing her reputation and not one who would normally help relative nonentities like the Fletchers. She had a daughter of her own yet to settle, as well, who would be cast very much in the shade by Miss Fletcher.
“Perhaps,” she said neutrally. “Lady Carrbridge has received an invitation but has not yet decided whether to attend. Something better may come up.”
“Something better than Lady Pinner? A countess is not, then, the pinnacle of society — of all society below Their Majesties and Their Royal Highnesses, that is to say?”
“And the dukes and marquesses and their families — do not forget them, Mr Fletcher,” she said, with a little nod towards Connie, now waving her hands in the air to describe the precise shape of a bonnet. “Lady Pinner has her rank, but her entertainments are… not lavish, as I understand it. Lady Carrbridge’s precise words were,‘We had better dine well beforehand if we are to attend.’For myself, I care nothing for the supper if there is music and a few couples prepared to jig about, so I hope we go, however paltry the rest of the arrangements are. Although the card room is popular with the gentlemen, as I understand it. Lord Pinner is a great devotee of the cards, and likes to play high.”
“It will be interesting for us, lavish or not, and any ball is a delight for those who love to dance,” he said. “We are also to go to the Vauxhall Gardens, which is a wondrous sight not to be missed, so I have heard.”
“I have heard as much myself,” Eloise said. “I envy you that experience, Mr Fletcher.”
“Then come with us,” he said at once, his face lighting up in a wide smile. “We are getting up a large party, with two supper boxes, so there will be plenty of room. There will be so many others there that you will not need to talk to me at all if you dislike it. You see, you cannot possibly object.”
She laughed but shook her head. “I can and I do. I cannot leave Lady Carrbridge for a whole evening.”
“Of course you can. Shall we ask her? Lady Carrbridge? Could you possibly spare Miss Whittleton for an evening next week? We are getting up a party to visit Vauxhall Gardens, which she has never seen, and there will be plenty of room, will there not, Stepmother?”
“Oh yes, plenty of room. The whole family is to go, including my other daughter and her betrothed, who is a clergyman, and my sister-in-law, so Miss Whittleton will be quite safe with us.”