An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (6 page)

Andrew sighed and extricated his shirt
,
which had formerl
y been crisply starched and press
ed but which now more closely resembled an extremely limp rag
,
from the
jam
-
sticky
clutches of his younger son.

‘I suppose you must be right,’ he acknowledged, ruefully. ‘You normally are. And it may be quite interesting to meet with Mr and Mrs Buxton. I have heard good things about that young couple. They are on a visit to their grandmama’s, I understand, and I know for a fact that they are intending to come along.’

Kathryn, too, had heard good things of Mr and Mrs Buxton, who currently resided in Eastern England but were
apparently
in line to inherit the grandest house that Weymouth had to offer when the old lady whose husband had built it for her
eventually
passed away.

‘Then let that be our reward,’ she said firmly. ‘
They may yet become our neighbours at some stage and it should be good to make their acquaintance whilst we can.
I shall pen our acceptance and drop it in on my visit to
the library tomorrow
afternoon.’

The engagement in question was a formal dinner being organised by Mrs William Wright in honour of
the Regent’s birthday
. Well, that, at least, was what the invitations had intimated although in all actuality anyone who knew anything of the good lady at all knew that it was really in honour
of Mr and Mrs Buxton instead
. Having had the extremely good fortune to discover a mutual acquaintance in town, she had somehow managed to secure an introduction to the lady and gentleman in question and immediately established such a degree of
intimacy with them that, on learning of their plans to remain in We
ymouth a month or six weeks at
the least, she had determined on providing them with
a grand
dinner in the company of her
relatives and
friends.

Mr and Mrs Buxton would surely have felt embarrassed and flattered had they realised the extent of the planning to which Mrs William subjected her
glamorous
event
on their behalf
. Indeed, not only did it consume the whole of her attention for the space of several days but it also spread like the measles into t
he other members of the family
-
and most specifically
into
Mr Wright
and his long
-
suffering servants
-
as the time
determined for
its
in
ception
gradually
drew close
. For, h
aving been told in no u
ncertain terms by his lady
that there was no way in
which he could be spared to undertake his normal morning occupation of reading the papers at Harvey’s library and that, instead, he was required to
consult with the butler on
the preparation of the wine for the even
ing
,
agree the arrangements for the carving and equally onerous tasks,
poor
Mr Wright
was obliged to forego
his own interests
(
as usual
)
and neglect his newspapers
in favour of meeting t
he
demanding
expectations of his
very
good wife
instead.

It was singularly unfortunate, therefore, that despite having thought through almost every likely contingency and
put remedial plans in place, Mrs William was to find herself caught out at almost the last moment by an un
welcome
appearance in the hall at about a quarter after four on the very afternoon of the
pa
rty
.
This un
welcome
appearance took the form of a visitor – Mr Fred
erick
Staveley – who had
be
gged a passage to Weymouth o
n the
ship
of a p
rivateer of his acquaintance
and thus
enabled him
self
to appear
at his relati
ve
s’ new house som
ewhat in advance of the date
t
he
y
had previously
been given
to expect
. Mr Staveley would have received only a lukewarm
reception
at the best of times, Mrs William having little or no time for people who would neither benefit her family directly
n
or refl
ect some worthwhile glory on it
by dint of their
attentions
. But for him to appear this afternoon of all afternoons and apparently expect to be fed. Well, it was the outside of enough and would have been quite sufficient to try the patience of a
much more saintly
hostess
than she
w
ould ever be
. Indeed, for a brief moment it crossed her mind to hint to Mr Staveley that h
is presence, not being expected, was not entirely convenient just then and that h
e should perhaps instead
consider
purchas
ing
his dinner at the Royal Hotel down the road. The Royal housed a most genteel dining es
tablishment and was scarcely five
minutes from
Grosvenor
Place
, if
one
only walked quickly enough
– it would be no inconvenience to the fellow at all
to take his dinner there
. But to this her husband, sadly, c
ould not
be brought to
agree.

‘For after all, my dear
Georgiana
, he will see the house as his home as well as ours, will he not, his mama having paid us for the privilege of taking the apartment upstairs? It would seem a little rude were we simply to turn him away on the very first night of his stay. He will have to be included.
There is no option.
I am very much afraid that we will have to revise
our plans.
’

Now, had the dinner been the usual family affair
,
the sudden and totally unexpected appearance of Mr Staveley would
actually
have made no
difference to
Mrs Wright’s plans at all. There was no shame in having a spare gentleman at an ordinary family meal. But for a formal dinner – well, although it could be done – she had known of several great hostesses who regularly fielded imperfectly symmetrical parties – she had set her heart upon a level of formality which really required an equal number of male and female
gues
ts.
She had
already
put herself out once for Mrs Staveley, who had in
sisted that it was only polite
f
or her to attend
and therefore for whom she had felt obliged to invite the elderly curate from a nearby parish with whom
the old lady
had app
arently been acquainted in her somewhat distant
youth. For an elderly relative to so disrupt an expensive dinner party by requiring two gentlemen partners was – well –
really,
it was the outside of enough.
She would certainly never allow it to happen
like that
again.

‘It is
most
annoying
,’ she was saying
through the open door which joined
h
er husband’s
dressing room to their chamber
. ‘Had Freddy had
any
sensibility whatsoever he would have seen
immediately
that his presence would be
most
unwelcome and offered to dine
somewhere else for the night. He’ll hardly know anyone anyway. I cannot
imagine
for one minute that he’ll add
anything
to the party
-
except expense to us
-
at all.’

‘It is much to be regretted, that’s for sure, m
y l
ove,’ agreed her husband, dutiful
ly. ‘Though I can see that his mama will be pleased to have hi
m here
. She
will
scarcely
have seen
him above a fortnight this past two years and more.’

‘Well then, another evening would have made no difference
to them
at all
, would it? And
now
what are we
going
to do? Where can we find a
suitable female
to partner him
at this late stage in the proceedings?’

Mr Wright thought for a moment. He knew of one female whom he would be quite delighte
d to have present at the event but he wasn’t
quite
sure that he was brave enough to suggest her. Perhaps lucki
ly, therefore, it was M
rs Wright herself who
stumbled upon the self same person
without any
actual
prompting
from h
er dearest
spouse
at all.

‘What about Miss Owens, William?’ she demanded. ‘She has an
almost
genteel air about her at times. She doesn’t need to stay long after the meal – she can slip off back to the housekeeper’s room as soon as the coffee is served – and I could pu
t her with the Staveleys at their part
of the table. Nobody else needs to mix with her at all. In fact, now I think of it, I find that a
perfectly
splendid
idea.
I could partner her wi
th Mr Robert
son. I cannot imagine for one minute that
he’d
object to dining with a governess. That would allow me to put Freddy with his dear mama.
With any luck she might keep
him
occupied for a while and stop him stuttering and stammering to everyone
as he normally does
at the table. It would be a
blessing
for
him
,
and a blessing for us
all
.
Now,
’
holding up her hand imperiously, ‘
do not attempt to make me change my mind on this, William – it is
completely
made up already. I
know
that you will not like it above half, but
we fin
d ourselves in quite some pickle about it
, to be sure
, and sometimes we have
be prepared to
compromise
a little
every now and
then
.’
Mr Wright
was
fully
aware of the need f
o
r
compromise. He
had be
come
well used to doing just this
for
the past ten
years
and more
. ‘Now t
ell Ro
g
ers to notify Miss Owens that she will be dining with us tonight. It’ll be
quite
a trea
t for the poor girl after all. I daresay s
he won’t have attended
anything
half as grand
as this
in her
life
before
...
.’

In saying this, Mrs William was
perhaps
trying to persuade
herself
as well as her husband that her idea was
as good as she was making it out to be.
After all, i
t was not ideal to be seen to
be
elevat
ing
a governess to the highest echelons of society. The wretched girl might start to get ideas above her station – although, she thought grimly, she should be more than able to brin
g her
straight
back
down to
earth
again should Maggie show the slightest
tendency
of doing
a thing like
that
. But then, Mrs William was realist enough to know that she was not living in an ideal world. Unwelcome and uninvited guests did turn up unexpectedly for dinner from time to time and hostesses in these situations could only make the best they could of an otherwise extremely bad job indeed. Time was moving on apace. Even had she managed to think of an alternative it would have been most unlikely that she s
hould get a suitable substit
ute at this late stage in the proceedings. So, whether she were fully persuaded to the idea or not, there was nothing further to say about it. No, there was nothing else for it. Maggie must make up an extra place and partner Mr
Robert
son
into dinner.