Lady In Waiting (7 page)

Then, quite suddenly, Lord Argyll's expression changed. The cocky roguish grin was gone. "Fergive me, my lady. I've fergotten me place."

What? What is he going on about now? He's done nothing wrong. Or am I too coarse to realize it? Best feign displeasure. Yes, that's it.
Jenny screwed up her features until she felt she had attained a fair approximation of being appalled.

But the corner of the viscount's mouth twitched, leaving Jenny to wonder if he'd figured her out.

"I should have asked yer duennas fer permission to call on ye."

46

Yes.
Yes!
If he asked the ladie
s
—
s
howed a bit of interest in he
r
—
t
hen perhaps they might consider allowing the game to continue ... for a short time anyway.

She smiled brightly up at him. "I should very much like an interview. But of course, the decision is
entirely
up to the Featherton ladies. My future is in their capable hands."

Criminy, if he only knew how true that statement was.

As the music ended, and Lord Argyll, the
gorgeous
Lord Argyll, escorted her back to the Feathertons and Meredith, Jenny's heart pounded louder than the kettledrum in the orchestra.

Oh, please,
please,
grant his request, she chanted inside her head, as if doing so could mentally compel the two dotty old ladies to bend to her will.

But as they reached the fold, Meredith snatched up Jenny's hand and hauled her several steps away. Jenny stared back as Argyll began to speak to the ladies Leti-tia and Viola.

No,
no!
She wouldn't be able to hear anything from where they were now standing. She looked longingly toward the Feathertons and Argyll.

"Jenny," Meredith began. "I've spoken with my aunts and, well, you will never believe this bu
t
—" She sucked in a breath so deep that even over the murmur of conversation around them Jenny could hear Meredith's corset creak. "They have agreed to allow you to continue on with Lord Argyll."

Jenny narrowed her gaze. "What
exactly
do you mean by that?"

"They see the affection you and the viscount already

47

have for each other. And
l
ud, you know that matchmaking is their grandest passion in life."

Jenny nodded at that. Their fervor for orchestrating love matches was every bit as consuming as hers for shopping.

"And, wel
l
..." Meredith's pupils grew impossibly large.
"
They intend to see the two of you engaged!"

"Did you say ... well of course you didn'
t
... ?" Jenny suddenly felt faint.
"
Engaged?"

"Yes, engaged. Can you imagine what fun this will be?" Meredith bounced on her heels. "But
,
la, we have so much to do. You have so much to learn. We've already decided that a dance master is first on the lis
t
— but only to
refine
your repertoire. And of course, you will need a new wardrobe. At least two or three gowns for evening events, and a walking frock or two ..."

After the phrase "new wardrobe" Jenny barely heard another word. Well, except the bit about three gowns and a walking frock.

A little tremble of excitement raced through her. Could this really be happening? Was her grandest dream coming tru
e
—
a
t least for a short while?

No, surely she
was
dreaming. Of course. As Meredith rambled on, Jenny caught a bit of the flesh inside her cheek between her upper and lower teeth and bit down hard. "Ouch!"

Meredith startled at her outburst. "What is it? Are you well?"

Jenny's lips slid away from her teeth and she beamed back at the girl. "Perfectly."

How could she be otherwise? Somehow, her dream had slipped through the bonds of her imagination and taken solid form.

48

Still smiling, she turned and caught Lord Argyll's gaze.

"Soon," he mouthed.

Soon,
Jenny echoed, and a pleasurable prickle danced across her skin.

******************

The next morning, Jenny sat in the drawing room, waiting impatiently for the two Featherton ladies, who watched her from the settee, to begin. She fidgeted with her mob cap, tucking away a loose curl, then set about smoothing a wrinkle on me sleeve of her gray cambric work dress. It was all she could do not to thrum her fingers on her knee or nervously pick at her nails. But a lady would have more control, and therefore, so must she.

"Jenny, dear," Lady Viola continued softly. "What we are about to undertake is fraught with risk. If you do not follow our instruction to the smallest letter, our project will be at an end. The persona we carefully craft for you will crumble and the lot of us will no doubt be run out of Bath, despite our current standing in society."

"No one, and especially not members of the
ton,
likes to play the fool," Lady Letitia added, somewhat sternly.

Jenny swallowed deeply. "I understand, my lady."

Lady Letitia lifted a brow and stared hard at her. "We are not asking that you understand, gel. You've always been headstrong. We are not blind to
t
he fact that you often see rules as ... pliable, shall we say?"

"Dear," Lady Viola began, "what Sister is trying to say is that we need your assurance that you will do nothing without our direction."

49

That's right, gel.
Nothing.
You are unschooled in the ways of society. What may pass for acceptable on the street or below stairs may draw ridicule from the
ton
.
"

Jenny nodded. "I understand, my ladies, and I vow to do as you direct."
No matter how bleedi
n
' crazy it might seem,
she added mentally.

Why, they could ask her to attend a ball with a birdcage on her head and she would do it. For without them, her dream of becoming a lady would be just tha
t
—
a
grand, but unreachable dream.

Broad smiles grew on the two Featherton ladies' painted-on lips.

Lady Letitia dislodged her ample bottom from the settee and, with the assistance of her walking stick, came to her feet. "Well then, shall we begin?"

A little glow began to bloom inside Jenny, an energy spreading through her like the wake of a flame. She sprang to her feet. "I am ready." A giggle erupted between her lips. "It's as though I have been preparing for this all my life."

Just then, Meredith entered the drawing room with a massive bundle of dresses, hats, and wraps. When she reached the center of the room, she tossed them into the air and let every last piece cascade to the Aubusson carpet.

"
''Tis no use, Aunties," Meredith said forlornly. "I thought at least something would suit Jenny's needs, but nothing does. See for yourself."

The two ladies lifted their brows and peered over their noses to the scattered pile on the floor.

"What about the ruby gown?"

Jenny snatched it up off the floor and examined it.

50

She wrinkled her brow. "Begging your pardon, my lady, but the cut is for a young girl, not a woman grown."

When the Feathertons exchanged meaningful glances, Jenny quickly amended her words. "But I can remake the gown. Why, all I'd need is a few scraps of sarcenet and a length or two of satin ribbon."

Instantly, Jenny felt Meredith's arm about her waist.

"You are so clever, Jenny. And 'tis a good thing too. You need a serviceable wardrobe quickly, and it will take more time than we have to set a modiste on the task."

Jenny felt her spirits plunge. She'd been daydreaming all morn of exploring the fabric and millinery shops for fashionable swathes of velvet and silk crape, from w
h
ich she would have made modish gowns of the sort she'd drooled over in
La Belle Assembl
ι
e,
and Lady Viola's odd castoff issues of
Ladies Monthly Magazine.

She looked at Lady Viola then, dressed in the ladies' signature lavender color, but clearly in what was modish at least ten years past! Why, to look at her, you'd never know the old miss studied fashion as carefully as Jenny herself.

The corner of Jenny's mouth lifted as she remembered finding a French magazine jutting from under the settee cushion and suddenly it all made sense. The prim Lady Viola fancied fashionable
underpinnings.
She knew she was right. Had to be. Why, she'd ask her mother about it the first chance she got, since it was she, for some odd reason, who exclusively assisted the lady with her dressing.

Edgar entered the room with a gleaming silver tray just then, and though he kept his eyes focused on Lady Letitia, Jenny felt his cool disapproval of her. It mustn't

51

sit well to see one of his staff lounging with the above stairs crowd, chatting as if she were their equal.

No, she was sure it didn't sit well with
anyone
below stairs. Devil take 'em. Devil take the lot of them.

Her blood was half-blue, was it not? She deserved this chance, more than anyone below stairs. And if anyone challenged her about it, she would tell them so directly. Jenny gave her head a good hard affirmative nod.

When she looked up again, Lady Letitia had lifted her lorgnette before her eyes and was reading the vellum card Edgar had presented her. Her smile grew very broad, and she looked up at Jenny.

"Well now, you made a fine impression on Lord Argyll at the ball, my dear Jenny. He wasted not a moment securing the interview he'd requested. He shall call at four in the afternoo
n
—
t
omorrow."

Jenny felt a shudder work its way down her body. 'Tomorrow?"
Tomorrow.
Good heavens! She had so much yet to do.

Edgar cleared his throat and Jenny was startled to find him standing directly before her, now thrusting the silver salver before her nose. Hesitantly, Jenny lifted the missive from the tray and opened it.

How odd. It was written in Mr. Edgar's own
b
and
.
But the scrip was dark, as if written in hast
e
... or
ev
en—
gad
s
—anger.

Annie and a footman are waiting below stairs. See to them as soon as you are able.

Jenny glanced sheepishly up at Edgar and gave a quick nod. Something must be dreadfully wrong. Mr.

52

Edgar didn't usually permit his staff to have visitors. Lud, what was Annie thinking?

"Can you be prepared, Jenny?" Meredith was asking as she lifted the sleeve of the ruby gown Jenny was holding in her lap. "By four tomorrow?"

"Wel
l
..." She supposed she could repiece the gown into something more modish, and wear it for the viscount's interview.

But it would need something.
Ye
s
—
t
he garnet buttons. She'd need a bit of cream satin too, or maybe gold ribbon.
Criminy,
she needed to get to the shops, that's what she really needed to do, and in a hurry. Who knew how long it might take her to find just the right accents?

Jenny gave the dress a dubious look, then glanced sidelong at Lady Viola and sighed. "Well, I
might
be able to rework the gow
n
—
i
f I had no other duties this day or on the morrow. But of course, I have so much to do .. . like seeing to Miss Meredith's mending, and the laundr
y
—"

Lady Viola turned her attention to Mr. Edgar, who was staring wide-eyed with thin lips agape at Jenny in all her audacity. "Jenny will be excused from her duties this day and tomorrow, Mr. Edgar. Please see if Mrs. Penny can fill in, and if not, engage a girl from town to assist."

Edgar nodded, then with a chilly parting glance to Jenny, one that made her skin ice over, he turned and left the room.

This was hardly the Edgar she knew and loved. Hardly the man who'd practically raised her alongside her mother. But then, she'd never disrupted his household and staff before either. Why couldn't everyone just be happy for her?

53

She deserved this chance, by golly.
Deserved
it!

Lady Letitia caught her sister's hand and squeezed it enthusiastically before turning her faded blue eyes on Jenny.
"
There, 'tis all settled, gel. Off with you now. Got a bit of sewing to do if you are to be ready to receive Argyll tomorrow."