by Sheila Walsh
Benedict saw the sparkle of expectation in her eyes, and stood up.
‘I have a feeling that the conversation is about to turn upon the rival merits of the Season’s anticipated fashions ‒ and I shall find myself very much de trop among the silks and muslins! Your grace’s obedient servant.’
He bowed over the Duchess’s hand with such an air that for an instant Theo was afforded a glimpse of that impudent, devil-may-care young gallant who had been banished to India all those years before. Then he was turning to her, the light still in his eyes.
‘Goodbye, sweet coz,’ he murmured. ‘I need not say be happy, for I’m sure you will be.’
The words sounded so final that she felt a sudden pang at his going. She sprang to her feet, holding out her hand impulsively. ‘I shall see you again soon?’
His fingers closed round her hand. He looked at it for a moment without speaking and than raised it to his lips. ‘But of course,’ he drawled, his voice softly mocking. ‘I am not so easily got rid of!’
Smiling, she reclaimed her hand but the imprint of Benedict’s kiss lingered on her skin long after he had gone.
‘Such a charming young man!’ said the Duchess approvingly. ‘Lud! How he broke hearts as a youth! But I confess I like him better now.’
Theo slept fitfully that first night ‒ and wished more than once, as the intermittent rattle of carriage-wheels disturbed her rest, for the peace of Shallowford. But by morning her natural resilience had asserted itself and she could not wait to begin. It had come as something of a disappointment to discover that the Duchess was not an early riser.
‘But, my dear child,’ she had explained with a trill of laughter. ‘Country hours would wear one to a thread in no time here!’ And as Theo’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, ‘Yes, I know. At your age I, too, could burn my candle at both ends, but now, alas, it is necessary to conserve. Only wait a few weeks, and you will understand.’
But on that first morning Theo woke with the dawn, and as she watched the sun rise she could remain in bed no longer. By the time Maddie came in, she was up and dressed and contemplating taking a walk. Maddie expressed disapproval. Only her attachment to Miss Theo had persuaded her to come to London, which, as she knew well from having it dinned into her as a girl, was nothing more than a hotbed of sin and debauchery. And the thought of her idol walking the streets of such a place without protection shook her prim provincial soul to the core.
‘It isn’t proper, miss ‒ that’s what I say,’ she insisted when, smiling, Theo declined her company. ‘Not proper and not safe, either … and what am I to say to her grace when you don’t come back?’
‘But I have every intention of coming back, Maddie,’ Theo pointed out reasonably as she donned her one good pelisse, which was a pretty shade of amber, and tied the matching ribbons of her bonnet in a rather dashing bow beneath one ear.
‘Ah!’ There was a wealth of meaning in that brief exclamation. ‘Intentions are all very fine …’
‘Oh, do stop, Maddie,’ Theo cried, half laughing. ‘I am going, and there’s an end to it! I don’t intend to be away very long, but if I should fail to return, I give you full leave to say I told you so!’
A pair of footmen stood like wooden sentinels in the cool marbled hall. Not a flicker of expression crossed their faces as she bid them a serene ‘Good morning’ and waited for them to open the door, but she received the distinct impression that they were equally disapproving. Ah well, they would no doubt put it down to her odd American ways!
Outside, the traffic of the previous night had vanished. The square was deserted, but wore a calm quiescent air of expectancy as though it knew that all too soon the merry round would begin again. The air was full of spring with a fresh impudent breeze tugging at Theo’s skirts as she chose her direction at random and began to walk briskly.
To her delight her steps led to a park, and here she wandered contentedly for a while, heedless of the dew that soaked her feet and the hem of her dress. There was much activity in the branches above her head, but the only human sign was a lone horse-rider galloping in the distance.
Theo’s mind turned to Aubrey. Perhaps, if the Duchess could provide her with a mount ‒ and Aubrey too if he wasn’t able to talk Selina into purchasing one for him ‒ they could resume their rides here.
It was now more than two weeks since Selina and Aubrey had come to London, and she supposed she would have to find time to call on Selina before too long. She was obliged to own that the visit would be more in the nature of a duty than a pleasure. It might have been supposed that Selina would be overjoyed at the change in her fortunes, but after the initial flush of triumph had died, she had compared her lot with Theo’s and, like a small child envious of another’s larger bag of sweetmeats, had found it wanting.
At last, reluctantly, Theo retraced her steps, still with the world very much to herself. Only as she once more approached Grosvenor Square did she see anyone. A gentleman, very elegant in olive green riding-coat and buff breeches and mounted on a bay hunter, came cantering towards her. And because the sun was shining and he was prodigiously handsome she was half smiling to herself as he approached. Their eyes met, and he doffed his hat in gallant salutation, returning her smile in a most charming lopsided fashion.
Theo blushed and quickened her step. Lordy, how forward he must have thought her! But for all that, her mouth curved ‒ it really had been a very pleasant walk.
There were repercussions, of course. Bracegirdle, her grace’s butler, looked down from his imposing height, carefully averting his eyes from her sodden hems, and informed Miss Radlett with exceeding politeness that had he been aware that she was wishful to take the air so early in the day, arrangements would have been made accordingly. Maddie scolded her and made her change her dress and shoes at once before she took an inflammation of the lungs, and most certainly before she took one bite of the breakfast which would be brought up to her at any minute. And the Duchess was scandalised.
Theo was summoned to her unbelievable pink-and-gold boudoir, where she found her grace reclining upon a day-bed fashioned like a huge shell, amid a sea of frothy pink lace.
‘In London, dear child, a young lady does not go out alone,’ she said in gentle reproof, dipping a sponge finger delicately into her cup of chocolate. ‘Still, I dare say it won’t signify this once, as no one is about at such an hour!’
Theo thought of her charming gallant and lowered her eyes demurely against the memory, as she regretfully gave her promise not to do it again.
The next few days passed in a whirl of activity. The first grand ball of the Season was still several weeks away, but already people had begun leaving cards and there were invitations to soirées and receptions delivered almost daily. It would be as well, said the Duchess, to waste no time if they were to secure the services of the very best mantua-makers and milliners before they became rushed off their feet.
Thus Theo presently found herself being pinned into silks and muslins and the flimsiest of gauzes, and soon a bewildering collection of gowns began to accumulate ‒ morning dresses, walking dresses, half-robes, redingotes, and the most exquisite ball-gowns. There were hats, too, for every conceivable occasion, and an irresistible riding-habit in palest green frogged with black, a trim black shako embellished with a pale green plume, and matching boots of softest kid.
The extravagance of it all was quite daunting, and Theo became seriously alarmed that what she had once considered an over-generous allowance would be totally inadequate to meet such acquisitions as the Duchess seemed to feel were necessary.
‘But my dear child!’ cried the Duchess when the purchase of two dozen pairs of silk stockings drove her to voice her fears. ‘Your allowance is but pin-money! Edmund has given me carte blanche to rig you out in the primest twig, and the reckoning is to go to him, so you need harbour no fears on that score!’
Theo could only pray that her grandfather knew what he was about, or he was likely to suffer a relapse when confront
ed with the said reckoning! For her first formal introduction into society she wore a gown of orange blossom Italian crepe cut low at the neckline and falling in soft folds from a high waist. Her grace’s own hairdresser did the most amazing things with her hair, weaving into a complex series of knots a rope of seed-pearls which exactly matched the ones that trimmed the neck of her dress.
The tall graceful creature who emerged at the end of it all was a revelation, but did not, she confessed laughingly, bear the least resemblance to the Theodora Radlett she knew!
‘Nonsense, my love! You look charming!’ exclaimed her grace, resplendent in lavender-grey silk and feathers. ‘And first impressions are of the utmost importance, you know!’
The assembly was being given by Lady Shadley, a bosom-bow friend of the Duchess, who confided that the Earl and Countess of Shadley were at the forefront of the fashionable scene. Her ladyship could therefore be relied upon to have invited simply everyone worthy of note. In the event, this seemed to be no exaggeration; the ton flocked to it, and Theo grew dizzy from curtsying as she was introduced to this personage and that while her patroness looked on, glowing with pride.
‘I hear that the Duchess is confidently predicting a succès fou,’ said Benedict, coming upon Theo unawares in one of her brief moments of respite, and looking, she thought, quite dashing in the black-and-white formality of his evening clothes.
‘You are quizzing me!’ she accused him, laughing.
‘Not I! I look forward eagerly to being able to bask in your reflected glory. You must know that I have already been solicited by more than one gentleman of my acquaintance for the honour of being introduced to my fascinating American cousin!’
‘Fascinating?’ In spite of the grandeur of the occasion, she giggled. ‘Oh, now I know you are funning!’
Benedict put up his glass to survey her. ‘Fascinating,’ he insisted. ‘I do see what they mean, sweet coz. Very fetching! And I am clearly not alone in my opinion.’ His glance moved to encompass a fair, rather thick-set young man whose attention strayed continually in their direction. ‘Alverton has hardly let you out of his sight!’ One eyebrow lifted. ‘You could do worse, you know ‒ eldest son ‒ heir to the Shadley fortune. How would the prospect of becoming a countess in due course appeal to you, I wonder?’
Theo’s indignation was tinged with embarrassment, for it could not be denied that Lady Shadley’s son had singled her out with conspicuous single-mindedness. But if Benedict thought for one moment that she had been encouraging the young man’s attentions!
She opened her mouth to refute any such accusation, but he only laughed as her eyes kindled.
‘Pax! It would never do for us to be seen brangling here! You are moving in elite circles, my dear. Did I not see you talking to Sally Jersey but a moment since? It is people like Lady Jersey and Countess Lieven and their little coterie of friends who determine what is de rigueur and what is not ‒ and you flout their conventions at your peril!’
Theo was unimpressed. ‘The Duchess was telling me something of the sort, but I thought she was exaggerating.’ A faint smile curved her lips. ‘She is a little prone to embellish the truth at times!’
He laughed. ‘Nicely put, coz! But in this instance, the truth needs no puffing up.’ He looked across the room to where her grace sat leaning forward in animated conversation with Lady Jersey. ‘If I do not mistake the matter, she is even now securing your admission to Almack’s, and that is the most sought-after accolade of all!’
Theo privately thought it all rather silly, but it was a most agreeable silliness for all that, and her letters to her grandfather bubbled with amusing anecdotes about her introduction to the haut ton which she guessed would entertain him as well as assure him of her pleasure in it all. What she did not tell him was of her meeting with the Comte de Varron, who had presented himself at Benedict’s side during that first assembly and demanded to be introduced to his most charming companion.
Somewhat to her embarrassment, she found herself looking up into the smiling appreciative eyes of the gentleman she had encountered briefly on her illicit walk that first morning in London. Not by a flicker did he betray that this was not their first sight of one another, though his fingers exerted a subtle pressure as he raised her hand to his lips with a murmured ‘Enchanté, mademoiselle.’
Theo looked at him with some curiosity; he was older than he had at first seemed, with a faint sprinkling of silver in his curling black hair, but he was undeniably handsome, with an elegance of dress and ease of manner that might all too readily captivate any lady unwise enough to be beguiled by such superficial lures, which, she told herself severely, she was not! Though, with Benedict looking daggers, she was moved on impulse to respond with more vivacity than she might otherwise have done to the Comte’s overtures.
‘Yet one more charming relation,’ he said with that attractive lopsided smile. ‘I have already made the acquaintance of another Monsieur Radlett ‒ Beau, is it not? And the fair Madame, also. Now, it would seem that the pièce de résistance is saved for the last.’
‘You are too kind, Monsieur le Comte,’ Theo said demurely.
‘It is not a kindness to speak the truth, mademoiselle.’ He appeared to be weighing his words. ‘Would I be correct in thinking that you are the American granddaughter of Lord Radlett?’ She indicated that she was. ‘Then, forgive my impertinence, but as your cousin here is well aware, I desire most urgently to speak with your grandfather concerning the whereabouts of an irreplaceable family heirloom. It is my earnest hope that you will be able to tell me that his lordship’s health is now sufficiently improved for that to be possible.’
Before Theo could answer, Benedict had interjected smoothly that he feared it was not.
‘Strange!’ The Comte’s eyes narrowed. ‘Monsieur Beau gave me to understand that he was considerably improved.’
‘Beau hasn’t seen his uncle for several weeks,’ Benedict said smoothly. ‘I, on the other hand, was at Shallowford only two days since.’
‘You didn’t tell me!’ Theo exclaimed, her eyes flying to meet his. ‘He isn’t worse? Oh, you would tell me if he was worse?’
His expression was inscrutable. ‘My dear Theo, how you do leap to conclusions! Nothing has changed, including the doctor’s strict injunction that your grandfather must have no visitors.’
A great surge of relief went through her. Of course, he was simply trying to put the Comte off! Glancing at the Frenchman through her lashes, she thought he was not best pleased, but Lady Shadley came bustling up at that moment to carry her off to be introduced to yet another important personage, and she did not see either of them again that night.
But on the following afternoon, when she was walking in Hyde Park at the fashionable hour with Lord Alverton and his sister, Clarissa, she saw the Comte in conversation with Selina and another gentleman. Selina seemed to be on excellent terms with the Comte. As Theo watched, she threw back her head to laugh at some obvious witticism, at the same time laying her gloved hand lightly on his arm.
The Comte looked up and inclined his head as he saw Theo and her companions, and a moment later the two groups had drawn level and somehow, after the initial courtesies were at an end, they fell into step and began strolling in the same direction.
Selina was like a new woman: as Theo had suspected, she blossomed in company, and in a pretty grey dress strewn with tiny violet flowers and a villager straw hat with violet ribbons displaying her fair curls to advantage, she belied her years. She greeted Theo with such an affecting display of delighted surprise that their companions must have thought them the dearest and closest of friends.
She was, she declared with just the right degree of wistfulness, endeavouring to take up her life again now that her period of mourning was almost at an end. ‘I have decided that I owe it to Aubrey. The poor boy cannot be expected to feel about my dear Geoffrey as I do … he hardly knew him, after all.’
Theo suppressed a smile and asked how Aubrey did.
‘Well, I am very glad, so long as he is happy.’
‘Happy? But of course he is happy!’ Selina stared at her, a faint note of sharpness entering her voice. ‘Why ever should he not be?’
Theo said hastily that there was no reason in the world, but something in Selina’s manner bothered her slightly. She told herself she was being absurd and put it from her mind.
It seemed at first no more than simple coincidence that the Comte should be placed at her side so that they at once began to converse agreeably together. The third gentleman in the party, a Mr Fontley, at once took pity on the shy seventeen-year-old Clarissa, which left Lord Alverton and Selina to make the best of one another ‒ a situation which did not please either of them greatly.
Lord Alverton, being already head over ears in love with Theo, both envied and resented the ease of address and sheer panache of the older man, while Selina was piqued by the Comte’s readiness to set her aside in Theo’s favour, the more so as he had until that moment been paying her the most singular attention. Although he could not even be contemplated as a husband, she fancied that he would be irresistible as a lover, and she had set her heart on him.
But no one casually observing the little group as it wove its way among a growing throng of colourful ladies and gentlemen who were taking advantage of the sunshine, strolling about beneath the trees, or nodding to acquaintances from the elegant carriages that formed a never-ending procession along the carriageways, would have remarked anything in the least untoward.
Only by very inconspicuous degrees did the gap between the couples begin to lengthen as the Comte with consummate skill contrived to fall a little way behind the others until he and Theo were out of earshot. She was at first simply amused ‒ and if the truth be admitted, not a little flattered ‒ that he should wish to single her out in this fashion.
