Tempting Sarah

by Gayle Buck

  Sarah decided that she must speak to her grandmother and explain to Lady Alverley that she and Margaret had not come up to London to be a financial burden to her ladyship. Even one as rich as Lady Alverley must have a bottom to her purse. It seemed incredibly imprudent to Sarah to keep spending money like water until circumstances forced an end to it, and that is what she was afraid that Lady Alverley might be doing.

  As for Miss Hanson, she was Lady Alverley’s dependent and she acted solely at Lady Alverley’s behest. It was useless to try to reason with her. Sarah said slowly, “Very well. Miss Hanson. I shall no longer question your decisions. Margaret, have you any thoughts on the matter?”

  “Oh, I quite agree. Poor Miss Hanson! You look as though you have the headache. You must lie down when we are returned,” said Margaret, reaching out to pat the older woman’s arm.

  Miss Hanson’s face registered surprise. Then her expression smoothed to a slight smile. “Thank you, my dear. You are kind,” she murmured.

  Sarah received the distinct impression that Miss Hanson’s needs and desires were not often noticed. She felt ashamed. She had been so wrapped up in her own frustrations that she had not seen what was so obvious now that Margaret had pointed it out.

  “Yes, Margaret and I can well entertain ourselves for the remainder of the afternoon. We have all of these lovely things to put away and a score of things to talk about,” said Sarah. “Perhaps we might take tea upstairs and then rest for a while. Unless, of course, our grandmother desires to see us.”

  Miss Hanson nodded. “That is a sensible plan, Sarah.” There was a note of relief in her voice. “I do not believe that Lady Alverley will have returned from making her calls yet, so I see no reason why you and Margaret cannot do just as you have said. I will send up word to you when her ladyship returns.” Miss Hanson paused and her brow creased in an anxious line. “I am persuaded that Lady Alverley will surely be pleased by our progress today. I hope that tomorrow will be just as successful.”

  Sarah and Margaret shared an astonished glance. “We are going shopping again tomorrow?” asked Margaret.

  “Why, yes, of course! We have not nearly accomplished what we need to, my dear,” said Miss Hanson with a smile.

  Sarah said nothing, but she shook her head. It was all so very different from home, she thought. There, she and Margaret would have whiled away the cold winter hours with reading and sewing and pleasant talk and taking a brisk walk or ride in the afternoons. Or they might have taken the gig into the village to do a few errands for their cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Buddington, and while there paid a call on friends. There would have been occasional chats with their father when he emerged from his library at mealtimes, and in the evenings they would have played cards or sat at the pianoforte to sing together.

  Sarah knew that their lives would have been considered dull by many people and, of course, it could be tedious at times. However, this frenzy that they had plunged into since arriving in London was so strange that she wasn’t certain that she quite liked it. “I am beginning to realize that we are going to be very busy,” she remarked to no one in particular.

  Miss Hanson actually laughed. “My dear Sarah! What a humorous thing to say! Of course, you shall be busy. Lady Alverley shall see to that, I promise you. You will not have a moment to spare outside of all the entertainments that you will be attending. That is the hallmark of a successful Season, you know.”

  Margaret’s eyes sparkled. “How exciting! Just think of it, Sarah! We shall be going to parties and routs and balls and the theater! It will be so amusing!”

  Sarah agreed to it, keeping her reservations and questions to herself. After seeing what Lady Alverley and Miss Hanson considered to be essential just in her wardrobe, she could not help but wonder if a staid country miss like herself could ever adjust to this new life.

  Margaret was different, of course. Sarah did not think that her sister would have any difficulty at all. Margaret was still very much a child in some respects, greeting every new experience with unabated enthusiasm. She was like a little darting fish, happily exploring a new pond, thought Sarah whimsically, with a slight smile, while I am behaving like a wary cat.

  When they entered the town house, Miss Hanson bid them good afternoon and went along to her own bedroom. The footmen carried in all of the parcels from the carriage and took them up to Sarah’s bedroom. At Margaret’s direction, they piled up the packages on Sarah’s bed.

  When Holby saw the slipping piles of packages, she threw up her hands in amazement. “My goodness! Whatever have you gone and done? Why, it looks as though you have bought out the shops!”

  “Not us, but Lady Alverley,” corrected Sarah quietly, untying the ribbons of her bonnet and lifting it off her head. She laid the bonnet down on a chair, together with her kid gloves.

  “This is not the half of it, Holby,” said Margaret merrily. “Miss Hanson says that we are to go shopping again tomorrow.” She threw off her bonnet and gloves and tossed them in the direction of a chair. One of the gloves slipped to the carpet, but she did not notice. She jumped up onto the bed and began breaking the strings and ripping the brown paper from various curious-shaped packages.

  “Proper spoiling, is what it is,” muttered the maid, eyeing the seemingly endless array of things emerging from their wrappings. She drew her hand across one of the Cashmere shawls, obviously approving of its silky feel.

  “Yes, one might say so,” said Sarah, chuckling. She unbuttoned her pelisse and slipped out of it. “Holby, I am famished. Is there any chance for some sweetened tea and biscuits being sent up?”

  “Of course, Miss Sarah. I shall see to it at once,” said the maid, taking the pelisse from her mistress and setting it aside. She glanced at the younger lady. “You should get out of your pelisse, too. Miss Margaret. You’ll get too hot if you leave it on.”

  “Pooh! I shan’t mind it a bit,” said Margaret, never looking up as she lifted a lovely straw out of a hatbox. She set it on her head and tied the satin ribbons. Margaret bounced off the bed. “Oh, I must look in the glass!”

  Sarah and the maid exchanged a glance. The maid shook her head and bustled away. “I’ll be getting the tea set up in the parlor, Miss Sarah.”

  A small parlor had been set aside for Sarah and Margaret’s use and a quarter hour later Holby returned to the bedroom to inform them that tea and biscuits had been laid out. Sarah had managed to get Margaret to pull off her pelisse, saying that she refused to sit down with her sister still dressed for the outdoors. “The tea shall grow cold and then I will be greatly annoyed with you, Margaret,” she added.

  “Very well! I shall take it off,” said Margaret, unbuttoning the outerwear and laying it aside. She was very willing to follow Sarah into the parlor for refreshments and consumed several of the biscuits.

  Afterward, Margaret stretched out on a settee. She arched her back contentedly before curling up on the silk cushions. She yawned and looked surprised. “How odd! I feel a little fatigued.”

  “And no wonder! We were gone more than half the day, being poked and prodded and pulled,” said Sarah, laughing. Then her smile faded. “Margaret, what do you make of it? Are we imposing too much on our grandmother? I do not like to think that we are.”

  Margaret gave a careless shrug. “Why do you let it concern you, Sarah?”

  Sarah looked at her sister with surprise. “Margaret, surely you have not forgotten what Papa said to us?”

  “Oh, I remember as well as you do what Papa told us. But it seems to me that while we are here in Alverley House that Grandmama’s wishes count more than do our father’s. We haven’t a thing to say about it, so it’s not a bit of use making a scene, is it?” said Margaret.

  “Yes, I suppose that you are right. Once I realized how we had badgered Miss Hanson about everything, I really felt quite sorry for her. She is placed very awkwardly. I can see that now. I should have held my tongue and taken it up with Grandmama instead,” said Sarah.

  Margaret
eyed her. “You intend to make a fuss, then? I don’t know that is at all the thing to do, Sarah.”

  “Perhaps not,” said Sarah. “Nevertheless, I hope to have an opportunity to discuss it with her later this evening.”

  Margaret shook her head. “I tell you now that it won’t do you any good, Sarah.”

  “Oh, do you think that Grandmama might cut up stiff? I admit, I do think that she is rather proud and probably set in her ways, as well. But surely, if I approach her with reason, she will not be offended,” said Sarah.

  “I’ve been thinking about everything quite a bit since this morning, Sarah. I don’t think that this matter has anything at all to do with Grandmama’s character,” said Margaret thoughtfully. “What I do think is that since Grandmama invited us to stay with her here and offered to sponsor us for the Season, we really have not the least right to question how she intends to do it. We don’t know what is required to be properly launched into society, after all. But Grandmama does, and I, for one, have decided to agree to whatever she wishes.”

  “Whenever did you become so practical, Margaret?” asked Sarah, a little surprised. She was used to her sister speaking whatever ridiculous whimsy came into her head. This proof of serious reflection on Margaret’s part was something new.

  “I have always been practical. You simply never noticed,” said Margaret, covering another yawn. “And since you are the eldest and have been used to arranging everything, I never really needed to do anything too much. You and Mrs. Buddington always settled everything between you.”

  Sarah was taken aback. “Oh, Margaret, I am sorry! I did not realize that I was so managing.”

  Margaret’s eyes twinkled at her. “What a peagoose you are, Sarah! As though I minded! I had my lessons and my stitchery and Miss Spoonsby was such a dear. She taught me ever so much about how to go on in a household, having been made to fend for herself in the most dismal of circumstances. What stories she told me about her previous posts! I daresay I know better how to do for myself than you do, for you had that awful woman as governess before dear Miss Spoonsby came to us.”

  “Yes; I was never more glad when Mrs. Buddington took such a dislike to her that she insisted that Papa choose between them,” said Sarah, chuckling at the memory. “Of course, he had no choice but to side with Mrs. Buddington, for she knew just how to make him comfortable.”

  Margaret laughed, too, but then her smile faded a little. “I wish that we still had dear Miss Spoonsby with us. I still miss her awfully.”

  “How could we keep her with us, when Papa finally decided that it was time for you to be emancipated from the schoolroom and that I was too old to have a companion?” Sarah laughed suddenly. “Poor Papa! I don’t believe that he thought any further than that. He made up his mind that we were all grown up and then he didn’t know what to do with us.”

  “And so he sent us off to London for the Season,” said Margaret contentedly. “I am very happy, Sarah. I am all excited inside, as though something terribly wonderful is going to happen. Don’t you feel it, too?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I am not so fanciful as you, Margaret. You know that. I am glad to have this opportunity, naturally. If it was not for Grandmama, I suspect that we would have remained with Papa all of our lives.”

  “How dull that would have been!” exclaimed Margaret, bouncing upright. “Sarah, I want to travel and meet all sorts of personages and have lovely dresses and horses. I don’t think that I could stand being stuck in one place all of my life.” Sarah laughed at her. “Well, you shall have at least some of those desires granted to you this Season, Margaret.”

  “Yes, and I think that is why I feel all anticipation,” said Margaret, unexpectedly serious. “I feel that my whole life is about to change.”

  “Of course it shall. You shall become an accomplished flirt and no doubt break a great many hearts and in the end wed someone very dashing and romantic,” said Sarah teasingly.

  “Oh, fie! That is what I think of marrying,” said Margaret, snapping her fingers.

  Sarah laughed again. She was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Come,” she called.

  The door opened and a maid entered, curtsying. “Begging your pardon, miss, but Lady Alverley sent me to request that you wait upon her ladyship in the sitting room.”

  “We shall be right down,” said Sarah. She looked over at her sister, raising her brows slightly. “Now what, do you suppose?”

  “How should I know? Oh, do let us hurry, Sarah! I just know it must be something wonderful,” urged Margaret.

  * * *

  Chapter 5

  When Sarah and Margaret went downstairs and entered the sitting room, they discovered that Lady Alverley was entertaining a visitor. The woman was much younger than her ladyship and attractive. She was fashionably turned out in a well-cut walking dress, and over it a three-quarter-length, bottle-green pelisse with bugle trimming. On her head she wore a large velvet bonnet of the same color trimmed with a sweep of black and white egret feathers.

  “Ah, here are my granddaughters now, Mrs. Jeffries. Sarah, Margaret, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Jeffries. She has kindly assented to place her time at your disposal whenever you should wish to enjoy a ride in the park,” said Lady Alverley.

  Mrs. Jeffries held out her hand to each of the younger ladies. She showed them a pair of twinkling green eyes and a captivating smile. “How do you do! I am glad to make your acquaintance. Lady Alverley has been telling me that you wish to keep up your usual habit of exercise while you are visiting her. I am most willing to chaperone you on these outings whenever you should so choose,” she said.

  Sarah was at once drawn to the widow’s friendly manner. As she shook hands, she said, “We regretted leaving our mares behind, certainly. We are used to riding every day, you see.”

  “Then you must continue to do so while you are here,” said Mrs. Jeffries. As Sarah and Margaret sat down beside each other on a settee opposite, Mrs. Jeffries inclined her head to her hostess. “That is, if Lady Alverley approves?”

  “Certainly. I would not have summoned you if I had not just that thing in mind, Elizabeth,” said Lady Alverley.

  “Of course not, my lady,” said Mrs. Jeffries with a hint of constraint, casting down her expressive eyes for a moment.

  At once, Sarah realized that Mrs. Jeffries’s relationship with Lady Alverley was not precisely one of friendship. Lady Alverley had in essence employed Mrs. Jeffries to look after her and Margaret when they went out riding. She recalled that Lady Alverley had mentioned Mrs. Jeffries the previous evening, and that the widow was not well situated financially. What a terrible thing it was, thought Sarah, to be obliged to rely on someone else’s largesse.

  “Have you got mounts for us already, Grandmama?” asked Margaret excitedly, perched on the very edge of the settee.

  Lady Alverley smiled. “Of course, my dear. I sent down to the stables and requested my head groom to choose suitable horses for you and Sarah. I instructed him to make certain that they are well-behaved but with some spirit in them. I hope that meets with your approval?”

  Margaret jumped up to throw her arms around Lady Alverley. “Oh, dearest Grandmama! They sound perfect! When may we see them?”

  “Tomorrow morning, Margaret. I shall have them sent round about ten o’clock. Naturally I shall not be up to witness your departure, but I trust Mrs. Jeffries to take good care of you,” said Lady Alverley, patting her granddaughter’s arm, before setting her firmly aside.

  “And so I shall, my lady,” said Mrs. Jeffries with a warm smile. She gathered her gloves and began to pull them on, indicating that she was drawing her visit to a close. Rising to her feet, she held out her hand to her hostess. “I know that you must have many other appointments, my lady, and so I shall leave you now. I shall come round about ten o’clock for your granddaughters tomorrow morning. I count it as my pleasure to be able to ride with them.”

  Lady Alverley extended her hand to Mrs. Jeffries. “Thank
you, my dear. I knew that I could count on you. You know your way out.”

  Mrs. Jeffries said a few kind words to Sarah and Margaret and then exited.

  Lady Alverley turned to Sarah and Margaret. “Well, my dears? What think you? Did you care for Mrs. Jeffries?”

  “I thought her quite delightful, ma’am,” said Sarah. “I appreciate your consideration in finding a pleasant companion for us.”

  “Oh, yes! It will be simply wonderful to be able to ride again,” said Margaret.

  Lady Alverley smiled at her granddaughters. “I am glad that you are pleased. It is my wish that you enjoy yourselves as much as possible this Season. That is why I am going to such lengths on your behalf. Your happiness is very close to my heart, you see. Sarah, I understand from my cousin that you in particular have had reservations over the expense that I am going to on your behalf.”

  “Indeed I do, Grandmama. I can see that we are already becoming a sore trial on your purse,” said Sarah. “I have certain misgivings, naturally.”

  “Pray do not let that concern you, my dear. I am a very, very rich woman. I can well afford to spoil my granddaughters. And it is all for a good purpose, in any event. You will find that my wealth, coupled with your own attributes of birth and beauty, of course, will open many doors to you that otherwise might remain closed,” said Lady Alverley.

  “I do not wish to sound ungrateful, for indeed I am not. It is just that we are not used to such extravagant living, my lady,” said Sarah with a smile.

  “I do hope that you and Margaret will be able to abandon these bourgeois notions. They do not become one of my blood,” said Lady Alverley sternly.

  “Margaret and I were just discussing the matter, ma’am. Margaret is of the opinion that we should simply place ourselves into your hands and refuse to be anxious for anything,” said Sarah quietly.