Page 11 of A Hint of Scandal (The Mismatched Lovers #2)

L etty was already dressed in the gown she’d chosen for dinner that evening when Serafina reached their room. She’d taken a few extra minutes outside on the landing to compose herself and wipe away the vestiges of her tears, not wanting Letty to be able to see just how upset she was.

But her eyes must have still been red, because Letty shot her a sharply penetrating look and waved a dismissive hand at her maid. “You may go, Roberts. Fina and I will dress each other.”

Roberts, poker-faced and giving nothing away, slipped out of the room. She’d been a housemaid for years before being promoted to lady’s maid and suffered no illusions about the way Lady Gilbert treated Serafina, who’d been the recipient on more than one occasion of her commiserating glances.

The moment they were alone, Letty turned to Serafina, ignoring her obvious distress and with a somewhat triumphant expression on her face that deprived it of some of its prettiness. She probably needed to look in a mirror when she was feeling this vindictive. The old adage about not pulling faces in case the wind changed and you got stuck like that came to mind. “You’re probably itching to ask me how many gentlemen callers I had, I assume. Well, it was a lot more than your measly one, and one of them was a viscount. So much better than just the brother of an earl. Although I believe he’s somehow related to Captain Aubrey, or so Mama informed me after he’d left. How handy it is that she knows who everyone is related to and what they’re worth.”

Serafina, who was used to her own feelings being disregarded, fixed an interested expression on her face. Sometimes Letty’s self-centered personality grated, but this time she was glad to have the attention switched away from herself. “Of course I am. Was it great fun for you, and were they all doting on you?”

Letty’s expression softened now she was assured she had Serafina’s unwavering attention. “It was quite wonderful. You’ll never guess how many young men called on me. No, don’t even try. I was never more astonished to receive no less than eight callers, for I suspected that even though they’d expressed the desire to call, most of them would have forgotten by the time they rose this morning.”

She flicked her auburn curls with a suspicious air of nonchalance. “Although how they could forget me, I have no idea. Lord Simon Rosebery arrived first. He’s very handsome in a washed out sort of way as he’s so fair-haired. No sooner had he taken a seat then he was followed by the Honorable Matthew Lytton, whom I’d taken to be something of a bore and not at all interested in me when we danced at the ball. Even though he has the most delightful dark curls. For some reason, all he wanted to do was talk about farming. I have no idea why someone like him would even be remotely interested in things like plows and… and seed drills, I think he called them.” She giggled and shrugged. “I can only suppose he must have thought it a subject in which I was interested.”

She dimpled and warm color rose to her cheeks. “Luckily Rosebery and I didn’t have to suffer being told about the latest developments in agriculture for too long because two more gentlemen arrived.” The offhand way in which she said this seemed at odds with her previous words.

Serafina’s ears pricked at the change in Letty’s tone. “And who were they?” she asked, observing Letty’s somewhat shifty gaze.

“Lord Grey and his brother.” She paused. “I was never happier to be interrupted than by their arrival.”

Of course, Lord Grey’s brother was the one she’d intimated she’d found attractive. More needed to be discovered about this young man.

“You said eight. Who else called?”

“Two army officers, in their splendid regimentals, as well as a slightly older gentleman who Mama said was more desirable as he’s a cit which means he’s made his money in trade but is horrendously rich, so although he doesn’t have the breeding, I encouraged him, as Mama instructed.”

“Goodness.” Serafina schooled her face into an expression that conveyed how impressed she knew she ought to be, even though she was quailing inside. Despite Letty’s increasing high-handedness and selfishness, Serafina remained very fond of her oldest niece. These young men would all require research to ascertain whether they would make Letty happy if they were to offer marriage. Araminta, whose sole measure for suitability was by title or wealth, could not be relied upon to do that.

“Do you favor any of them?” Serafina enquired, as that was who she needed to begin with.

Letty gave a tinkling little laugh. “Last night I thought it was Lord Grey’s brother I preferred, but today, after seeing them all again, I think I am leaning towards preferring Mr. Oliver Talbot, the cit. After all, Louis Herbert is just a younger brother, and only of a mere viscount. Younger brothers are not at all desirable. Mama says. And Mr. Talbot is so very rich.”

Serafina pursed her lips, ignoring the dig at Captain Aubrey’s status as a younger brother. “I should like to meet this Mr. Talbot then, before you decide to encourage his suit. We need to know a bit more about him. Whether he would be a kind husband to you, should he make an offer and you accept.”

Letty, who before they’d left Milford had been sweetly amenable to Serafina’s assistance in choosing the right husband, gave a rebellious toss of her auburn curls. “Oh pooh to that. You have no experience whatsoever where men are concerned, Fina. Mama does, and she very much likes Mr. Talbot.”

“You said he was older. How much older than the other young men is he, then?”

Letty pouted as though she might be hiding something. “A few years.” This emerged as an unwilling mutter.

Serafina was not to be put off. “How many is a few?”

Now Letty scowled. “I suppose perhaps twenty…”

Serafina’s mouth fell open. “He’s twenty years older than your other callers? Is he older than your papa? I didn’t see you dance with anyone that age last night.”

Letty scowled. “Well I did, straight after supper. I don’t know where you’d got to, but you weren’t there to stop me. And I’m glad you didn’t, because he was so nice to me. So charming. He said I was the prettiest girl at the ball.” She giggled. “In fact all of them told me that, I think, so I know it to be true.”

Serafina opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Maybe this was the right move for Letty. A mature man could be what was needed to keep her in check, and surely someone that age would dote on a girl as young and pretty as she was. Plus he’d be unlikely to stray. Although, of course, he might have no intention of offering for her at all. She dismissed that final thought—a man of mature years would surely not be calling on a pretty debutante just to flirt. He would have marriage in mind.

“And you were indeed the prettiest girl at the ball,” Serafina said, as this was a sure way to mollify the vain Letty. “But we mustn’t count our chickens, my love. That was but the first ball you’ve been to. Best not to jump at the first man who catches your eye.”

Letty brightened. “You always say the right things, darling Fina. And you’re quite right about that. I shall encourage Mr. Talbot, of course, but if he makes an offer, I’ll think of some way to delay my reply. Who knows what might be waiting for me at the next ball, or the one after that.” She patted her curls again. “With my looks, Mama says, I would be able to snare a prince, were there one of the right age available.”

Serafina nodded, heartily relieved that the king’s sons were all too old. “And your mama is quite right.” At least this was taking her mind off what Araminta had said to her. Letty could be such a child at times, and her selfishness and vanity could be laid entirely at the door of her parents. Trying to iron these disastrous traits out of her was like banging your head against the proverbial brick wall. Perhaps what she needed was an older man who could persuade her into once more becoming the pleasant girl she’d been a few short years ago.

Serafina stalwartly refused to acknowledge the uncomfortable fact that all of the Gilbert children treated her in the same way—as someone not quite a servant but also not quite a member of the family, whom they could order about at their will. Following the lead shown to them by their parents, of course. Shunned by Araminta and Ogden and left to grow up uncared for, Serafina had found in the five Gilbert children, especially Letty, someone to lavish her love on, ignoring their faults. And in their way, they all loved her back.

Letty appeared sufficiently satisfied by her responses to turn her attention to Serafina. “Now, you’d better hurry up and change into your own gown for dinner,” she said, nodding to where Roberts had laid out a plain brown dress on Serafina’s bed. “And you can tell me about your afternoon with the Earl of Westbury’s younger brother.”

As she slipped out of her day gown, Serafina bit back a smile at Letty’s deliberate classification of Captain Aubrey as a mere younger brother.

“We’d better hurry,” Letty said. “Or Mama will be angry with us. You can tell me about your afternoon while you change. I want to know everything.”

But what to tell her? Araminta had expertly changed the way Serafina now saw her afternoon’s excursion with her hateful words, and no doubt Letty didn’t really want to hear that it had been the best day of Serafina’s life. Nor did Serafina want to tell her that. The shine had gone off the day, and she almost couldn’t bring herself to talk about it.

But Letty was a determined girl, possibly due to her inveterate selfishness and blindness to anyone else’s feelings. As Serafina pulled on her gown for the evening, she continued where she’d left off. “Did he really take you to a stuffy old museum?” Her tone implied that she didn’t think this a suitable location for a visit with a gentleman. Letty was not an intellectual by anyone’s standards. The only reading she did was of romantic novels that had filled her head with fanciful notions of true love that were probably far from the truth of reality. She’d recounted a few of the intricate plots to Serafina during some of the long cold nights at Milford. So Serafina was sufficiently au fait with the way her niece’s brain worked.

She turned so Letty could fasten the back of her dress. “Of course he did. That was the whole point of the outing. He knew I wanted to go there.”

Letty snorted with badly disguised disgust as she did up the buttons. “What a strange thing to want to do. In fact, you are such a strange thing yourself, it’s a wonder any man would want to call on you and take you out anywhere. If a man were to offer to take me to a museum, I would immediately cross him off my list of eligible suitors.”

She tutted over the gown. “I sometimes wish we could get you some nicer gowns to wear, you know. Goodness knows what Captain Aubrey thinks when he sees you in these dowdy things.” She stepped back. “Do you want me to try and do your hair or shall we just leave it like that?”

Serafina patted some stray curls back into place and peered into their dressing table mirror. “I think it will do like that. No one will notice me anyway.”

Letty giggled. “You’re quite right. Your hair hardly matters, does it?” She seemed to recall her previous question. “And as the captain did indeed take you there, was the museum as good as you’d hoped it would be? Although I’m sure I would be bored to tears if I’d had to go.”

Serafina nodded as she slipped her stockinged feet into a pair of worn slippers, suddenly glad to be able to talk even just a little bit about her afternoon, even though she knew Letty wasn’t really interested. “It was every bit as fascinating as I’d imagined. We went all over, but the best bit was the gallery with all the Egyptian antiquities in it. I saw the Rosetta Stone. Can you imagine? Something that old—over two thousand years old—and I saw it. Touched it. Put my fingers on the stone that real Egyptian hands had carved their language onto.”

Letty was unimpressed. “A stone? Really?”

Serafina nodded with vigor, finding it easier to talk about what she’d seen than to dwell on the reason for the outing. “It’s an important find. Someone French discovered it at a place called Rosetta, but after a treaty of some kind they had to hand it over to us, and we brought it back here to display in the museum.” She herded Letty to their shared dressing table. “Sit down and let me do your hair. Time is pressing on, and your mama is bound to notice if your hair looks messy, unlike mine.”

Letty sat down in front of the mirror, for once seeming interested. “Why is a stone so important?”

Serafina began to pin up her curls. “Because it has three sorts of writing on it. It has demotic script, which is an old Egyptian way of writing, Hieroglyphs which are symbols, like little pictures, rather than writing, and Greek on it. Scholars think that one day they’ll be able to work out how to read the Hieroglyphs thanks to this stone. Because they already know how to read the Greek bit of it and they think all three bits say the same thing but in different languages.”

Letty shrugged her slender shoulders. “Whatever do they want to do that for? It’s bad enough having to read in English without people thinking of new ways to read and write.” She was not a great scholar herself, nor even a mediocre one, and had no real mastery of the one her governess had tried to teach her– French. She twisted on her stool. “But tell me about Captain Aubrey. Hurry, before we have to go down to dinner.”

Was this interest more because Letty knew Louis Herbert was related to the captain? Probably. However, she couldn’t resist the invitation to talk about him. Just a little.

She got the last curl secured. “There, I think your hair will do. There’s not much to tell about Captain Aubrey. He was most kind and polite.”

Letty jumped up. “Fina, that’s not good enough. Do you like him is what I want to know.” Clearly Serafina had been forgiven, for the moment, for having upstaged Letty by receiving the day’s first caller.

Serafina’s legs suddenly gave way. Luckily she was near enough to the stool Letty had just vacated to land on it. She put her hands up to cover her face. “I liked him very much.”

Letty pulled her hands away, her face for once devoid of any hint of jealousy. “But that’s wonderful. If you can find someone as well as me, neither of us need ever return to Milford House and suffer another winter of chilblains. But most importantly, do you think he likes you?”

That was the question. Serafina bit her bottom lip. What to say? “I don’t know. I thought he liked my company. He was so solicitous and kind, and a most pleasant companion. He has a great deal of interesting knowledge…”

Letty stamped a foot in impatience, her hands on her hips. “Fina, stop hedging. Tell me if you think he liked you?”

Serafina raised sorrowful eyes to meet hers, remembering Araminta’s words. “I did think that perhaps he did, but now I’ve changed my mind. I fear that perhaps he was just being nice to me out of kindness.” She couldn’t mention Araminta’s other suggestion—that he’d taken her out for a bet with his friends. She gestured at herself with a resigned hand. “Look at me. Why would any man be interested in me, looking like this?”

Letty, careless of her coiffured hair, threw her arms around Serafina and hugged her tight, reminding Serafina of the impulsive child she used to know. “Because men are not all the idiots we think they are. Because your goodness and kindness shines out of you, dearest Fina. That is why he would like you. Because you’re the best person I know.”

Serafina took an unsteady breath, moved by the reappearance of her childhood friend. “Careful, Letty, or you’re going to make me cry. But thank you for saying that.”

Letty released her hold but didn’t step back. “If your captain has the sense he was born with, as our old nurse used to say, then he’ll have seen beyond these drab gowns Mama makes you wear. And he doesn’t look like an idiot to me.” She planted a kiss on Serafina’s cheek. “Now, come on. We’d better hurry or we’ll be in trouble for keeping dinner waiting.”

She caught Serafina’s hand and pulled her towards the door.

Serafina, her confidence rising, went with her.