Page 12

“ P lease watch the linens, Miss Catherine!” Bethie implored three mornings later as she watched her young mistress gesture with her cup of hot chocolate as she talked with Susannah, seated with her on the end of the bed.

The little maid tossed a muslin dress over her arm to take belowstairs for pressing.

“Mrs. Harmond takes a very dim view of stains on the linens and will hold me accountable if there’s so much as a drop of chocolate on ’em,” she said, crossing to the bedroom door.

“Fustian,” Catherine said as Bethie closed the door behind her.

She took a sip of chocolate. “It’s me the housekeeper must find fault with to curry favor with Lady Iris and Lady Dahlia.

After all, they are the daughters of an Earl.

What do you think, Susannah? Shall we just spill a drop to give Mrs. Harmond something to decry?

It might be better than having her search out something. ”

Susannah laughed. “Cynicism does not become you, cousin. Besides, you’ll spoil the game. Most of the fun lies in looking for faults, not in finding them.

“True.” Catherine uncurled her legs from under her and swung them around to the floor. “Or, in the case of Aunt Alicia, making up faults and assigning them to another."

“I think she does that to force attention away from her clumsiness.”

“What do you mean?” Catherine asked, looking back over her shoulder at her cousin.

“She acts as if it doesn’t exist and ignores all accidents she creates, but I’m sure at one time she was unmercifully teased. Most likely, she now strikes first before someone can strike at her. Recall how she was at the dressmaker’s?"

“When she knocked over all those bolts of fabrics?” Catherine nodded. “I thought the modiste would burst her stays! Especially when Aunt Alicia stepped on that white lace and left a dirty footprint.” She stood up and walked toward the fireplace.

“But notice, she did not comment on Aunt Alicia’s clumsiness,” Susannah said, tightening the fastening of her dressing gown.

“Of course not. Aunt Alicia is a valued patroness! And remember when she wouldn’t go into the apothecary’s?

She deemed it beneath her. She probably was afraid she’d break something in there, what with all those bottles, vials, and casks.

Sometimes I can almost feel sorry for her; it must be lonely to be so formidable yet so clumsy.

I remember the evening I arrived, I thought the sparsely decorated house was due to a lack of funds.

Never would I have dreamed that our proper and aristocratic aunt was prone to accidents and had long ago broken all the decorative accoutrements of the house. ”

“Accidents! Sometimes she’s a walking disaster! It’s no wonder she has trouble retaining servants. Frankly, I’m surprised John stayed after that hot tea incident.”

Catherine laughed and nodded. “It does make me curious, though, to meet the Earl. What sort of man could put up with her?”

“He’ll be here for our ball. Aunt Alicia couldn’t get him to stay in London for the Season. Though she may be formidable to others, he does not dance merrily to her piping,” Susannah pointed out.

“Neither does her son, for that matter.” Catherine refilled her cup from the silver chocolate pot Bethie had placed on the table near the fireplace, then offered it to Susannah. Susannah nodded and Catherine carried the silver pot to her.

“Remember that Miss Brownlow who was also at the dressmaker’s?

” she asked as she poured the chocolate into her cousin’s cup.

“Her attentions to Aunt Alicia were nauseating. It was patently obvious she would like to be the Viscountess St. Ryne and the next Countess of Seaverness.” She set the empty pot down, then wrapped her hands around her cup, savoring its warmth.

“I don’t blame Justin for leaving the country.

In Yorkshire, I experienced the same kind of pursuit, a pursuit for what I can bring financially to a marriage.

My appearance, who I am, that was just a bonus.

It is very lowering and the reason I have decided to forgo that institution. ”

“Thus, the real reason for this masquerade,” Susannah said softly.

“Yes,” Catherine admitted, smiling sadly.

Bethie’s soft knock at the door interrupted them. Catherine bade her maid enter, then turned to see Susannah doubtfully shaking her head.

“Cousin, that is not a route to happiness.”

Catherine grinned ruefully. “I know. I just don’t like people, no matter how well-meaning, trying to run my life. I do miss riding Gwyneth, my horse, though. I much prefer riding to walking. I swear I have never walked so much as I have the last few days in London!”

“If only there were some way you could ride without destroying your character.”

“You know, Miss, maybe there is,” Bethie put in slowly as she picked up the hot chocolate tray.

“How?”

“A disguise for a disguise,” Bethie said.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Wot if you rode heavily veiled, Miss? You know, in an outfit no one’s seen?”

“It would certainly set tongues wagging,” Susannah said, handing the maid her chocolate cup.

“True, but the gossip will be speculating as to my identity, not gossiping about Catherine Shreveton,” Catherine said, thinking of the possibilities. “I could have an elegant riding habit made and ride through the park heavily veiled, a mystery woman.”

Bethie nodded excitedly.

“I don’t know, Catherine. If Society were to discover the hoax, you would surely be ostracized,” Susannah warned.

“Would that be so bad? Then I could return that much sooner to Yorkshire.”

“Then again, if it were discovered that you are not the little charity case Aunt Alicia has been presenting you to be, Society may turn on her, thinking she is trying to save you for her son,” her cousin pointed out.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Though Aunt Alicia is stuffy, I don’t believe she deserves that interpretation. Well, we will just have to be sure no one discovers my secret. First of all, I must have a new riding habit. Something positively dashing!"

“That’s the ticket, Miss Catherine!” Bethie said, gathering up the last of the chocolate dishes and carrying them to the door.

“And how do you propose to get out from under Aunt Alicia’s eye in order to find such a costume?” Susannah asked.

Catherine smiled. “I think I can count on Iris and Dahlia to help.”

“Those two cats? They’d never do anything for us willingly.”

“Precisely. But they will go out of their way to see that we don’t get what we want, so we’ll just have to convince them that we love shopping with them.”

“I don’t know that my acting abilities are that great,” Susannah said drily.

Catherine laughed. “Leave that to me. Lately, I’ve had plenty of practice.”

Four hours later, Susannah and Catherine walked down Bond Street.

A few paces in front of them walked the Ladies Iris and Dahlia, both sporting sour expressions.

Behind them came an excited Bethie and the grim-faced Emma, Lady Iris and Lady Dahlia’s maid.

The twins were dressed in pastel pink and blue gowns while Susannah and Catherine marched behind them in serviceable white muslin gowns with dark blue spencers.

Since breakfast, Catherine and Susannah had stayed close to the twins, agreeing with their decisions and eager to share a shopping excursion.

“We know you two, with your beauty and rank, will attract the most eligible gentlemen to your sides. It is a great boon to us,” Catherine had stated earlier that morning, “to share a London Season with you, for we are bound to meet far more eligible young men than would normally be possible for us to mingle with.”

Susannah had not known where to look while Catherine complimented their cousins. The twins smiled in tight-lipped unison.

Not long after they entered Bond Street, Iris, dressed in pink, began to complain of a headache.

Susannah and Catherine murmured words of condolence while Dahlia became exceedingly solicitous of her sister’s welfare, querying her every twenty paces or so on the state of her health.

Iris’s lamentations became stronger until Emma decreed they all must return to Harth House for Lady Iris’s sake.

Lady Iris argued that she only needed to rest a while. Perhaps at Gunther’s, she suggested, where she could partake of a cooling ice. “But please, do go on without me,” she said prettily, effecting a wan smile. “It is too fine a spring day to waste.”

“Oh, we couldn’t, not at all!” Catherine protested. “What would Aunt Alicia say?”

“No need to worry her. I’m sure I am just fatigued and in need of a little rest and refreshment.”

“I’ll escort my sister to Gunther’s. We wouldn’t think of depriving you two of this outing,” Lady Dahlia said, clasping her sister’s elbow and turning her back the way they came.

“It is a beautiful day, isn’t it,” Catherine said doubtfully. Susannah leaned toward a shop window, ostensibly reading a shop placard.

“I’m sure I would feel worse if I knew you all returned to Harth House on my account,” Lady Iris said faintly. “Please, continue.”

Catherine looked doubtful. “Well, if you are sure,” she said hesitantly.

“We insist,” Lady Dahlia said, beginning to hasten her pace.

“All right,” Catherine said with a show of reluctance.

“I hope you feel better soon,” Susannah said, finally turning around, her lips pursed in a struggle to hide a smile and contain her mirth.

Susannah and Catherine watched the twins and their maid hurry down the street. When they were out of sight, the cousins and Bethie began to giggle.

“You are so naughty, Catherine!” Susannah said as she attempted to recover her composure.

“I’d be willing to lay odds that I know the real reason they are headed for Berkeley Square.”

“I would not give you an argument there. They have more than a passion for Gunther’s ices.”

“Yes, a passion for all the young bucks who stroll the area,” Catherine said drily. “But enough of them. At least we have achieved our goal. Freedom!”