A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting(31)

‘Surely you didn’t think it as simple as all that?’ she said critically, quite forgetting that she, also, had thought it as simple as all that before Aunt Dorothy had informed her otherwise.

‘Pray forgive me, but – yes.’

‘There is much I need to know about Lady Radcliffe’s event, much that could go wrong, you know.’

‘There is?’ he said, thinking longingly of his bed.

‘Yes indeed. Your mother deemed me an outsider within seconds of our meeting. I must ensure that does not happen again.’

‘And your first thought was to ask me for help?’ he asked, incredulously. ‘Yesterday, each of us tried to blackmail the other.’

‘My first thought,’ she corrected, ‘was to try the library – but I might as well have read the Bible for all the good those silly etiquette books did me. Besides, it is not so strange for me to ask you. I should imagine you would like me to be successful. We do have a deal, you know.’

‘A deal I regret making more with each passing moment,’ Radcliffe said, rubbing his hands over his face and wishing that he had thought to ask for coffee, not tea.

Kitty ignored this. ‘Who shall be in attendance this evening?’ she asked.

‘The Dowager Lady Montagu, her son Lord Montagu, her two daughters,’ he listed through his hands. ‘Lord and Lady Salisbury, Mr and Mrs Burrell, Mr and Mrs Sinclair, their son Gerald, Mr Holbrook and Captain Hinsley, who you have met already.’

She nodded, committing the list to memory to relay to Aunt Dorothy later.

‘When I am introduced to Lady Montagu, how deeply should I curtsey?’

He stared silently for a few moments. ‘Medium,’ he said at last, hoping this would be the end of it. She stood up.

‘Will you show me?’ she asked.

‘Show you?’

‘Yes, will you please demonstrate the appropriate level to curtsey in front of a countess? Clearly, when I first greeted your mother, I did not do it correctly.’

‘But I am not a woman,’ he pointed out.

‘Yet you have seen them curtsey often enough, have you not?’ She waved an impatient hand at him.

Had it perhaps been later in the day, had he been prepared for her visit in the slightest, he might have refused. But he was unprepared, and it was very early, so in the face of such insistent instruction, it seemed altogether easier to obey. He stood and did a passable imitation of a curtsey before a countess. Miss Talbot eyed him critically – it was far shallower than she would have thought – then copied before him.

‘Does it change, for Lord and Lady Salisbury?’

‘Yes, for he is a marquess and she a marchioness – just so.’ He demonstrated again, and then once more, for the Sinclairs and the Burrells, mere misters.

When she was satisfied that she had committed it perfectly to memory, Miss Talbot seated herself once more.

‘And what will happen?’ she enquired next. ‘Are we seated immediately? What sort of things will we eat? Should I sit somewhere in particular? What do you talk about, and what does one wear?’

Miss Talbot was able to extract a veritable treasure trove of information from Lord Radcliffe before his mind awoke fully and he began to object to her presence in his home, so that by the time he commanded her to ‘leave now and never return’, she was quite happy to do so.

He delivered her personally to the doorstep – grimly suspicious that she might otherwise never go – and bade her a curt good day that she returned with far too much good cheer.

‘And little though you may care,’ he added severely before he shut the door, ‘in polite society, it is considered highly inappropriate for an unmarried woman to be seen visiting an unmarried man’s house, maid or no maid.’

She gave an extravagant roll of her eyes. ‘Dear lord, city dwellers are so easily scandalised. Do you think it’s the lack of fresh air?’

Radcliffe slammed the door after her violently, but Kitty skipped down the steps with Sally quite happily. She had discovered, she felt, all she needed to make a famous splash upon society. She felt prepared enough for anything.





14


‘One is never quite sure what to wear at evenings such as this. I do hope Lady Montagu isn’t overdressed,’ Lady Radcliffe said gleefully, as they stood in the drawing room awaiting their guests. Radcliffe suppressed a smile. It was quite clear that the Dowager Countess should like nothing better than for Lady Montagu to commit such a faux pas.

As the clock struck seven, the first of the guests began to arrive, and as Radcliffe bowed and murmured greetings to each of them, he was aware of feeling apprehensive waiting for the Talbots to arrive.

‘Mrs Kendall, Miss Talbot, Miss Cecily Talbot!’ Pattson announced, and the three ladies entered. They were dressed quite charmingly in the latest style: Mrs Kendall in soft mauve, and Miss Talbot and Miss Cecily in the same white gowns they had worn to Vauxhall Gardens – though with shawls of silver gauze added to make the outfits appear new.

‘Good evening, Miss Talbot,’ Radcliffe said courteously, as Mrs Kendall was greeted by his mother, and Miss Cecily by Amelia.

She inclined her head, saying in an undertone. ‘Any more regrets?’

‘Oh, many,’ he assured her.

She smiled. ‘And do you have any eligible suitors for me this evening?’ she asked, roguishly.