Page 41 of Everything a Lady is Not
“Lady Margaret, is it not customary to show delight at the arrival of guests? You appear as if waiting for Death on his horse.”
Lucy’s focus broke and she glanced furtively at Henry before returning her attention to the guests. “Lady Isabella. How nice of you to come.”
Isabella dropped a hint of a curtsy, and Lucy reciprocated in kind with a slight dip of the chin. Isabella’s accomplices, whom Henry recognized from past events, floated in beside their friend. They curtsied modestly and swept their eyes discriminately over Lucy.
“I should offer congratulations,” said Miss Braye, “for your marvelous dress. The fact that your dressmaker assembled it in only a few days is hardly noticeable, especially in the moderate light of evening.”
Henry saw Lucy’s face fall. “How do you know about that?”
Isabella laughed lightly. “Oh, my dear. Let this be our first lesson for you this evening. Thehaute tonknows all. The more desperately you hide a secret, the more aggressively Society seeks to expose it. The desire to humiliate is proportional to the magnitude of the potential shame.”
Henry grimaced. He knew this to be true. Miss Wharton cast a conspiratorial eye toward him and stepped nearer to Lucy with a sniff.
“Lady Isabella is quite correct, Lady Margaret. I certainly hope you have nothing to hide. Do you?”
He felt Lucy tensing for an argument.
“Ladies,” he said, “if you please. The duchess waits in the parlor with other great ladies of London. Hawes will lead you there.”
With some reluctance, the younger women followed the butler. As they departed, Lucy leaned toward him to whisper. “How am I to know the proper manner of greeting when one guest contradicts the next? It seems as if there is no correct answer, no appropriate rule.”
“Ah, but you are learning. Society rules are not so much a hedgerow as they are a forest. You must weave your way through the woods without the appearance of avoiding the trees.”
Her expression grew puzzled. “You make no sense, given your incessant drilling on propriety and rigidity. How am I to know what is proper, then, if the rules are so fluid?”
He pondered the question before an idea lit his mind. “When Sir Steadman invited all manner of scoundrels to your home, how did you manage to maintain an upper hand while avoiding their schemes and influences?”
She stared at the floor, deep in thought. Of her many mercurial expressions, he found this one the most intriguing. When she raised her eyes, they sparkled with recognition.
“When new guests arrived, I observed and listened. I attempted to determine their game and how to use it against them.”
Henry smiled more broadly than he intended. “Do that, then. These people are simply scoundrels with titles, money, and airs, but scoundrels nonetheless. They all play games.”
Her face brightened and she clenched her jaw with determination. “I am ready, now. Shall we retire to the parlor?”
“Not yet. We await another.”
She fell silent, perhaps sensing the foreboding of his tone. They waited only briefly before Hawes announced a new guest.
“The Viscount Warwick, heir to the Earl of Uckham.”
She shot a startled glance at him. “Viscount?”
He shushed her with a finger to his lips and motioned toward the door. Warwick entered, his height and athletic build commanding the room immediately. His gaze of nonchalance soon found Lucy, and he dipped his head.
“Lady Margaret, I presume.”
Lucy seemed frozen, so Henry swept a hand toward the newcomer. “Lord Warwick, how long has it been?”
The man appraised him for the space of two heartbeats. “I do not recall. Perhaps three years. What nonsense have you been about since then?”
His question dripped condescension, raising Henry’s pique. “Not much. Gaming, drinking, and ridding the world of Napoleon. What of you, my lord?”
Warwick frowned mildly and swept past them toward the sound of voices. “Perhaps superior company may be found in the parlor.”
Lucy stared at Henry crossly and mouthed the words, “Who ishe?”
He wished to blurt the truth that Warwick was a man who might torment her for life. However, he could not muster such cruel words. “Only someone to impress. Just remember, this is merely a game.”
