Page 30 of A Lady of Means
Moria glanced down at the note.She knew that handwriting.Her companion.
“It is to be a confessional then,” she said with a resigned sigh.
Llewyn sat back in his chair, his arms folded at his chest, waiting.
Letitia piled a plate with teatime treats.“Start talking, lass.”
Moria cleared her throat, fussing with her skirts.“There’s a man.”
Llewyn and Letitia looked at each other, then both burst into laughter.
“You’ve been seen with many a man, and with a face like yours I would do a lot worse,” Letitia said, her south bank manners taking over.
And then in a rush, Moria gave them an abridged version of her history with Captain Devyn Winter, and his presence at not one but two balls the night before.She conveniently left out the interlude in the sitting room with a man of God present.Still, it felt like she’d been holding in one long breath for over a year and had finally exhaled letting her friends in on her secret courtship.
“If he wants to court you, and you’re enamored with him enough that he hasn’t been on the receiving end of your unparalleled cold shoulder,” Letitia inquired, “What do you need the two of us here for?”she motioned between herself and the Vicar.
Moria toyed with the wrapper on a sweet she held in her lap.“A soldier’s wife isn’t exactly the…position in life that I had sought after.Marcus was a-”
“A prig.A toff.A jackass.In every sense of the word.Yes, weknow.”Llewyn said, nodding.
“Why is it that when I use language like that, I get a chastising like “‘Be careful, my lady, God hears all.He is in the very air around us’,” she had committed to her bit, assuming a dignified air.“But it’s excusable for you?”
“That’s different,” he shrugged.“I’ve devoted my life to His calling, I have a little more shall we say…cache…with the creator than a heartbreaking debutante.”
Moria let out a laugh that pulled one out of Llewyn as well.
“I think this time it’s your heart on the line, though, right, my lady?”Letitia asked, bringing them back to the topic.
Letitia took Moria’s silence for an answer and reached for her hand.“Then we shall have to arrange a meeting with the rest of your siblings first, and one that will seem like the stars have aligned to bring a Captain and the diamond of the season together in the least salacious tableau.Perhaps back at Brookevale when you return for the christening?”she questioned, looking to Llewyn.
“That could work,” he said, nodding.“And the seclusion of the country would offer the two of you time to better understand one another apart from,” he gestured to the drawing room and its protrusion of blooms and calling cards, “all this.”
Before Moria could answer or puzzle on it further, the butler entered again.This time, he escorted two young ladies both wearing startlingly pink frocks.
“Lady Gretchen von Mien, and Miss Carina Smythe.”
Llewyn stood with her to greet them, but Moria did notice that he didn’t linger on the sight of them the way he did with Letitia.Moria made the introductions, Letitia doing her best to hide her amusement with a shared glance of camaraderie with Llewyn that Moria would definitely be bringing up later when they were alone.
Lady Gretchen greeted Moria with an air kiss at each cheek.“We waited for you at Lady Sinclair’s luncheon for nearly an hour before we gave up and came here to tell you ourselves what we witnessed.”
Carina took a seat at the tea table.“Your new little friend from Africa was all too happy to keep the Duke company in your absence, I’m afraid.”
Moria raised a brow, but Lady Gretchen pulled back to give Moria a glance over.“And what on earth are you wearing?Yellow?You know it’s Wednesday, correct?”
Before Moria could return to the subject of the Duke and Miss Herring, Letitia leaned her head in her hand where her arm was resting on the linen covered tea table and asked, “What’s Wednesday?”
The inhabitants of her drawing room from all quadrants of her life were all looking at her awaiting her answer on the significance of Wednesday’s and this wasn’t how or who or when or where she explained that particular credo aloud for the very first time.
Then who?
Soft, dark eyes, and lips that spread into a bracing smile flashed in her mind.
I want all that you are willing to give me, Moria.
Moria pasted on a smile, trying to make it look genuine.“On Wednesday’s,” she said, looking to Lady Gretchen and Carina.“We wear pink.”
Across from her, Llewyn caught her eye, a spark of curiosity in them even though he kept quiet.
