Page 33 of A Duke for Diana
Diana had been waiting to tell him, hoping to find the right moment. Now, right or wrong, the moment was here. “Rosy got me to agree to at least riding in the first carriage with her and waiting until you both come out of the palace. I think she’s hoping for some last-minute wisdom to give her courage. Either that or she considers me a sort of magical talisman to give her good luck.”
“Orshe has begun to rely on your counsel of late, so she wants you there for as much of it as can be managed.”
“Why Eliza isn’t good enough for that, I don’t know,” Diana said. “You’ll have to ask your sister.”
He arched a brow. “So you’ll be accompanying Mrs. Pierce, me, and Rosy in a few short hours?”
“Yes. Well, not entirely, since there are two carriages, and you and my sister will be in the other one.” Her stomach knotted up. “And I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you? Pray do enlighten me, then.”
“You’re thinking I planned this for my own purposes.”
He gave her a blank look. “What purposes would those be?”
She swallowed hard. If he hadn’t already thought she might be scheming to be around him, she certainly wasn’t going to make him think it. “You tell me.”
“I haven’t a clue. I’m merely surprised you’re willing to sit in a carriage for what could be hours waiting for us.”
Heshouldbe surprised that a lady with Eliza’s family situation was accepted as a sponsor. Diana certainly was. Because one of the requirements was fairly specific:No member of a family touched by scandal is received at court.
Diana could only assume that the no-scandal rule didn’t apply to sponsors. How else had Eliza been accepted? Or perhaps it wasn’therthey were accepting but Lady Rosabel, sister to a newly minted duke. Perhaps they were purposely overlooking Eliza’s family scandal.
Then another thought occurred to Diana. “Rosy may be hoping to have an ally if something goes wrong and she has to make a quick escape.”
“If that happened,” he drawled, “would you help her?”
“It depends on why she wants to escape. And how far she got into the presentation.” She drew a deep breath. “I would probably urge her to go back. Verity . . . had a bit of a mishap at her own début. Ever since, she has steadfastly refused to attend the Queen’s Drawing Room again, and I would hate to see Rosy have any such permanent reaction to it.”
His eyes narrowed on her. “What sort of mishap?”
“It wasn’t Verity’s fault, I swear.” She pulled him farther down the hall from Rosy’s bedchamber. “And you cannot tell Rosy or she’ll be terribly self-conscious about it, and then it could happen to her, too. The mind can act against us sometimes.”
“Whatcould happen to her, too, for God’s sake?”
“The ladies have to curtsy very low to the queen. Queen Charlotte either kisses their foreheads, if they’re children of peers, or she gives them her hand to kiss, for everybody else. Then they have to back out of the presentation room without tripping over their trains.”
“I take it that Verity tripped?”
Diana winced. “Actually, it was worse. She sneezed just as Her Majesty bent to kiss her forehead.”
Grenwood laughed, the devil. But when he saw her expression he sobered. “You realize that could happen to anyone.”
“Especially to my sister because many things make her sneeze, particularly feathers. But we were taught to hold in any coughs or sneezes or other untoward bodily . . . sounds, no matter what. Sneezing in Her Majesty’s face is considered unacceptable behavior.”
“God help us all if that’s what passes for unacceptable these days,” he muttered.
She ignored his remark. “We of course have schooled Rosy the same way we were schooled. And we’ve had her practice walking backward with a train multiple times a day. It’s harder than you may think.”
“Trust me, I can only imagine how hard it must be.”
Pasting a reassuring smile on her lips, she patted his arm. “But everything will be fine. Rosy is a quick study. I’m sure she will make a great impression.”
He covered her hand before she could pull it away from his arm. “Earlier, you were worried.”
She wasn’t worried now, not with his large, warm hand encompassing hers. She was trying not to read too much into his kind gesture. “I’m always worried. Ask my sisters. I get fidgety on the day of the presentation. And I don’t want Rosy to lose her confidence.”
Sliding her hand from beneath his, she curled her fingers into her palm, trying to keep his touch somehow in her grasp. “You must go. You’ll barely have time to do what you require.”
