Page 37 of The Sea Siren of Broadwater Bottom
“I look terrible in yellow,” Elissa said.
The viscountess’s nose wrinkled when she smiled, as if she thought it adorable that Elissa had expressed an opinion. “Let’s just try it on, shall we?”
CHAPTER15
Two hours later, Elissa and Cassandra made their way downstairs in their borrowed finery. Lady Thetford had been correct, and Elissa was wearing the yellow gown. (“It’s pale primrose you need to avoid, dear. See howdivineyou look in this saffron?”) After forcing Elissa to try on every gown in the pile, the viscountess had written out a schedule detailing precisely what she was to wear for the next week.
The true miracle, as far as Elissa was concerned, had been the taming of her hair. As soon as the dresses were chosen, the Astley sisters began debating what to do with it. No appreciable progress was made until one of the maids, who had red hair herself, and who had slipped from the room as soon as the topic turned to Elissa’s coiffure, returned bearing a little porcelain jar. “Stand aside!” she barked, then began poking through Elissa’s curls.
“What do you think, Fanny?” Lady Thetford asked.
“It’s gorgeous,” Fanny declared. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life, I have.”
Elissa gave her an apologetic smile. “It’s hopeless trying to do anything with it. My hair defies all attempts to tame it.”
“Oh, is that so?” Fanny snorted. “We’ll just see about that.”
A half-hour later, Elissa peered at herself in the mirror in astonishment. Where her hair had always been a mess of frizz, it was now sleek and glossy, sculpted into a pile of curls atop her head. The whole thing was held in place with a bandeau in the same shade of yellow as her dress, with a few white flowers woven throughout for good measure.
“And that,” Fanny concluded with a satisfied smile, “is the magic of coconut oil.”
“Coconut oil?” Elissa asked, astonished. She had heard of coconuts, of course, but she had never seen one.
“That’s right. You use it as a pomade,” Fanny explained, replacing the lid on the porcelain pot and setting it upon the dressing table. “Use just a little—it goes a long way. This’ll last you a month or two, but you’ll want to get more.”
Elissa gave a sheepish smile. “I fear we don’t have coconut oil in Bourton-on-the-Water.”
“Oh, you can find it in London,” Lady Lucy hastened to say. “You can get anything there.”
Elissa bit her lip, deciding it best not to mention that she had never been to London, and probably would never have occasion to go.
Now, as she and Cassandra followed a footman toward the dining room, Elissa gave her sister a tight smile. Cassandra’s dark brown hair and cream complexion looked lovely with the rose silk wrap dress the Astley sisters had selected for her. The experience of getting dressed up for dinner, trying on a dozen silk gowns, having her hair arranged by a proper lady’s maid instead of by one of her sisters, had been foreign for the girl who spent all of her pin money on books. But Elissa had quickly found herself relaxing and even enjoying herself thanks to the warmth and liveliness of the Astley sisters.
But now, passing through rooms so elegant they looked more fit for a palace than a mere house, Elissa could not help but feel out of place in her borrowed finery.
They finally reached a turquoise silk drawing room where the Astleys’ guests were assembling for dinner. Elissa noticed two local families in attendance with whom she was acquainted, the Beauclerks and the Stavertons. The sons of both families had been her father’s pupils. She and Cassandra were not nearly so high in the instep as the Beauclerk girls, whose grandfather was a duke, or the Stavertons, whose father was a baron. But two of the Staverton sisters smiled and nodded from across the room, and Henrietta Beauclerk, who was standing near the door, greeted them warmly and fell into conversation with Cassandra.
Elissa spied Edward across the room, and he smiled and inclined his head. He was speaking to a fair-haired man whom Elissa would probably have thought handsome had he been standing next to anyone else. Edward must have failed to attend to their conversation, because the blond man turned, then lifted an assessing eyebrow when his eyes fell upon Elissa. He turned back to Edward and said something, tilting his head in Elissa’s direction.
An imperious voice interrupted Elissa’s train of thought. “You must be the infamous Miss St. Cyr.”
Elissa turned and gawped at the woman who stood before her, a woman who needed no introduction. She could not have looked more like her daughters, Lady Lucy and Lady Caroline, with her honey blonde hair and those stunning blue eyes.
Elissa remembered herself and dropped a deep curtsey. “Lady Cheltenham, thank you so much for inviting us.”
The countess raised a single raised brow. “Yes, you seemed so grateful to have received the invitation.”
Elissa blanched. “I—er—”
The countess took pity on her. “There, there, child, I do not bite. Except on Tuesdays, and then only if you displease me exceptionally.” She turned to Cassandra. “You must be Mrs. Gorten.”
Cassandra sank into a curtsey. “Yes, my lady.”
Lady Cheltenham’s gaze swept Elissa assessingly. “I look forward to learning more about you both.”
A terrifying prospect from what Elissa could tell, but she won a reprieve from the butler, who entered the drawing room and announced that dinner was served. Lady Cheltenham floated off to the front of the line, and Elissa and Cassandra found their places toward the back.
Elissa felt her stomach drop again as she entered the dining room, which was large enough to accommodate the fifty invited guests and was decorated with gilt-framed mirrors upon red silk wallpaper. She had to force herself not to tip her head back to gape at the painted frescoes on the ceiling.
