Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] (15 page)

She was sorry that Victoria had thought it inappropriate to attend the wedding. The young queen frequently displayed her love for gaiety, and would have enjoyed the occasion, Letty knew; but she knew, too, that Victoria had to consider factors other than her own pleasure. The crowds in the streets, as large as they had been to see Wellington’s son and the bride, would have doubled at the chance of seeing Her Majesty. The occasion then would have become a royal one, and on a wedding day, the bride and groom deserved to take center stage. In their honor, however, she had canceled her usual Thursday drawing room.

At Tweeddale House, Letty enjoyed a few seconds of conversation with the duke, agreeing with him that it was a pity her parents had been unable to leave Paris in time to attend the wedding. Then others claimed his attention, and she moved on.

Flowers decked every table and niche, and the air was fragrant with their scent. As she exchanged polite remarks with first one person, then another, she lost sight of Miss Dibble, but upstairs, when she saw the splendid wedding cake, she knew she had only to wait nearby and the good lady would eventually appear.

“They say it weighs a hundred pounds,” Catherine Witherspoon said as she emerged from the general crush to join Letty in staring at the huge confection.

Letty had not set eyes on Catherine since barging in on her and her lover at the Upper Brook Street house. She felt the other young woman’s tension, and knew her own must be as great. For once in her life, she could think of nothing to say.

“Did you know,” Catherine said evenly, “that under those favors round the edge of the cake, roses, shamrocks, and thistles lie alternately with the armorial bearings of the Duke of Wellington and the Marquess of Tweeddale?”

“I don’t think you want to discuss the cake,” Letty said.

“On the contrary, Lady Letitia, I would
much
rather discuss the cake. However, I own that I must first ask if you … That is, some days have passed since …” Her voice trailed to silence again, and an unbecoming flush tinged her face and throat. She licked her lips.

“I have told no one what I saw,” Letty said. “I am sure that is what you want to know, is it not?” When Catherine nodded, she added, “I have never acquired the habit of gossip, Lady Witherspoon. In any event, few people in the circles that concern you encourage me to converse with them.”

“We have behaved horridly to you, I know. You have no reason to care what becomes of me, certainly, but I thank you for your discretion.”

“You need not,” Letty said, beginning to feel as if an unseen force were drawing her inexorably into the other woman’s transgression. “My reputation is as much at stake here as yours is, as you must guess. The house is mine, after all.”

“Is it? I didn’t know.”

“Now that you do, I hope you will meet your … your friend elsewhere.” She would have preferred more bluntness, even to put a snap in her voice, but she kept it low, hoping it would reach only Catherine’s ears. With people milling around them like they were, it was entirely possible that someone else might overhear.

Catherine bit her lower lip, avoiding Letty’s gaze briefly before she looked right at her again and said, “I wish I could promise we’d stay away, but I cannot. My … my friend, as you choose to call him—did you not see him?”

Letty shook her head. She still did not have the faintest idea who the man in bed with Catherine had been. Neither Miranda Linford nor Miss Abby had been willing to enlighten her on that head. Indeed, Miss Abby had said they did not know his name or even what he looked like, because he usually wore a greatcoat, a hat, and a muffler that concealed everything but his eyes.

“Which,” Miss Abby had added in her fanciful way, “generally look as dead as Cousin Augustus’s eyes did on that last occasion, only he don’t wear spectacles, of course, and his eyes are usually open, which Cousin Augustus’s were not.”

That Lady Witherspoon had vouched for her lover and he had paid their fee had evidently served as sufficient recommendation for the two old ladies. And clearly Catherine Witherspoon did not intend to reveal his name.

“I’m glad you did not see him,” she said. “He was furious as it was. If he thought you knew his …” Falling silent again, she shook her head.

Seeing Miss Dibble making her way toward them, Letty said quickly, “But why can you not promise to meet somewhere else?”

“I have little influence over him,” Catherine said with a frown.

“But if you love each other—”

Catherine’s eyes widened with fear. “Oh, hush, someone will hear you! If I could tell you the whole, I would, but please don’t say we may not—Oh, mercy,” she added, clutching her breast. “M-my husband!”

Following her gaze, Letty saw a large, rather stout middle-aged man moving purposefully toward them in Miss Dibble’s wake. Both were still some distance away, working against the general flow of persons wanting to look at the great cake.

Catherine caught her elbow. “I simply must speak more with you.”

“This is scarcely the place for such a talk,” Letty pointed out, but she let the other woman draw her toward the nearest wall, away from the general surge.

“I know it isn’t,” Catherine agreed, still watching her husband’s approach through lowered lashes. “Please know that I have not purposely snubbed you, Letitia. You cannot imagine how much I’ve wanted to know you. There are so few young women at court. Other than the maids of honor, I am the only one. The other married ladies are much older than I am, and rather disapproving, you know.”

“I do know,” Letty said with a smile. “They certainly disapprove of me.”

“They cannot afford to do otherwise,” Catherine said frankly. “Nor did I think I could, particularly after Sir John warned me off.”

“Why did he?”

“I’m not sure, exactly,” Catherine said, but her instant flush told Letty she was not being truthful. Apparently aware that she had given herself away, Catherine added ruefully, “You must know that he desires to regain the favor he once enjoyed with Her Majesty. He approached me, and I think certain oth—Oh, help, here’s Witherspoon. Do you attend Her Majesty this evening?”

“Yes,” Letty said, exchanging a look with Miss Dibble, who had paused nearby, evidently unwilling to interrupt their conversation.

“Good,” Catherine said, adding in a louder, more cheerful tone, “There you are, my lord. I had begun to think this crowd must have swallowed you up.”

Casting a disapproving look at Letty, Witherspoon brushed past Miss Dibble with a muttered apology, and said ponderously, “It is you who vanished, my dear. You would do better to stay at my side, I believe. One never knows whom one might meet in such a mixed crowd. Moreover, you are due at the palace in two hours, and you will want to change your gown.”

“May I present Lady Letitia Deverill, sir?”

Witherspoon nodded, saying brusquely, “Jervaulx’s daughter, I believe.”

“That’s right, my lord,” Letty said, making her curtsy.

“Come along, Catherine,” he said without further comment to Letty. “You don’t want to be late.”

“We should leave, too, my dear,” Miss Dibble said when the other two walked away. “Who are those people?”

“Lord and Lady Witherspoon,” Letty said absently. She was not surprised to see Catherine glance back, nor did she have difficulty interpreting the look the other woman sent her. They still had much to discuss. Collecting her wits, she smiled at Miss Dibble. “I do not know them at all well, Elvira, but she is the woman who very nearly conversed with me that first day at court, when no one else would.”

“She is kindhearted, then,” Miss Dibble said. “Perhaps she will become a friend. The good Lord knows you could use one in that place.”

“It is not so bad. Indeed, I find the queen’s court interesting, and at least there have been no more horrid incidents.” As she spoke, she experienced a slight chill. Telling herself she was being fanciful, she agreed to Miss Dibble’s proposal that they not wait for the bridal couple’s departure before taking their own.

Despite all Letty’s efforts to reach Buckingham Palace in good time, by the time her carriage had wended its way through the streets of London to the palace gates, she found herself dangerously near to being late. Already guest carriages stood in line to disgorge their noble passengers, which meant the queen’s ladies would be taking their positions in the green drawing room. The bedchamber ladies would be helping Her Majesty dress, of course, but her other ladies were to await her entrance in the drawing room.

“I’ll use the main entrance, Elvira,” Letty said. “That will take less time than going round. Tell Jonathan, please.”

Miss Dibble obeyed at once, letting down the window and shouting the order without bothering to point out that it might be better to wait till the carriage stopped at the end of the line. No doubt her reticence was due to relief that Letty had not put her own head out to shout at the coachman; however, it was too much to expect her to keep her counsel indefinitely. “You should not go in alone, my dear.”

“I’ll take Lucas with me,” Letty said. “He can return once he’s escorted me upstairs to the state rooms.”

She had learned more about the palace in the days since her arrival, and she knew that maids of honor generally entered through a side door, but on an occasion like this, she had every right to use the main entrance and the grand stair.

The carriage stopped, stirring her impatience. “I cannot wait here, Elvira. If I am late, I’ll lose my position.”

“You cannot simply get out and run the rest of the way, Letitia.”

“But there must be a half dozen carriages ahead of us, and they are not moving. Tell Jonathan to pull out of line and drive me up the verge to the arch.”

Reluctantly Miss Dibble obeyed, and soon the carriage rolled to a halt beside the first one in line. Lucas jumped down and helped Letty alight.

The Life Guard posted at the Marble Arch stepped forward, clearly meaning to tell her she could not enter yet, but Letty anticipated him. Opening her cloak so that in the dusky light augmented by ceremonial torches flanking the arch, the ribboned badge showed clearly on the bodice of her aqua-colored gown, she smiled and said, “Please let me pass. I shall be ever so late if you do not.”

“Certainly, miss,” the guard said, stepping back.

Inside the grand hall, reassuringly, she found only palace servants scurrying to finish last-minute chores, their footsteps silent on the elegant red carpet. The haughty porter nodded when she let her cloak fall open again to display her maid of honor’s badge. Apparently he saw nothing amiss in her hasty entrance.

Gathering her dignity, she approached the red-carpeted marble staircase with Lucas a step behind her. The white-and-gilded walls flanking the stairs glowed like burnished gold in the candlelight from myriad chandeliers, and the banister gleamed. As Letty reached the first landing, a voice spoke behind her.

“Letitia, wait.”

Turning, she saw Catherine in a close-fitting, extremely décolleté evening gown of rose-colored
chiné
silk, hurrying toward her with a handsome young man at her side. Letty wondered if he might be the lover who had thrown the covers over his head, but Catherine’s first words sent that notion flying. “This is my cousin, Hector Lennox, Letitia. He is a groom-in-waiting, so he’ll gladly escort us. You can dismiss your footman, if you like.”

Signing to Lucas that he could go, Letty moved on to the right-hand branch of stairs, saying, “We’d better hurry. We are already later than we ought to be.”

Catherine nodded, saying no more in her cousin’s presence. He, too, clearly was eager to take up his duties.

The two branches of the stairway came together again at the top, where doors to the guard room stood wide. Passing through this ceremonial entrance to the stately green drawing room, they soon saw by the number of Her Majesty’s attendants already present that they were among the last to arrive.

The green drawing room was the central apartment on the west side of the palace’s inner quadrangle. To the east, three windows opened onto the loggia over the grand entrance, and to the west corresponding mirror-doors led to the picture gallery. The chairs and sofas bore green silk upholstery, and brocade of the same color covered the walls, giving the whole room a softly muted effect.

Neither Lady Tavistock nor the Duchess of Sutherland was there yet, for their duties would keep them with the queen until she made her entrance. However, Lady Portman stood at the entrance to the drawing room; and Letty knew that her primary purpose in standing just there was to make certain that no one who ought to arrive before the general company did, failed to do so.

“Letitia, perhaps you can help me sort music for the entertainment after dinner,” Catherine said when they had greeted Lady Portman and Hector Lennox had left them to tend to his duties. “The royal pages generally make a mull of it, I’ve found, and the queen may call upon any of us to perform, as you know.”

“I hope she doesn’t ask me,” Letty said with feeling. “It is at times like this that I wish I had been more diligent in practicing my lessons.”

Catherine chuckled. “The first time she singled me out, I nearly fainted at her feet, but now I rather enjoy performing. One gets accustomed to it.”

“Do you dare being seen talking to me like this?” Letty asked bluntly when Catherine handed her a pile of music sheets to sort.

“Alphabetically by title works best,” Catherine said. “People can quickly find what they want.” She turned, clearly searching for more music. Letty had begun to wonder if she would ignore her question, when Catherine said, “I don’t think it is a matter of daring, so much as of being circumspect.”

“Circumspect?”

“Yes. You see, Her Majesty has grown rather distrustful of gossip in light of certain things that have happened recently.”

“You mean the fuss over Lady Flora Hastings.”

“Exactly. I don’t know if you have seen her brother’s letters in the papers.”

“I should think everyone has seen them. They’ve been printing them for nearly a week now. Has Hastings decided to send the
Times
every letter any member of his family has written this past year?”