The Last Debutante (2 page)

The dog’s ear twitched.

Perhaps it had begun a month or so ago, when she was feeling rather cross. It had seemed to her that a veritable explosion of births had occurred in and around Hadley
Green, and that scores of pink-cheeked cherubs in carriages were being pushed about by their nurses as their gurgling laughter drifted in through open windows.

On one particularly sobering afternoon, she’d attended tea at the Ashwood estate, where she’d been gobsmacked at Lady Ashwood’s coy announcement to the assembled group of Hadley Green ladies that she was expecting her second child.

“A
child
!” Lady Horncastle, the grand dame of Hadley Green, had swiveled her silver head around to squint at the fair-haired Lady Ashwood through her lorgnette, clearly as stunned as Daria. “But you were only
just
delivered of your son, my dear,” she said, as if Lady Ashwood might rethink her pregnancy with the startling news that she already
had
a child.

Lady Ashwood had blushed and laughingly said, “I remarked the same to my husband, but I think he will not be happy until every room at Ashwood is occupied by a child.”

“That is
quite
a lot of children,” Lady Horncastle had sniffed. “Your husband is surely aware that if one desires a herd, one may invest in cattle. It is really much simpler.”

The announcement had made Daria quite cross, too. She desperately wanted a baby of her own, even a herd of them. Every time Daria held a baby she felt an uncomfortably deep tug in her chest. She would like to be married, to be a mother, a wife, to have some purpose other than to attend teas. Yet in spite of having spent the last three years endeavoring to put herself in every conceivable avenue of society, she had not even a whiff of a proper marriage prospect. That wound was being liberally salted by the fact that
all of her close acquaintances were now married and bearing children, and on that particular day, it had sent Daria drifting onto a sea of melancholy.

She was the last debutante of Hadley Green. The last one of her social circle, the last one without an offer.

Daria had drifted home on that sea, but it was no better there, for she had the misfortune of living with two constant reminders of what was missing from her life. Her parents were like two cooing doves, forever in each other’s company, content with their own society. Daria often felt as if even she were intruding on their secret little world. At times she was touched by their devotion to one another, but at other times, she was annoyed by it.

When Daria had arrived home from the tea, she’d found her parents huddled together before the hearth in the salon against the chill of an early spring day, their heads bent together over a letter. Daria had thought nothing of it.

“I will admit,” she said, holding up one gloved finger to the dog, “that there are times I am entirely distracted by my own pathetic state of being.”

He gave her a single thump of his tail.

It wasn’t until supper that Daria had even noticed the subtle change in her parents. The evening lacked their typical effusive commentary on their blissful day.

So Daria had filled the air with a recitation of events from that afternoon, eager to relieve herself of her vexations. However, she was not rewarded with an appropriately commiserating response to her complaints of having no prospects or hope for a future. She’d sighed loudly to demonstrate her exasperation as Griswold, their
butler-groundskeeper-footman-valet, lumbered about the table, removing their soup bowls.

“Is anyone listening?” Daria demanded.

“Of course!” her mother said. “You were saying, dearest?”

“That my life is not to be borne, that’s what,” Daria said a bit missishly. “And that you and Pappa might take me to London for the Season,” she added hopefully.

“Oh, I think not,” her father had said, his attention on the plate Griswold placed before him.

“Why not?” Daria had asked, stung by the swiftness of his dismissal. “It’s not as if I have any prospects here.”

“We are not suited to London,” her mother said. “And you do have prospects, darling. Lord Horncastle is very attentive to you—”

“I should rather perish than marry Lord Horncastle! I am aware that Horncastle is the only gentleman in Hadley Green with a fortune, but it does not make up for his odious tendencies to drink and pout!”

Yet her mother had smiled thinly and said with great condescension, “You will find a nice young man when the time is right, dearest.”

“The time is far past
right,
Mamma. I am one and
twenty
! Am I to waste away in this tiny little village without an occupation? I feel restless and useless.” She could almost hear her good friend Charity Scott whispering in her ear:
“The point is that here in Hadley Green, you are without true society. There might be members of the Quality milling about from time to time, but the
real
society is in London. You
must
go to London.”

“You are very useful to us,” her father had objected.

Daria had groaned. She loved her parents, of course she did. She was their only child, and they’d doted on her all her life. If they had one failing, it was that they did not concern themselves with the proper way things were done. They were quite content with their private life and seemed to think Daria should be just as content. “Really, Pappa, what woman is not married at my age?”

Her father had shrugged thoughtfully. “Charity Scott is not.”

Yes, well, Charity was not married because she’d borne a child out of wedlock years ago and refused to name the father. “Charity said her brother, Lord Eberlin, would give me a proper letter of introduction, and that one could put oneself at the top of society with such a letter. Charity said that all one must do is wedge her foot firmly in the door, and the rest is up to her.”

“It would seem Miss Scott is a font of knowledge about town,” her mother had mused.

Daria had looked at her mother, and then her father, who was gazing at his wife with such concern that Daria felt herself on the verge of shrieking to the heavens for someone, anyone, to
listen
to her. It was just as she’d said to Charity that very day: no one understood how bleak her situation was.

She’d looked at her parents, thoroughly exasperated. “All right,” she’d said firmly. “You must tell me what is the matter. Why are you both acting so strangely? And what is the letter you are holding in your lap, Mamma?”

“Your mother has received a bit of unwelcome news,” Daria’s father had said.

“Richard!”

“She’s not a child, Beth. You can’t hide it from her.”

“What has happened?” Fear began to bloom. “Is it Mamie? Has something happened to Mamie?” she demanded, referring to her grandmother.

“Yes,” her father said.

“No!”
her mother cried at the same time. “No, she is very well, Daria.”

“But the letter is from her,” Daria had pressed. “And she has told you something that has distressed you.”

“I don’t want to trouble you with it—”

“For God’s sake, Beth,” Daria’s father had said. Then to Daria, “Mamie is in a bit of financial difficulty. But it’s nothing that a few pounds won’t remedy straightaway.”

Daria might have believed that was true had her mother not bitten her lip to keep from speaking. “I don’t understand. She’s needed money before and it hasn’t distressed you like this.”

“This time it is quite a large sum,” her mother had explained. “Your father must travel to Scotland. We cannot possibly entrust that sum to anyone else.”

“Honestly, I don’t see why she doesn’t come home,” Daria had complained. “She went to care for her sister, and her sister has been gone for two years. There is nothing to keep her there.”

“She is not ready to return to England,” her mother said quickly. “Really, love, this is nothing over which you should concern yourself. Your father will go to her and that is that.”

“It’s decided, then, is it? I’m to have no say in it?” her father had responded. “Beth, darling . . . I can’t imagine making the journey without you. What if—”

“Someone should be here with Daria,” her mother had firmly interrupted.

“Oh please, no, Mamma. The summer will be tedious enough without having to graft orchids for the two of you.
I’ll
go,” she had said suddenly.

It had seemed such a brilliant idea, the perfect solution to her doldrums—a summer in Scotland, away from Hadley Green and all her happy friends with their beautiful babies.

But her mother said instantly, “That’s absurd.”

Those two words had sealed Daria’s determination. What was absurd was to continue on as she had been. “Why?” she’d demanded. “I am perfectly capable of carrying a bit of money, and I’ve missed Mamie terribly. She’s not been home in ages.”

“To begin, you cannot travel all that way without your parents or a chaperone. What would people think?”

Better they think she’d at least found some adventure than that she was well on her way to being the Hadley Green Spinster. “I can find a proper companion.”

Her father had chuckled. “Forgive me, Daria, but your mother is quite right in this. You will stay here at Hadley Green and amuse your mother with your company while I go.”

Even now, seated on her trunk in the middle of a Scottish forest, Daria shook her head. Her parents had never understood how determined she could be. That evening she had told Griswold to bring the carriage around, and off she’d gone to Tiber Park. She’d banged the brass knocker three times, marched into midst of the Scott family, and with frustration still heating her blood, she’d said, “Charity, will you accompany me to Scotland?”

Much to Daria’s great surprise, Charity had looked at her brother and shrugged. “Why not? Scotland is the thing now, is it not? I’ve been at Tiber Park too long, and I think it might be nice to see a change of scenery.”

Daria’s parents had refused this idea, of course, but Charity was persuasive with them. It was agreed that her daughter, Catherine, would stay behind, as the eleven-year-old girl was far more enamored of Lady Eberlin’s new baby than the prospect of Scotland. Further, Lord Eberlin’s closest friend, Captain Robert Mackenzie, would bring them to Scotland aboard his merchant ship.

Charity and Daria had set sail for Nairn a fortnight later, at which point Daria unfortunately discovered she easily became seasick. Despite how much ginger beer she was made to drink to quell her nausea, she’d spent the two-day voyage in her bunk, groaning through wave after wave of illness. She scarcely remembered any of it at all, other than Charity slipping in and out of the room, the scent of her perfume making Daria even sicker.

Even when the ship stopped rocking.

Charity had said, “We are moored, and still you do not rally. I think Mackenzie is right. I think we must send for a physician.”

“We are moored?” Daria had asked, and had pushed herself up, blinking against the bright sunlight streaming in through the porthole.

Charity had given her a rare smile. “I’ve already taken the liberty of going ashore while you recuperated. It’s rather a rustic village, but not without its charm. Oh, and I arranged transportation to your grandmother’s house. It is very near here, as luck would have it. You will have a
seat on a private tour of the Highlands that will deposit you in Glenferness. That is where you will find your grandmother.” She had turned to the small mirror bolted to the wall, looking one way, then the other as she checked her hair.

“What of a seat for you?”

“I’ve arranged one for me, as well. But on a different coach, for I am to Edinburgh.”

“What?”
Daria exclaimed. “We meant to see Edinburgh together, on the way home from seeing Mamie. That was our plan, Charity.”

“We
will
see it together, of course we shall! You will come to me in Edinburgh when you’ve seen your grandmother. You don’t need me for that.”

It had been too much for Daria to absorb, since even thinking gave her a headache. She’d forced herself up. “How will you get there? What coach will take you there?”

Charity’s smile had deepened a little more. “Captain Mackenzie has kindly arranged it.”

Daria knew in that moment that even Charity would desert her. She truly
was
the last debutante of Hadley Green.

“Don’t look so distressed!” Charity had said. “You are off to a grand adventure! Isn’t that what you hoped for? You will accompany a delightful set of sisters. Mrs. Gant and Mrs. Bretton are both widows and they’ve planned their holiday for quite some time. They are eager to see the Highlands and just as eager to offer you a seat in their coach. They seem quite lively.”

Daria had found the ladies to be lively, all right, but not in the way Charity had meant.

A brilliantly blue spring sky greeted Daria that morning when she’d boarded the coach. She was cross with Charity for having abandoned her, and she was sure that ten miles would seem like ten days in the company of Mrs. Gant and Mrs. Bretton.

The two sisters, both plump and gray and fond of matching hats, had hired Mr. Mungo Brodie to drive them. After demanding he speak his native language, they realized there was no way to understand what he was saying, so they expressed their desire that he be “as native as he might.”

“Their language is too harsh on our ears,” Mrs. Bretton had confided to Daria, who agreed. The language was too harsh, and the roads too pitted.

Their slow progress along the narrow road into the hills allowed the sisters the opportunity to pepper Daria and Mr. Brodie with several questions. That was when they were not demanding that Mr. Brodie come to a halt so they might pile out of the coach, dragging Daria along with them. They shared a pair of opera glasses to have a look about, and liberally pressed them into Daria’s use so that she might view the birch and oak that grew so thickly beside the road, or try to see the crossbill birds seated high in the trees, or catch a glimpse of the ospreys flying overhead. They would then climb back into the coach, and off they would go, inching along for another few yards.