The Ideal Wife(26)

They met two groups of people whom the earl knew, and he stopped and introduced Abigail to them as his wife. The news was greeted with surprise, smiles, laughter, much handshaking, and some chagrin by two ladies, who hid their feelings behind smiles and hugged Abigail. But she was not deceived, even if her husband was.

“By tonight everyone will know,” he said to her when they were walking alone again. “I might have saved myself the trouble and expense of sending notices to the Post and the Gazette. Tomorrow you will be public property, Abby. We will have to drive to Hyde Park if the weather is kind. And there is Lady Trevor’s ball tomorrow night that I have promised to attend. You will come with me, of course. Will you mind very much? If I hold your arm very firmly through mine and do not let you go, will you be able to face the ordeal?”He was smiling at her, that gentle look on his face that always made her feel that she was being mistaken for a child.

“I have not danced for years,” she said, “and then only at country assemblies. I have never waltzed. Mrs. Gill always called it a ‘shockingly vulgar display of wantonness, Gardiner.’ ” She puffed out her chest and imitated the breathless nasal voice of her former employer.

The earl laughed. “I will teach you,” he said. “Tomorrow. There will be no one to play the music. We will have to sing. Do you sing?”

For some reason that neither could explain, considering the fact that she did not answer the question, they both spent the following minute laughing merrily.

They had a late luncheon at a tavern that the earl was familiar with. They called at Bond Street on their way home in order to direct Madame Savard to have the Brussels-lace ball gown delivered in time for the next night’s ball, and came away with two day dresses that were finished already.

They arrived home finally to be informed by the butler that Lady Ripley was in the drawing room with Mrs. Kelsey and Miss Ripley. Master Terrence and Miss Barbara Kelsey were upstairs in the nursery with their nanny.

“Ah,” Lord Severn said, turning to his wife and taking one of her hands in his. “I was hoping for at least one day’s grace for your sake, my dear.”

She smiled at him.

“Go upstairs,” he said, “and put on one of the new dresses. Will you? Come down to the drawing room when you are ready. I will not let them devour you, I promise.” He raised her hand to his lips.

“Give me fifteen minutes,” she said. “I will not be any longer, Miles.”

But heavens, she thought as he led her up to the first floor and she ran up the stairs to the second while he took a deep breath and opened the doors into the drawing room, there was a strong temptation to start knotting bedsheets in her room in order to take flight out through the window.

This was not an encounter to be looked forward to with relish. She immediately discarded the delicate pink muslin in favor of the bolder yellow.





6



MILES. THERE YOU ARE.” LADY RIPLEY rose from her chair and came hurrying across the drawing room, both hands outstretched to her son. Her dark hair was now turned almost completely silver, but she had kept her slim figure, and her face was still handsome. “And looking very well, dear.”

The Earl of Severn ignored her hands and took her straight into his arms. He hugged her.

“Mama,” he said. “I would have come home earlier if I had known for certain that you would arrive today. Connie?” He turned to hug his younger sister. “You did not suffer your usual sickness during the journey? Your color is good. Pru.” He paused and looked down before hugging his elder sister. “Is it to be triplets this time?”

“I sincerely hope not,” she said. “But I am rather large, am I not? And there are almost two months to go yet unless the doctor has miscalculated.”

“Let me pour you some tea,” his mother said. “I ordered up the tray, as you can see. It is so good to be back in London, Miles. The country was beginning to pall on us, was it not, Constance? And Dorothy and Frances, of course, have been able to think of nothing but the coming Season for weeks past.” She handed him a cup.

The earl had not sat down. “I have something to tell you, Mama,” he said.

“Have you?” she said. “This is new china, Miles? Or was it in the house when you came? It is very elegant. Lord Galloway is organizing a ball for Frances, to take place less than two weeks from now. It is not to be her come-out, though. Lady Trevor—Lord Galloway’s sister, you will remember—has agreed to make her ball tomorrow night a come-out for her niece. Is that not gracious of her? It is all very rushed, of course. Dorothy and Frances are in a fever, as you can well imagine. You must spread the word among your acquaintances, my dear, that it is the event to attend. Though I daresay it will be a squeeze anyway, Lady Trevor being very fashionable.”