“Do not let it get to you, Charlotte.”
She bristled at the words. She never liked to show that anything got to her. She stayed still, her face immovable like a statue, as the gossipers passed by her in the assembly rooms.
The two ladies whispering between them made no attempt to hide who they were talked about. Their eyes landed on Charlotte, then they giggled between them before they walked off again.
Charlotte looked at her aunt, pleadingly.
“I know.” Susan sighed. “It is theton’sever-present flaw that it thinks too highly of itself. If one can refer to thetonas a single entity.” She laughed a little and took a sip from her champagne. “It means that any time someone falls a little below their high expectations, great scandals become as magnificent as volcanic eruptions.”
“I wish I could laugh at it as you do,” Charlotte whispered quietly, gazing at her aunt.
With auburn hair curled neatly at the back of her head and bold brown eyes that moved from one person to the next with ease, she was the epitome of grace. Even the way her hands delicately held her champagne glass was a statement of class and propriety.
Charlotte admired her greatly. Not only was she the perfect picture of a lady that Charlotte wished to be, but Susan was also the one person who kept attending these balls and assemblies with her, even when her own parents started to doubt that she would ever make a match of her own.
“I suppose things have been made harder now, have they not?” Charlotte asked as her aunt took her arm and led her from one assembly room to the next, toward the great ballroom where the dancers had now struck up a lively cotillion.
“What things?” Susan asked, taking another delicate sip of her champagne.
“My prospects of marriage,” Charlotte practically mouthed the words for she feared being overheard. “If everyone insists on talking of our lack of money, how my father’s investments…”
“Yes, dear,” Susan said quickly. They both nodded, knowing they did not need to discuss in public how poorly such investments had gone.
“Surely any gentleman will be frightened off,” Charlotte whispered hesitantly. “My charms and my dowry were not enough to entice a man before. Something tells me that my charms alone may have even less success.”
“Usually I admire your wit,” Susan said with a pleasant laugh, “but you do yourself a disservice. You have many charms indeed. Sometimes marrying or not marrying is a matter of chance and good fortune. It has little to do with one’s faults or merits.”
“Hmm.” Charlotte was not sure she believed her aunt. Rather than making an argument, she mirrored Susan’s proper way of drinking the champagne before looking around the room.
It seemed she was not the only subject of the gossip that night, for many were pointing across the room. Ladies with feathers thrust into their updos turned their heads back and forth, looking with desperation to see who had just walked in. They were like preening budgerigar’s unable to stand still. Gentlemen looked haughtily down long noses, then turned away and whispered hurriedly.
“I wonder who has just walked in,” Susan whispered, mirroring Charlotte’s own thoughts.
They did not have to wait long to find out.
Lady Frederica, a good friend to Charlotte, hurried up to their side.
“Frederica.” Charlotte took her hand in surprise. “Calm yourself. You’re all pink.”
“Am I?” Frederica giggled at the idea then shook her head. “It must be the excitement. Have you not heard the gossip tonight?”
“I have rather heard too much of it.” Charlotte’s witty comment made Susan laugh into her champagne. She looked quite shocked at herself as she delicately wiped the bubbles from her top lip.
“Not about you, my friend.” Frederica took her arm warmly. Charlotte smiled at her, grateful for her kindness.
The two of them had become firm friends the year before on a visit to Lady Webster’s house. Together, Charlotte, Frederica, and another lady, Dorothy, were thrust much together and formed a quick attachment. Since that trip, Lady Dorothy had married her old friend and sparring partner, Stephen Weston, the Duke of Stotbury.
“It is about the gentleman that has arrived here tonight. It is the new Duke of Rodstone.”
“The Scottish one?” Susan asked before Charlotte could form words.
“Yes, yes, that’s him,” Frederica said eagerly, then managed to calm her excitable manner. “Have you not heard of him, Charlotte?”
“Do you not read the scandal sheets I send you?” Susan said with a small smile.
“I have put them down ever since you told me they were good research in order to find a husband,” Charlotte explained with a nonchalant shrug.
“Well, let me enlighten you,” Frederica added eagerly. “The Duke of Rodstone is quite the unexpected duke. They say he was a merchant in Scotland, the illegitimate son of the late duke, though he had no knowledge of it. Last year, after the passing of the late duke, he inherited the title, the land, the money, everything.”
