“You look rather red-cheeked,” said Matilda Elkins, the steadfast, unofficial leader of the Spinsters’ Club: a nickname that had begun as a mean-spirited insult from equally mean-spirited ladies which the members of the Spinsters’ Club had decided to adopt with pride. “Is it fever, anger, passion, amusement, or a mixture of all?”
Leah had not long arrived, finding her friends immediately in the refreshment room which tended to be their meeting place if they were at an unfamiliar residence. “You are forgetting one other possibility—the simplest, in truth.”
“Someone has complimented you?” Anna Dennis asked, the youngest of the infamous, yet intimate, club of five. Indeed, despite her recent marriage, the five women had all decided that Olivia would never be cast out from the Spinsters’ Club. It was a Sisters’ Club, first and foremost.
Leah chuckled. “No, I am hot. I swear, the carriage has hidden braziers beneath the squabs, toasting me like a piece of bread upon a grate.”
“Hot?” Matilda furrowed her brow. “Autumn is upon us, dear Leah. How can you be remotely hot? I have at least six layers beneath my skirts, and I am still as frozen as the Serpentine in December.”
Leah smiled. “Then, you ought to spend five minutes in my family’s carriage.” She paused. “I find that arguments have a way of heating a small, suffocating space until it is almost unbearable.”
“Not again?” Matilda groaned. “Will he never relent?”
“I do not expect so,” Leah replied. “I shall forever be the disappointment that crushed his plans of dominating the mining businesses of England and Scotland.”
Matilda snorted. “What were they hoping to mine again?”
“How should I know?” Leah shrugged. “Something shiny, no doubt.”
Anna took hold of Leah’s hand. “I am sorry you can never enjoy a peaceful outing. If I but had the courage, I would tell your father myself that being jilted is rarely the lady’s fault. It certainly was not yours.”
“Thank you, sweet Anna. If it came from you, I am certain he would be convinced,” Leah said, resting her head against her friend’s, smiling at the very thought of Anna standing up to anyone. Anna was not known for her bravery or authority, being the gentlest and most softhearted of the quintet. “But where are the other two? Have they not yet arrived?”
Matilda poured some punch into a pewter cup and passed it to Leah. “Olivia sent word that she misses us terribly, but that she and her beloved have extended their honeymoon. Appalling of them, I know.” She tutted playfully. “If I am not mistaken, and I so rarely am, I do believe they are planning to hide away at their new residence until spring comes again; they are just too cowardly to say so.”
“No!” Leah gasped. “But they will miss all of our London japes!”
Anna nodded, sipping from her own cup of punch. “I am devastated, too, but I suppose we should have expected it. She is married now. We knew nothing would stay quite the same.” A shy smile crept onto her dainty lips. “Perhaps, one day, I shall find a husband that I cannot be dragged away from, that I shall hide away through long winters with, warm and safe and beloved.”
“I shall keep wearing my six layers, thank you,” Matilda said, casting a tender smile at Anna. It was well known that Anna was not exactly unmarried by choice but rather by circumstance—namely, that she was too shy and quiet to attract the attention of any suitable gentlemen, despite being exceedingly pretty.
“I shall invest in finely woven blankets,” Leah agreed. “Or I shall just have to argue more often with my father, heating up our residence with our incendiary words. But what of Phoebe? Will she be joining us?”
Anna shook her head. “The girls have her pulling her hair out.” The “girls” being Phoebe’s younger sisters. “She was supposed to ride with me in my carriage but sent a note this morning to say she could not come. I believe they are all unwell. A vicious cold of some sort.”
“Oh goodness.” Leah clasped a hand to her chest. “Should we sneak away? Should we take one of the carriages and go to help her, instead of enduring what is bound to be a very dull gathering?”
As London held its breath to begin its season properly, a few early balls and soirees popped up around the periphery of the Capital, but most of thetonwere still recovering from the summer entertainment, and the rest were just biding their time until the London events began with a vengeance. As such, the earlier gatherings tended to be more sedate, dreary affairs with lots of yawning guests and not much in the way of prospects, even if Leahweresearching for such a thing.
“We could,” Matilda said, her eyes brightening.
Anna nodded with a sudden eagerness. “Yes, I think that would be a splendid notion. We ought to leave at once. My chaperone has wandered off, but I can find her if you two would like to venture to my carriage and await me there?”
“Youthink we should escape to Phoebe’s residence?” Leah narrowed her eyes, suspicious. “You,who would not a break a rule, even if you had to step upon one to save your life?”
Matilda seemed concerned, too. “Are you quite well, dear Anna? You have not caught this fever that Phoebe and her sisters are afflicted with, have you?”
“Can I not, just once, choose to be… bold?” Anna spluttered.
Leah tilted her head to one side. “Not when you cannot even say “bold” without looking petrified. What is the matter, Anna? Have you seen someone? Is it that awful Sir Whatshisname who hounded you last year? I thought he had finally understood that his advances were not welcome after Matilda set his tailcoat alight.”
“An accident,” Matilda interjected, feigning outrage. “He happened to walk by the candle I was holding, for I was very much enjoying the craftsmanship of the silver candlestick. If the flame touched his tailcoat, it was not my fault, and it was only a small blaze, anyway, easily put out with a cupful of punch. Had it not been for my swift thinking and my particular cup of punch, he might have been very uncomfortable indeed. But I shall swear innocence of all of it until I am gray and old.”
Leah laughed. “And then will you admit it?”
“Oh, I will have forgotten by then,” Matilda said, winking. “But whatisthe meaning of this, Anna dearest? This is very unlike you.”
Anna folded her arms across her chest. “It is unlike me to want to aid my friend when she is unwell? That is not a very kind thing to say.”
