“Let me look at you,” Helena said, as she held Jenny at arm’s length and looked at her up and down. “Good. No blemishes to cover up this evening and your hair is at least clean. Alicia will have a good basis to work with.”
“Helena, do you really think this is the right thing to do? I feel I shall be terribly out of place.”
“Yes, but remember, Thomas invited you, and he expects you to be there. It is the very least you can do after his kindness to you.”
“That is so true. Very well, then, I am ready to be transformed.”
“Then sit down at my dressing table and let Alicia begin work on you.”
Jenny sat, as instructed, and her transformation began. Alicia was a master at ladies’ hair and it took less than an hour for her to set, pin, and weave flowers into Jenny’s previously plain hair.
Helena oversaw the process and, in the end, took a step back and exclaimed, “Oh, dear Jenny, how stunning you look. Alicia, you created a true work of art.”
“Thank you, Miss.”
“Now work on my hair and then we shall get dressed.” She exchanged places with Jenny at her dressing table. “How are we for time?” she asked Jenny.
“We still have two hours,” she said after checking the mantle clock.
“Good. Now, Alicia, work your magic.”
“Yes, Miss.”
With a half hour to spare before it was time to leave and pick up George, both ladies were dressed and ready.
Helena was wearing a deep red dress with subtle gold dots. The skirt was high-waisted, as was the fashion, with pleats across the front allowing for a fuller drape. The puffed sleeves came to the elbow. The neckline was low cut and she wore her favorite necklace of amber and jade—the amber picking up the color in the dots in the dress. As she examined Jenny, she wrapped a dark gold shawl around her shoulders.
Jenny’s gown was similarly shaped but it was a dark—almost midnight—blue. The sleeves were shorter and puffed. A dark band of embroidered material belted the garment just under the bodice. But the most stunning aspect of the gown was the wide rust-colored hem along the bottom, topped with two layers of alternating diamonds in the same material circling the dress. It was simple but very striking.
“My Jenny, how lovely you look—we look. But wait…”
She went to her dresser and picked up a simple gold necklace with a dark blue pendant and put it around Jenny’s neck.
“There, just the perfect finishing touch.”
Jenny looked in the mirror and had to admit she did look fine.
“Are you ready to go?”
Jenny was nervous about how to behave, but she said. “I am.”
“Then off we go,” Helena said, taking her by the arm, and they headed to the carriage.
* * *
Because many of the guests were from London and had already arrived, there was not a long line of carriages to be unloaded at the front of Pemberton. There were far fewer locals, and George, Helena, and Jenny were welcomed and ushered into the house.
The ballroom was up the staircase on the first floor but, as was the custom, the arriving guests were ushered into a room on the ground floor where both the men and the women were allowed to change from their street shoes into their dancing slippers.
However, Jenny did not know of this custom and was momentarily flustered.
“Never mind, Jenny, I thought you might not have any dancing slippers, so I brought a second pair with me,” Helena whispered to her.
“Oh, thank you,” she said and began to change her shoes like the others.
George—being the gentleman that he was—offered both ladies his arms and escorted Helena on his right and Jenny on his left, up the staircase, along the well-lit hallway, and into the ballroom.
What a sight greeted the guests. The Pemberton ballroom ran across half the length of the first floor. Jenny had never seen so many candles. The room was ablaze with light and the lively chatter of the happy guests. A series of glass French doors ran along the outside-facing wall, leading to a terrace where the guests could retreat for a breath of fresh air, or carry on a private conversation.
