“I think it’s splendid, don’t you?” Diana said. “Mrs. Ludgate, you have outdone yourself. Rosy looks even more gorgeous in that gown than usual.”
As Mrs. Ludgate murmured a thank-you, Rosy blushed. “I’m sure I don’t look gorgeous, but do I look at least pretty in this? I’ve been too anxious about tonight to gaze in the mirror.”
“Well, you absolutely must do so now.” Diana turned Rosy to face the mirror and waited for her reaction.
Rosy gaped at her own reflection. “Is that reallyme? I . . . I look like a princess.”
“You do, indeed. A princess setting out to gain many, many admirers. Especially once Eliza finishes with your hair this evening.” She called across the room to where her sister was sewing something. “Eliza, that turban filletwillbe completed by the time for the dinner, won’t it?”
“It will,” Eliza said, never taking her eyes off the long tube of fabric she was ornamenting with rows of beads. “If people stop interrupting me, that is.”
“You’ll have no time to work on it once you leave for the Queen’s Drawing Room,” Diana said.
“I’m aware of that,” Eliza bit out.
They were all growing testy the closer it got to time for Rosy to meet the queen, and they were finding it harder to hide their testiness.
Verity appeared in the doorway. “Is Rosy presentable to a gentleman?”
“Depends on the gentleman,” Diana said. “Her hair is down.”
“Oh, I daresay her brother has seen that a time or two,” Verity said with a laugh.
Then she pulled the duke into the room, and Diana lost all capacity for speech. He was wearing another blue coat—this one of indigo, not a particularly fashionable color, but one that suited him. With his cream-colored silk waistcoat, linen cravat, and well-tailored pantaloons, which were shoved into highly polished top boots, he looked particularly delicious.
Not to mention uncomfortable to find himself in a room full of women. And her. He avoided her gaze, which set her straight about how he felt.
She’d hoped that their kiss meant she had a future possibility of marriage, not necessarily to him but at least to someone. But she’d obviously been putting too much importance on what to him must have been a moment’s whim. And if she couldn’t even entice the socially unsophisticated duke into behaving recklessly again, she would never get some other enterprising fellow to look past the scandal and actuallycourther.
It was probably a good thing she hadn’t expected to marry. She swallowed the tears gathering in her throat. She absolutely mustn’t make a cake of herself, and over a client no less. She knew better. And she was definitely too proud to let him think she was chasing him or some such nonsense.
“Lady Verity,” he began, with a swift glance at Diana. “I don’t mean to intrude—”
“Geoffrey!” Rosy cried. “You must come see how I look.”
He approached, his eyes fixed on his sister. His reaction when he saw Rosy was all Diana could have asked for. “My God, Rosabel,” he said in an awed voice. “You look like an angel. A real one, from heaven.”
“I know! Isn’t it wonderful?” She twirled for him. “Lady Diana designed it, and Mrs. Ludgate created it. Mrs. Ludgate, come meet my brother.”
The dressmaker appeared shocked by the very idea that a duke’s sister would introduceherto him, but she quickly hid her response and allowed Rosy to do so. To his credit, Grenwood was more cordial to the dressmaker than he’d been to Diana the first time they’d met. No one would ever have guessed that Mrs. Ludgate was far beneath him in consequence, and Diana was grateful for that. She adored the dressmaker’s work.
Then Grenwood came over to ask Diana in an undertone, “What about jewelry?”
Surprised he was speaking to her after three weeks of silence, she said, “We are making do on that score. I assume you did not inherit any of the Brookhouse jewels because neither your mother nor your sister could find any in the house. And you weren’t around to enlighten us on the subject. So we have some pretty bead necklaces for her to wear. And my sisters and I intend to loan—”
“Will emeralds do?” he asked, taking Diana completely off guard.
“Why? Do you have some in your pocket?” When he smiled at her joke, though not ather, she added, “Yes, emeralds would be perfect with that gown for dinner. But they’re rather costly, you know. And to be quite frank, I’m more concerned about the diamonds and pearls women are expected to wear at the Queen’s Drawing Room.”
“Is that where the presentation takes place?”
“No. Well, yes, it takes place there, but the occasion at St. James’s Palace involving the queen giving young ladies her blessing—or newly minted dukes like you—is also called the Queen’s Drawing Room.”
“That makes no sense,” he said, his eyes still riveted to his sister. Apparently, he’d do anything to avoid looking at Diana.
“What makes no sense is the all-white gown Rosy will have to wear for it—it looks like a gigantic dollop of whipped cream with a fashionable bodice stuck on top like an afterthought. Add a train and several tall feathers in one’s tiara and the ostentatious picture is complete.”
“I see,” he said, making it clear he did not see at all.
