It would have to do. Emm gave Lady Peplowe and Mrs. Braxton a stiff nod. They released Mrs. Oates, who flounced away and seized her husband’s arm. “Jeremy, these women are—”
“Shut up, Fanny. You’re an embarrassment. We’re leaving.”
Everyone watched as her husband led her from the room, his face beet red and furious. She looked sulky and petulant. “This party was a dead bore anyway,” she said loudly as they exited.
“I left something in the cloakroom,” Rose said suddenly, and hurried toward the exit.
A moment later Emm—and everyone in the ballroom—heard Rose say, “Mrs. Oates, a moment please.” Then camethe sound of a loud stinging slap followed by a howl of pain and outrage.
Nobody moved or spoke. An instant later Rose entered the ballroom, head high, looking like the cat that ate the cream. She crossed the ballroom, a young Boadicea, dressed in flames of dusky blue.
There was a spatter of applause, quickly hushed, and everyone immediately started talking. And trying to suppress smiles.
Rose rejoined her family.
“Yousaid I wasn’t allowed to punch her,” George said indignantly. “You made mepromise.”
“I didn’t punch her,” Rose said with dignity. “I slapped her.” And then she grinned like a mischievous urchin. “A good hard one it was too. Did you hear the bitch yell?”
Emm, caught between laughter and tears, just shook her head.
Aunt Agatha arrived. “You handled that well, Emmaline.” She turned to Rose. “But you—”
Rose raised her chin defiantly. “You have something to say to me, Aunt Agatha?”
Her aunt sniffed. “You, young lady, have possibilities. And that’s all I’m going to say.”
“That’s a relief,” George murmured.
“I might be old, but I’m not deaf, Georgiana.”
“Lily?” She turned the lorgnette on Lily’s dress. They all tensed. “Pretty dress. It suits you.”
Leaving them all breathless with shock, Aunt Agatha stumped regally away.
Suddenly it was as if a weight had been lifted off the entire party. The musicians struck up a lively country dance, and in moments the floor was full of laughing, twirling men and women dancing as if they had not a care in the world.
Emm, relieved and a little dazed at the way events had turned out, sat for a moment watching her girls dancing, her dear, dear girls. All eight of them—Rose, George, Lily and the girls from Miss Mallard’s, who’d rallied around to support Emm in her hour of need. She would talk to them later, thank them and catch up with their news.
She sipped champagne and smiled to herself.Three duchesses, two marchionesses, five countesses, six viscountesses...She looked across to where Aunt Agatha was laying down the law to some hapless minion.And a dowager with a lorgnette.She smiled at Lady Peplowe and Mrs. Braxton. And some friends she didn’t know she had.
She felt the warmth of a large hand on her shoulder. And throughout it all, standing quietly in the background, her rock, her love, her husband. He bent over her. “Do you want to dance?”
She shook her head. “Later. You go on and circulate. I just want to sit for a while.”
She tried not to be disappointed when he took her advice and moved away.
Chapter Twenty-two
Take hope from the heart of man and you make him a beast of prey.
—OUIDA (MARIE LOUISE DE LA RAMÉE)
Cal found Radcliffe and thanked him for coming. “What did you and your friends say to that harpy’s husband?”
Radcliffe smiled. “Oates and his foolish wife are dedicated social climbers, and Oates has been angling for a knighthood. But he’s also a businessman to the core. When we pointed out to him that his wife’s so-called harmless gossip could endanger his business prospects as well as the knighthood—well, I’d be surprised if we heard much from her in future. He’s quite ruthless in business. At home...?” He shrugged.
“Thank you.”
