“Yes, you may. But guests will arrive soon,” Emilia told Charlotte.
Charlotte grinned. “I’m watching for Lady Arabella. We have plans to make.” She darted off.
Nick sighed. “Between Beaufort Hall and Lady Arabella, we’ll be skint before Candlemas.”
“Oh dear.” Emilia pretended to frown. “Perhaps I’ve gone too far, buying gowns like this.”
He growled next to her ear, his hand stealing around her waist. “No, no, I insist you buy more gowns like this. Tell me what you’re wearing under it, so I have something pleasurable to tide me through this ordeal of proper behavior.”
Emilia laughed. He only spent five nights a week at the Vega Club now, and was sometimes home at midnight; he claimed he was trying it on, being a respectable man with a family. He had made Tom Forbes a partner with a twenty percent stake, and he’d agreed to attend society events like this one on occasion, but Emilia couldn’t forget the dark, dangerous scoundrel he really was. “You want to hear about my petticoat? It has no ruffles but thereisa bit of lace...”
He made an approving sound. Emilia tapped her chin. “Perhaps I should mention the corset. It’s very snug, but Arabella insisted it’s the latest fashion for holding one’s bosom appropriately. What do you think?” She turned toward Nick, whose gaze dropped straight to her low-cut bodice.
“It looks just right to me,” he murmured.
“And then there’s not much else to speak of,” she said with an airy sigh. “Merely my shift, though it’s not much at all, made of that fine lawn you can see right through”—Nick inhaled—“and my stockings, tied with green ribbons.”
“Everything else is coming off, but those can stay on,” he said under his breath. “How you do torment a man, Mrs. Dashwood.”
“How you do provoke me, Mr. Dashwood,” she replied with a saucy smile.
“Who could blame me?” He raised her hand to his lips, his eyes glittering with the promise of more.
“Carriages are arriving!” Georgiana called, and Emilia blushed scarlet. She and Nick had been married for eight weeks, and he delighted in leaving her hot and breathless at the most inopportune moments.
The evening was a whirlwind. Georgiana had invited several of her own friends, since Emilia had lost touch with everyone except Arabella; and some of West’s, although Georgiana whispered that she ought to ignore most of them. “Particularly that one,” she told Emilia as Viscount Heathercote sauntered away, giving Arabella an intense study as he passed her, while Arabella eyed him thoughtfully in turn. “He’s a terrible rake.”
“Yes, I see,” murmured Emilia. Lord Heathercote was the man who’d offered to take away Lord Fitchley. Nick wouldn’t tell her what Heathercote had done with the baron, but theLondon Intelligencerreported that Fitchley’s racing stable was for sale, with offers to be submitted to a solicitor in Holborn. Fitchley himself had not been seen since that night.
Georgiana gave a little cry. “And here is Sophie! And Eliza!” She darted forward and embraced a dark-haired woman who’d just come in with a tall blond man. Another couple was behind them, shedding their cloaks.
“Who is that?” whispered Charlotte.
“I believe it is the Duke and Duchess of Ware. Very best manners, now.”
Charlotte gave her an amused look. “You’re not my governess still, Emilia.”
Emilia sighed, but with a smile. “I keep forgetting that I cannot tell you what to do any longer! If only I had the same sway over a sister.” Charlotte giggled.
Georgiana came back, arms linked with the new arrivals. “Mrs. Dashwood, Miss Dashwood, may I present to you the Duchess of Ware?”
“Sophie to my friends, please,” said the dark-haired woman with an amused glance at Georgiana.
“And this is Lady Hastings,” Georgiana added. “Otherwise known as Eliza.”
The other woman, petite and curvy with honey-blonde hair, smiled shyly. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Georgiana’s told us so much about you both.”
“Oh, what did she tell?” asked Charlotte, too eagerly. Emilia touched her arm. They hadn’t rehearsed meeting a duchess or a countess.
“She said you are good-hearted and brave, and we admire that tremendously,” said Sophie. “Mrs. Upton would be proud.”
Emilia smiled. “I hope so. Mrs. Upton meant a great deal to me.”
“And to all of us,” put in Georgiana.
“We wanted you to know that you have our support—and friendship, if you wish—as the new Lady Sydenham,” said Eliza. “It’s always helpful to have friends in this society.”
“Yes,” said Emilia ruefully. “Thank you. It’s lovely to have friends.”
