An Artful Deception

by Karen Cogan

  They rode in silence to the next matron on the list. Once there, they repeated the performance with the same sympathetic results. By the time they finished their morning of calls, they were both exhausted.

  When they arrived home, Lady Charlesworth proclaimed her plan a success. “I believe after a brief stay in the country, it is safe to assume that we may return with every hope of rejoining society. And with a wedding to tempt them, no respectable matron will be able to stay away.”

  She retired for a rest while Katharine sought out Lizzy, who was fairly bursting to find out how their morning had gone. Katharine’s green eyes sparkled with amusement. “I wish you could have been there, Lizzy. Lady Charlesworth proved herself a fine performer. She had the matrons mopping up floods of tears. I do believe that, if they can forgive me, she shall forgive me also and I shall be restored to favor.”

  “I am glad to hear it.”

  “There is only one thing which disturbs her.”

  She told Lizzy about her determination to have Mrs. Baker sew her dress.

  Lizzy bit her lip as she listened, and then said, “It is wonderful of you to feel obliged. And yet, I do hope it will not cause hard feelings with the mistress. I am sure my aunt would not want that.”

  Katharine smiled. “If there is one thing I have learned about Lady Charlesworth, it is that she does not dwell upon what is unpleasant to her when there are other things to distract her.”

  Lizzy laughed. “You are quite right, of course.”

  That evening, after having failed to convince Philip of the rightness of her stance, Lady Charlesworth informed Katharine, “Tomorrow, you may take Lizzy and go to the dressmaker. I shall remain here and oversee the packing of our trunks.”

  So, the next afternoon, Katharine ordered the carriage brought round so that she and Lizzy might pay a visit to Cheapside. Though the morning had begun with low overcast clouds, the afternoon saw them meld together to bestow a gray drizzle that forced the driver to raise the carriage top before assisting Katharine and Lizzy aboard. Katharine stared out at the puddles forming along the sides of the cobbled streets and imagined that Mrs. Baker had been forced to put out the pots that caught the water from her leaking roof.

  Lizzy’s agitation grew as they drew near the east side. “We have never met. What if she does not like me?”

  Katharine patted her hand. “Relax. In spite of her gruff ways, she is kind-hearted. She will like you.”

  A footman summoned Mrs. Baker while the driver shielded Katharine and Lizzy under cover of a broad umbrella as they dashed for the door. Mrs. Baker stepped back to admit them. “Ye are a welcome sight, though I think ye daft for coming out in such awful weather.”

  Katharine smiled into Mrs. Baker’s sharp beady eyes that reminded her of a sparrow. “We have business with you. It cannot wait because I shall be returning to the country tomorrow.”

  Lizzy smiled shyly as Mrs. Baker studied her. “And who is this?”

  “I am your niece, Lizzy, daughter of your brother, Fred.”

  “Yes. That I would have guessed. You have Fred’s wide eyes and dark hair. You look a great deal like your father.”

  “I am glad for that, Aunt.”

  Mrs. Baker’s eyes betrayed a faint misting before she broke the tender moment by saying, “Ye’d better both set at the table and have a spot of tea. No doubt, ye got wet and will catch cold if ye do not get something hot in ye.”

  “That sounds wonderful. Perhaps we can all have a chat,” Katharine suggested.

  They settled at the table. When the tea kettle was whistling merrily, Mrs. Baker poured tea into three cracked cups and joined them to sip the refreshingly warm drink. She asked Lizzy about the years since she had been separated from her brother and told her visitors a little about her life on Cheapside, how her only child had died from the cholera at only ten years of age and how she had been widowed and left alone these past twelve years.

  Coming from the lips of some women, it would have sounded a pitiful complaint against the unfairness of life. From Mrs. Baker, it was simply a recitation of her journey since leaving her parents, who were tenants on the Charlesworth estate. She told Lizzy of the adjustment of living in London with her husband, who became a coal whipper and how she had learned to sew to help support her family.

  And that brought Katharine to the reason for their visit. “The young man who came here has proposed and I have accepted. It is my wish that you would sew my wedding dress. Would you be so kind as to do so?”

  Mrs. Baker’s lower jaw dropped in wonder. “Me, sew a wedding dress? It has been some time since I sewed so fancy a dress.”

  She stared down at her knobby fingers. “I wonder if I would not snag the silk and lace with these rough hands.”

  Katharine placed a hand gently atop the woman’s fingers. “I should not mind a snag here and there if you agree to make the dress, for I know how well you sew.”

  Mrs. Baker’s mouth pulled into a smile. “It would be fun to order silk instead of coarse woolen for a change.”

  “And it would be fun to come here with Lizzy and have a fitting. And no one except the three of us would see the dress until it was finished. It would be just like a cozy secret,” Katharine said.

  The rain splashed through leaks in the roof, making a tinkering sound in the buckets that were set about the small combined parlor and kitchen. Yet the occupants seemed unaware of the noise as they bent with heads together, drawing designs until Mrs. Baker felt sure that she knew exactly what Katharine had in mind. She took Katharine’s measurements and promised, “I will order the fabric and work on it while ye are away. In a month, I will have yer dress ready to try on.”

  Katharine’s eyes shone. “It will be everything I imagined when I was a little girl. And all the more precious because you have made it.”

  She paid Mrs. Baker to order the material, and then insisted upon a generous price for the making of the dress. Then she and Lizzy bid their good-byes and ventured into the rain that had slackened into a fine mist. The pale rays of sunset lit the sky with a pink haze.

  Katharine turned her thoughts forward. She looked forward to their visit to the country where the April rains would have stirred the first wild flowers into bloom and the greenhouse would be fragrant with the scent of roses. She could ride the meadows with Philip and spend her evenings in front of a cozy library fire.

  She was pulled from her daydreams by Lizzy who said, “My aunt, she is a very decent sort, do you not think so?”

  “Indeed. I became quite fond of her during the time I spent with her.”

  “I am glad that I have got to meet her. Father used to speak fondly of his younger sister. I know he would like to have seen her again. They were very alike, I think.”

  Katharine’s expression became brooding. “You are fortunate to have a relative with whom you may find comfort. The only kin of whom I may boast are of such ill character that I do not wish to claim any relation.”

  “Your uncle and his son. What was his name?”

  “Cedric. He is a sniveling, simpering dandy with the mistaken notion that there is not a woman alive who would not welcome his attention, though he would have no estate had it not been entailed away from me.”

  She thought and then added, “I am sure that my uncle was livid when I ran away. He hoped to have my generous pension from my father to use as his own to keep us in food and provide gambling money for himself and his son.”

  Lizzy smiled shyly at Katharine. “Then I am glad that you have foiled his scheme and shall be happily wed to Lord Charlesworth.”

  Katharine cast off her dark mood and beamed at Lizzy. “So am I, dear Lizzy. So am I.”

  The party, save the elder Lord Charlesworth, whose presence was desired in Parliament, left for the country the very next day. They took along only Lizzy from the serving staff since they had ample servants to look after them at the estate. Katharine tamped down a smile as she thought of Mrs. Parker. The woman had never seemed to lik
e her. What would she think to have her return as a future mistress of the estate?

  A sky of lovely robin egg blue smiled down upon them as they rode together in the coach. “Oh, we shall have so much to do upon our return. My head is already fairly bursting with the things to be done.” Lady Charlesworth punctuated her conversation with the flapping of her fan. It blew the tiny wisps of hair about that curled around her face.

  Philip grinned at Katharine. “Do not let her fool you. She is happy as a clam in the midst of these plans. Indeed, she likes nothing better.”

  Lady Charlesworth swatted him on the knee with her fan. “I am not saying that it is unpleasant. Indeed it is not. I am only saying that there is much to be done in arranging a wedding.”

  “I shall help you, my lady. And working together, with Lizzy beside us, we shall get it all done,” Katharine assured her.

  Lady Charlesworth settled down to quiet musing while Katharine wondered what she had gotten herself into. A small and quiet affair would have suited her very well. Yet, she had the feeling that there would be nothing quiet or small about this wedding.

  They arrived early in the evening to find the staff fully prepared for their arrival. As Katharine refreshed herself in her chamber, at a washbasin of warm water scented by rose petals that floated atop, she thought about how different her reception was from the first time she entered this house. Then, she had entered as a servant. She returned now with a lady’s maid and with a full supper of roasted pheasant, leg of lamb, and all sorts of pleasant fruits and puddings awaiting her.

  She turned from her reflection in the cheval mirror and glanced around at the rich furnishings of this third floor chamber. The mahogany bed was massive, carved with clawed legs as big around as tree stumps. Katharine thought she would feel lost in the vast expanse of bedding after becoming more used to small cots and narrow beds, especially if she pulled the gauzy summer bed curtain about her.

  A generous-sized wardrobe with a rich sheen that matched that of the bed sat in the corner. When her trunk was brought up, she would have Lizzy hang the dresses inside. It would be pleasant to choose among them without having to rummage through a trunk.

  Her stomach growled, reminding her of the meal that waited downstairs in the candlelit dining room. She patted her hair into place and scurried into the hall and down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she nearly ran head-on into Mrs. Parker. She woman stopped in her tracks and stared at Katharine. She dropped her gaze quickly, yet not before Katharine saw the animosity in her cold gray eyes.

  “Good-evening, miss. I believe you are expected in the dining room.”

  “Good-evening, Mrs. Parker. I was just on my way there.”

  Mrs. Parker nodded briefly as Katharine turned aside to continue her journey. Behind her, she felt the cold eyes boring into her back and she wondered what she had ever done to earn the enmity of the woman.

  Her thoughts did not linger long on the subject. As soon as she saw Philip and returned his ardent greeting, she felt that life was all pleasantness again and that her cares were all very far behind her.

  After they dined, they sat for an enjoyable time in the library, settling into comfortable chairs while Philip entertained them with his reading. After a while, his melodic voice lulled Katharine into a dreamy state. Her eyes grew so heavy that she was relieved when he closed the book. They were all weary from the long trip and each in need of a good night’s rest.

  When Letty helped her into her night raile, and then took down her hair to brush it out, she asked, “Are you glad to be back?”

  Katharine nodded. “I am. Though it seems very different to be here as myself instead of an imposter.”

  Lizzy pulled the brush through thick russet waves of hair and said, “I am vastly relieved to have returned as your maid. Mrs. Parker has not stopped frowning at me ever since we arrived.”

  “I do not believe that she is fond of me either, though I do not know why.”

  Lizzy sighed. “She never was one for being friendly.”

  Katharine settled into the massive bed and pulled the cover to her chin. She fell asleep before Lizzy blew out the candle and left the room.

  In the morning, she woke early and remembered that she and Philip were to go for a ride. She clambered out of bed and donned her leaf-green riding habit and pulled the stylish bonnet over her loose waves of hair. She hurried down the stairs to meet him at the stable.

  On her way out the French doors that led from the library to the path that wound behind the house, she had the misfortune to meet up with the stony faced housekeeper. She looked as though she had eaten a lemon and it had not agreed with her. Nonetheless, Katharine decided that she would not let anyone spoil the beauty of this morning.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Parker. Have you been out for a walk?”

  The woman flinched as though Katharine had handed her an insult instead of a pleasant greeting. “I am on my own time, miss, so where I go is my own business. However, I will take the opportunity to tell you that Lady Charlesworth would like you to meet her in the parlor at one o’clock to begin a list of foods to be served at the wedding supper.”

  Katharine stared, taken aback by the determined unfriendliness of the woman.

  She replied coolly. “Thank you Mrs. Parker. You may tell her that I will be there.”

  She continued on to the stable to find Philip waiting for her. He held the reigns of a powerful looking roan and a smaller bay mare. He grinned broadly when he saw her. “I thought you had decided to lie abed. I had almost given up on you.”

  Katharine wagged her finger at him. “It is not yet nine o’clock, our agreed upon hour. It is not my fault if you were overeager.”

  Philip laughed. “I have only been here long enough to select a horse for you to ride. She is a good tempered creature with a pleasant gait.”

  Katharine allowed him to help her find her seat upon the horse. “She reminds me of the horse I left at home. Papá bought her for me for my tenth birthday.”

  Philip shot a sympathetic look. “Perhaps I might get her for you.”

  “I doubt my uncle would part with her. He owns her now, along with the estate.”

  “If he is as greedy as you say, I am sure he would be willing to sell her for the right price.”

  Katharine’s heart swelled with loving gratitude. Was there ever a man who cared more for the comfort and happiness of his fiancé? Since she had come back to him in London, he had been all that she could hope for in kindness and consideration. Surely she did not deserve the benevolence that he bestowed upon her.

  “You are kind. If my uncle would sell her, I would love to have her as my own again.”

  “Then I shall see what I can do.” Philip felt sure that Graynor would sell the mare, for surely he could have no use for her. The anticipated success of his venture gave him a ridiculously large measure of pride. He chided himself for being so pleased by his ability to make Katharine happy. It was such a small thing that he knew it was no credit to him. She was so agreeable and easy in her ways that he felt uncommonly lucky to have secured a woman who would make such a good-tempered wife.

  They followed the path from the stable, through a sparse woods and out onto the open meadow. The wind brushed Katharine’s face in a soft kiss as she cantered beside Philip. As the sun warmed her gloved hands, she turned her face up to greet the glorious golden rays. She looked over to see Philip smiling at her and felt bashfully aware of her childish enjoyment of their outing. Yet his dark eyes gave no hint of reproach, only approval and the gratification of seeing her so happy. She shook off her chagrin and gave herself completely to the enjoyment of this moment.

  As they rode toward a tenant farm, she watched smoke rise lazily from a far-off chimney. She paced her horse to keep match with Philip, feeling as though they moved as one entity, leaving her only vaguely aware of the groom who trotted along behind them.

  They pulled to a halt at the top of a low knoll to drink in the tranquil scene that lay b
efore them. To their left, rich dark earth lay tilled and newly planted. Ahead of them the meadow leveled out, decorated festively with blue and pink wildflowers, while a copse of trees to their right drank its fill of a steam that nourished their budding green leaves.

  “I could stay here forever,” Katharine said.

  Philip nodded, his relaxed posture showed his agreement. “We can dismount and walk awhile if you like. The meadow grass smells fresh and we could have a better look at the flowers.”

  Katharine beamed. “Oh, Philip, that is so like you. It is as though you are reading my thoughts. I should like very much to smell the flowers and perhaps even pick a few to take back to my chambers.”

  He swung from his horse. “Then I shall help you pick as many as you like, though they cannot match either your beauty or your sweetness.”