The Daring Debutantes Bundle

by M C Beaton

  He nervously twisted his side-whiskers round one broad finger and eyed the girl in front of him with some trepidation.

  “Well, here we are—all engaged, right and tight.”

  “It has all been too sudden,” said Annabelle, equally nervous. “I hardly know you.”

  “Oh, we’ll be seeing lots of each other before we tie the knot,” said the Captain blithely. “Fell in love with you at first sight, ’pon my soul I did.”

  “Lady Emmeline has commanded me to marry you,” said Annabelle in a low voice.

  “Put that way, it sounds a bit dismal,” said the Captain, espying a decanter of Madeira in the corner and feeling that life had taken a rosier turn. Should he kiss her before he had a drink? Better. Some females didn’t like the smell of the stuff.

  He advanced and grasped her firmly round the waist and planted a warm kiss on her mouth. It was like kissing a statue. Well, the money that Emmeline would leave her would pay for many a pretty ladybird.

  But the girl seemed to have turned very white and faint. Perhaps she had been moved by his kiss after all.

  The Captain poured out two glasses of Madeira with an expert hand and carried one to Annabelle. She stiffly took the glass like a marionette and drained the contents.

  “That’s the stuff,” said Captain MacDonald enthusiastically. “Ain’t been kissed before?”

  Annabelle shook her head dumbly.

  “You’ll soon get used to it, heh! You’ll find me accounted a ladies man. Even the Prince Regent himself will tell you. “Pon rep, Jimmy MacDonald is a terror with the ladies.”

  Annabelle smiled faintly. “Terror” was indeed the right word. But perhaps it was merely because of her inexperience. The wine had given her false courage, and she tried to assure herself she would get used to the Captain in time.

  “You’ll like being married, you’ll see,” said the large Captain, pacing up and down the room with his replenished glass in his hand. “We’ll buy a neat little house right in Town and we can do a bit of entertaining. Got to ask the Colonel and his wife, of course, before anybody else.” He paused and looked at Annabelle. She really was remarkably beautiful with that incredible hair and voluptuous figure. He realised he had let his eyes roam too freely and turned his attention to his glass.

  “You musn’t mind Emmeline pushing you around,” he said in a kindly voice. “Fact is—the old girl’s fond of me. The old Marquess, Emmeline’s husband, was a famous soldier, you know, and Emmeline favors the military. Known her since I was so high. She bought me my first pair of colors. Don’t know what I would do without her and that’s a fact,” he added gruffly.

  Annabelle found herself warming to him. “I am also very grateful to Godmother,” she said quietly. “She has really gone to a great deal of effort on my behalf.”

  “Wouldn’t have done if you’d been an antidote,” said the Captain. “Only the best would do for old Jimmy.”

  At that moment the Dowager Marchioness came tittupping in, clutching her bouquet and eager to tell her new audience about her unknown admirer. “Lilies, eh!” said the Captain. “Funny sort of flower to send. Must have thought it was your funeral. Joke, that’s all,” he added hurriedly as Emmeline gave him a steely look. “Shall we go?”

  THE Egremonts’ ballroom was indeed decorated in the classical manner. Captain MacDonald gallantly scrawled his name several times in Annabelle’s dance card before escaping to the card room. Lady Emmeline headed straight for Diana’s bower which was in a secluded corner of the ballroom. A pretty arbor with a small sofa, it was partly concealed from the rest of the ballroom by masses of flowers. Behind the sofa a marble statue of Diana, goddess of the chase, stood complete with marble bow and marble hounds.

  Annabelle had little time to take in the splendor of the ballroom with its glittering and elegant guests, its French chalked floor and great banks of hothouse flowers. Soon she was surrounded by admirers, and by the time the orchestra struck up, her dance card was full.

  How handsome and courteous the gentlemen seemed! Not at all like the bucks and bloods she had watched promenading in the square. There was admittedly quite a sprinkling of fops with their extraordinary wigs, stiff-skirted coats, and high red heels mincing and tittupping around the edges of the floor. The famous Mr. Brummell was pointed out to her by one partner, and Annabelle thought he looked surprisingly amusing and amused, and not at all like the terrifying Leader of Fashion she had been led to expect.

  She dipped and turned, curtseyed in the dance, moving increasingly easier as she became accustomed to partnering a gentleman and not one of her sisters on the sanded parlor floor of the rectory. The only thing that made her feel uncomfortable was the fact that several of the ladies kept staring at her gown and then putting their bejewelled and feathered heads together. Then she noticed Lord Varleigh standing at the entrance of the ballroom. His evening dress looked as if it had been molded to his tall muscular form, and his light gray eyes raked over the dancers searching for someone. Annabelle, perhaps!

  She felt quite breathless when the dance ended but put it down to the energetic steps of the Scottish reel she had just performed. He was coming towards her. He stopped and gave her a singularly sweet smile accompanied by a bow. Then he moved on.

  “You are looking more enchanting than ever, my dear,” Annabelle heard him say in a caressing voice. But the words were not said to her. Lord Varleigh had come to a stop beside a ravishing brunette. Her pink satin gown clung to her shapely figure, and her low neckline revealed magnificent breasts. Annabelle glanced down at her own lace-covered bosom and wondered if she had been too missish. The dashing brunette was a shade on the plump side. Probably be as fat as a sow by the time she’s forty, thought Annabelle and then wondered why she should so vehemently dislike a lady she did not even know. The brunette was dimpling up at Lord Varleigh in the most enchanting way from under thick black eyelashes.

  Annabelle became aware that she was staring at the couple quite blatantly. She blushed and turned away to look for her next partner.

  The gallant Captain came bounding up exuding a strong smell of the best Burgundy and Rowlandson’s Macassar Oil.

  “It is the waltz,” said Annabelle, listening to the announcement. “I fear I do not know how to do it.”

  “It’s easy,” said Captain MacDonald, putting an arm round her waist. “I lead … you follow.”

  Once Annabelle had become accustomed to the strange feeling of a man’s arm round her waist, she began to enjoy her first waltz. There was no denying that the Captain’s agility at Covent Garden extended to the ballroom, and Annabelle floated happily in his arms, executing turns and twists she would have believed impossible some few minutes before. As she relaxed, Annabelle suddenly thought of Emmeline. She had not seen the Dowager Marchioness for some time.

  “Have you seen my godmother?” she asked the Captain, looking up anxiously into his eyes.

  “Oh, she’ll be all right,” he said carelessly, drawing Annabelle closer in his arms. “I say, let’s speed things up a bit. This dance is dashed slow!”

  He began to spin faster and faster until Annabelle could not tell which way she was going. She finally managed to focus her eyes and notice that they were spinning rapidly towards a bower dedicated to Venus rising from the sea. A statue of the goddess on her shell stood in the middle of a small pool of water.

  “Stop!” cried Annabelle frantically. The Captain paid no heed. He was tum-tumming the music of the waltz so loudly that he could not hear anything other than the sound of his own voice.

  Annabelle wrenched herself free just in time. There was a tremendous splash as Captain MacDonald tripped over the flower-bedecked edge of the pool and tumbled headlong in.

  The dancers stopped dancing and clustered round, laughing and cheering. The Captain heaved himself to his feet and pretended to wash himself while the admiring crowd urged him to further efforts. Annabelle wished fiercely the silly clown would disappear. She was pink with embarrassment. It
was worse than being affianced to Grimaldi.

  With a final bow and flourish Captain Jimmy MacDonald climbed out of the pool to go and change. The interrupted waltz started up again. Annabelle heard a quiet amused voice in her ear. “Shall I partner you for the finish of the dance, Miss Quennell?” Lord Varleigh was looking down at her, his eyes alight with mockery.

  She drew back. “No, my lord, I am now convinced I cannot waltz.”

  “Then I shall unconvince you,” he said, taking her firmly in his arms. “I am less energetic than Jimmy, but you will find my quieter steps easier to follow.”

  What a peculiar world, thought Annabelle, where gentlemen could not seem to take a simple “no” for an answer. But Lord Varleigh was remarkably easy to follow, although she felt almost painfully conscious of the pressure of his gloved hand at her waist.

  “And what do you think of your first London ball, Miss Quennell?” Lord Varleigh asked the red-gold head bent beneath his. She raised her head, and he was again startled by her beauty. “If I were a less experienced man,” he thought, “my heart might be in some danger!” He suddenly realised that she was not giving the conventional return to his greeting.

  “It’s their eyes,” Annabelle was saying, and he wondered what she had said before. “I suppose that is what distinguishes the ton from the ordinary people. They have such hard, insolent eyes. Who is that vastly pretty lady over there?”

  Lord Varleigh followed her gaze. “Lady Jane Cherle,” he said shortly. Annabelle looked at the dashing brunette she had noticed earlier in the evening, blushed and said “oh” in a small voice.

  He swore under his breath. So Lady Emmeline had been gossiping, had she? Well, what did it matter? Jane was no milk and water miss. She was all fire and passion. She … He looked fondly over to where his mistress was standing, surrounded by her customary court of gallants, and frowned. She was surely older than he had thought.

  “I did not know she was your particular … er … friend,” Annabelle was saying. “Or I should not have asked.”

  “All the world knows Lady Jane is my … er … particular friend,” he said lightly. “That is a vastly becoming gown.”

  Now what had he said to make the girl blush. He had only spoken the truth. The foaming white inset of lace at her bosom was vastly alluring in a very feminine way, a great improvement on the scandalous gown she had worn to the opera.

  His eyes strayed again to where Lady Jane was standing, and Annabelle had a sudden feeling of pique. She sought for some way to regain his attention.

  “I have seen Mr. Brummell,” she ventured, “and he seems a very unassuming young man.”

  “Appearances can be very deceptive,” murmured Lord Varleigh, executing a neat turn. “Take yourself, for example, Miss Quennell. Can it be that you are not the shy, sedate country miss you appear?”

  His eyes again strayed in the direction of his mistress.

  “And can it be that my Lord Varleigh is not the libertine he would appear to be?” countered Annabelle sweetly.

  He looked down at her with his pale eyes narrowed. “Do not confuse impertinence with wit, Miss Quennell. I can think of nothing more boring.”

  “Then perhaps you would rather dance with some other lady,” snapped Annabelle.

  “Perhaps,” he rejoined lazily. “But then, I am a poor slave to the conventions, and it would not do your social consequence any good if I walked from the floor and left you standing.”

  “Are you then so socially powerful?” demanded Annabelle.

  “Yes,” he replied with infuriating simplicity. And then, “I do wish the Egremonts had thought to employ the services of a chimney sweep before embarking on this ball. There is a dreadful smell of smoke. Why, it is like a…”

  But whatever else Lord Varleigh was about to say was drowned by a piercing scream.

  Black smoke began to swirl across the ballroom. Several hysterical voices shouted, “Fire!” and Lady Jane Cherle in the neatest way possible staggered across the short distance that separated her from Lord Varleigh and fainted into his arms.

  Then Annabelle heard cries of “Lady Emmeline! It’s Lady Emmeline!”

  She plunged in the direction of the smoke which was pouring from Diana’s bower. A figure, dimly recognisable as Lady Emmeline, was being rolled across the floor by two young officers trying to extinguish the flames on her dress. Footmen were hurrying forward with wooden pails of water and throwing them on the still blazing silk hangings which hung behind the now soot-begrimed marble statue of Diana.

  Unmindful of her ballgown, Annabelle knelt beside the grotesque figure of the Dowager Marchioness. “Oh, what happened?” she whispered. Lady Emmeline slowly opened one eye and then the other. “I was waiting for him, my dear, you know, like the letter said. Then all of a sudden I seemed to be surrounded with flames. But perhaps he is now here. Is it you, my dashing friend?” Game as ever, Lady Emmeline leered awfully at one of the young officers who had helped to extinguish the flames.

  “Must be the shock. Addled her wits,” muttered the officer.

  Lord Varleigh arrived with Lady Jane on his arm. “Come, Miss Quennell,” he said, “and I will assist you home.”

  But Annabelle had recognised the familiar figure of Captain MacDonald who had returned from changing his clothes.

  “It’s all right,” she said. “Jimmy will look after me.”

  The Captain looked surprised and gratified at the familiar use of his Christian name. “Besides,” added Annabelle sweetly to Lord Varleigh, “you must be very busy with your own concerns.”

  The Captain was already helping Lady Emmeline towards the door. Annabelle tripped quickly after them before Lord Varleigh could think of anything to say.

  “Little cat,” shrugged Lady Jane. “But I wish I knew the name of her dressmaker.”

  AT the house in Berkeley Square Lady Emmeline was helped to bed and a footman dispatched to bring the doctor. Annabelle gave the Captain a hurried “good night” and quickly bobbed her head so that his kiss landed on the top of her hair.

  In the privacy of her room she sat down to compose a long letter to her sisters.

  Mary, the seventeen-year-old, would want to hear about the gentlemen; Susan, fifteen, must hear about the jewels; and Lisbeth, the ten-year-old, would want to hear all about the food Annabelle had eaten, particularly the sweets.

  There must be nothing in the letter to excite the ready envy of her sisters. On the other hand they would be fearfully disappointed if it were dull. She did not mention her engagement. It all seemed so unreal. Perhaps some miracle would happen in the next few days and both Aunt Emmeline and the Captain would come to their senses. She would leave the matter for at least two days, and then write to her father and explain how it had all come about.

  As she was preparing for bed, she remembered she was to attend a breakfast in the company of her fiancé the following afternoon. Horley had indicated that she should wear a sea-green silk gown which bore the hallmarks of all Madame Croke’s depraved ingenuity. The wearer would leave little to the beholder’s imagination. Annabelle bit her lip in vexation as she held it up to the candlelight. Then she remembered a package of lace curtains in the bottom drawer of a closet in the powder room. She brought them out of hiding, fetching her work basket, and began carefully and surely to snip and stitch until the sea green gown was covered in a delectable lace overdress with long prim sleeves.

  She thought briefly of Lady Emmeline as she stitched away busily. Her godmother had escaped with only a few minor burns. It was almost as if the letter had been a deliberate ruse to entice the Dowager Marchioness into a trap. Shaking her head over her lurid fantasies, Annabelle finally snuffed out the candles and went to bed.

  Chapter Four

  Annabelle entered her godmother’s bedchamber late the following morning. At first she thought Lady Emmeline was dead. The waxy face on the pillow was bound tightly in bandages passing under the chin and ending in a bow on the top of her head. Her blond curls
hung on a wig stand in the corner. Every available flat surface of the room was crammed with phials and bottles and boxes of creams and oils and unguents. A large gray and scarlet parrot wiped his beak against the bars of his cage and looked Annabelle over with all the hauteur of a patroness of Almack’s.

  The room was stiflingly hot. Lady Emmeline opened her eyes, saw Annabelle, and began to strip off her bandages.

  “This is the best way to firm the chin,” said that redoubtable old lady as soon as she could. “And stop staring at my face, child. ’Tis only oatmeal and water. The best cure for wrinkles there is.”

  Horley appeared like a grim shadow beside the bed. “Ah, Horley, hand me my hair,” said Lady Emmeline as Annabelle tried not to stare at her hostess’s shaven pate. “No, not the blond one, silly. ’Tis all smoke. I think the red will do to welcome my callers.”

  With all the expertise of a magician Horley popped a curly red wig on her mistress’s head. “Now, fetch my chocolate and my appointments. I shall not be stirring today,” said Lady Emmeline. “But there are engagements for Miss Quennell to fulfill. Ah, here we are. You and Jimmy are to attend the Standishes’ breakfast. It is time you attended to your duties as a fiancée. Pray see that Jimmy does not drink too much. You will meet several of his fellow officers. Ah! how I envy you! When I remember the days … well, never mind.”

  In the short time before her departure for the Standishes’ breakfast, Annabelle found herself worrying over the fact that she had not thanked Lord Varleigh for his gift of the novel. Would he be at the breakfast? Should she send him a letter by one of the footmen? A letter would perhaps be best.

  A STRENGTHENING wind was pushing ominous-looking clouds across the sky when Lord Varleigh and Lady Jane Cherle arrived at the Standishes’ imposing mansion at Henley. The crowd of guests bore witness to the fact that it was now easier to attend engagements out of town with the advent of faster and better sprung carriages and Macadam’s hard, smooth-surfaced roads.