The porter said, “The Lady Letitia Deverill, by appointment, your grace.”
“Thank you, you may go,” the duchess said as Letty and Miss Dibble made their curtsies. “Step forward, Letitia, and let me have a look at you.” Her voice was pleasant enough, but Letty detected no welcome in her manner.
Complying with what had clearly been an order, Letty remained standing for the next quarter hour while the duchess described her new duties. She learned, primarily, that while she served she would have to be present whenever the queen was up and about unless Her Majesty specifically dismissed her.
“You will help with arrangements for state events, as well as other, less extraordinary ones,” the duchess added. “I mention that only because Her Majesty is to give the first state ball of the Season a month from today, on the tenth of May. Your primary duty is to serve her and to help entertain her guests. I understand that you are fluent in both French and German, which will be a great help to you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Letty said.
“You will also help entertain the company after dinner whenever the queen invites you to dine with her party. I trust you can play the pianoforte and sing.”
“I’ve had years of lessons,” Letty said. “As to whether anyone will want—”
“No false modesty, if you please. There is one more, very important thing.”
Letty waited silently.
“Discretion is a quality prized above all others here, Letitia,” the duchess said. “One expects any lady in royal service to be a model of circumspection, but we no longer live in the time of Mrs. Burney. Her Majesty strictly forbids anyone to keep a diary while at court, and our ladies must guard even their correspondence. As a result of recent difficulties, the queen becomes quite furious if she thinks anyone has written so much as a word about what goes on here.”
“I quite understand, ma’am. I grew up in diplomatic circles, you know.”
“Yes, Letitia, but you also represent a group who are politically opposed to the government in power. Her Majesty would be most displeased to learn that you had repeated things you’ve heard at court to any member of that group.”
Choosing her words with care, Letty said, “My parents also would be displeased, ma’am. They both warned me—not that they thought it truly necessary to do so—that in whatever concerns Her Majesty, my lips must remain sealed.”
“Excellent,” the duchess said, nodding. “If you are prepared to begin at once, then I think you should do so. Tomorrow and every Thursday thereafter, Her Majesty will hold a drawing room. On such occasions, she likes to have all her ladies in attendance, so it would perhaps be as well if you can learn to find your way about the palace before then.”
“I was aware that I might have to begin today, ma’am,” Letty said calmly. “I brought another dress with me, and my people can fetch more if necessary. I believe, however, that I am not required to move permanently into the palace.”
“That is correct,” the duchess said. “Maids of honor no longer receive bed and board as part of their compensation, but you will receive board wages and you will have an apartment to use here. Before you leave the palace you must always ascertain that Her Majesty does not further require your presence. You should know, too, that if you are late or fail to appear when you should, Her Majesty will instantly dismiss you.”
“Yes ma’am, I understand.”
“Excellent. For today, I assume that you have brought a dress appropriate for an afternoon at court. You must decide if it will serve to dine with the royal party later, if Her Majesty invites you to do so. Since this is your first day, no one will be too critical, and there is little difference in the required dress since Her Majesty encourages a feminine display of décolletage at all times, not just in evening dress.”
Well aware of that fact, knowing that Victoria was quite vain about her lovely shoulders, Letty had chosen her court dresses accordingly.
When the duchess dismissed her, she and Miss Dibble found the same footman on the landing outside the sitting room, waiting to show them to Letty’s apartment. That chamber, on the third and uppermost floor of the palace, proved to be a bleak cubicle, barely large enough for the narrow bed, dressing table, stool, and wardrobe that comprised its meager furnishings. Lucas, standing stiffly outside the door, contributed much more importance to the room than Letty felt it deserved.
However, she wasted no time in criticism but changed quickly to her second gown, an elegant confection of pale green silk, made very full in the skirt with a pointed waist in the antique style. The heart-shaped bodice—cut low and well off the shoulders—clung tightly to her figure. Around her neck she wore a simple pearl necklace. Matching drops graced her ears, and over her long white glove on her right wrist she wore a single-strand pearl bracelet.
Having removed her straw bonnet and smoothed her coiffure, Jenifry pinned a small, beribboned lace cap at the back of her head, saying, “You’ll want to wear a more elaborate cap in the evening, won’t you, Miss Letty?”
“Yes, but Her Majesty will dismiss us at some point to dress for dinner,” Letty said. “Will I do for now, Elvira?”
“Very elegant,” Miss Dibble said, nodding her approval. “Your hair does want to curl rather too much here in London, but that cannot be helped. Pinch your cheeks a bit, my dear.”
Letty shook her head. “I cannot go about pinching them all afternoon. In any event, I doubt that anyone but you will think them too pale.”
“You should use a bit of rouge perhaps.”
“I don’t like rouge, nor do I have time for more primping. I ought to go.”
“Your shoes, Miss Letty!”
Letty chuckled, slipping out of the black slippers she had worn with her challis gown and into the green silk ones that Jenifry held ready for her. “Now?”
Solemnly, Jenifry nodded.
Letty turned to Miss Dibble. “Will you wait for me here, Elvira, or do you prefer to return to Jervaulx House?”
“I shall await your return here, of course.”
“Well, I don’t know why you say of course. In your place, I’m sure I should prefer the warmth and comfort of Jervaulx House, and if you think for a minute that I shan’t be able to get home without you, you are much mistaken. I’ll be on duty only until dinner unless she invites me to join the party dining with her. Even in that event, I can manage to send word to you when and where to send the carriage to fetch me. Indeed, perhaps I can arrange for a palace carriage to take me home when my duties here are done.”
“I will wait, Letitia. Moreover, Lucas, Jonathan, and Jenifry also will wait.”
“Very well, ma’am, I won’t debate the matter with you. Indeed, I daresay I shall be most grateful to see all your friendly faces by the end of this day.”
Letty found the duchess’s footman standing silently outside her door with Lucas. She expected the palace footman to take her directly to the queen, rather daunting though that prospect was. Still, it was with mixed emotions that she discovered he was returning her to the Duchess of Sutherland’s sitting room.
Rising, the duchess greeted her, then looked her over critically.
Letty stood calmly, awaiting her verdict.
“Quite suitable,” the duchess said at last, adding as she held out an object mounted on a white-ribbon bow, “You must wear your badge of office.”
The badge proved to be a miniature of the queen surrounded by diamonds. The duchess helped Letty pin it to her bodice, saying, “You have style, Letitia. I believe Her Majesty will be pleased to approve of you.”
A half hour later, however, when the duchess presented her to the queen, who sat amidst her ladies in a vast, elegantly appointed drawing room, Victoria frowned. “You have our permission to rise, Lady Letitia. We remember you well, as it happens. Your papa has kept his family in France for many years, has he not?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Letty replied as she arose from her curtsy. “Having faithfully served the Crown at our Paris embassy,
he returns home next month only because my grandfather’s death nine months ago makes it both inconvenient and unwise for him to delay any longer in taking up his duties at Jervaulx Abbey.”
“That gown is French, is it not,” Victoria said abruptly, adding before Letty could reply, “We insist that our ladies wear only English-made clothing. Perhaps no one informed you of that fact.”
“One naturally hesitates to contradict Your Majesty, but this gown is entirely English, ma’am. An English dressmaker fashioned it from fine English silk.”
“Indeed?” Victoria looked at the gown more narrowly. “It is well made, certainly, but have you not just recently arrived in England?”
“Yes, ma’am. However, you will doubtless recall that last year you asked all the ladies attending your coronation to wear only English-made gowns. Thus, knowing then that I would be in London for the Season this year—even before you so graciously invited me to serve you here at court—my mother and I ordered a number of gowns to be made according to this year’s English fashions.”
“Indeed. You must have found a most wonderful woman for her to have made them fit you so well, what with you in France and she here in England.”
“Sarah Glass is very skilled, to be sure, ma’am, but she did not fit me sight unseen. Once we knew I was to serve at court, my father sent for her, and she very kindly traveled all the way to Paris to attend to my formal fittings.”
“I assume that Sutherland has explained your duties,” Victoria said, clearly tired of talking about fashion.
“Yes, ma’am,” Letty said.
“Excellent. Lady Portman,” the queen said, raising her voice and turning her head slightly toward a small group of women talking quietly nearby, “perhaps you and Lady Barham would care to play three-handed whist now for a short while.”
Two ladies separated themselves at once from the others and moved to attend to the queen. Footmen swiftly set up a card table, and no one seemed to notice as Letty walked away. For the moment she stood alone, for the Duchess of Sutherland had apparently abandoned her. Seeing another lone young woman look her way, Letty moved toward her, saying as she approached, “Hello, I am Letitia Deverill.”
“Are you indeed?”
“Well, I was the last time I looked.”
The smile that began to tug at the corners of the other young woman’s mouth vanished in an instant when a stern masculine voice spoke from behind Letty.
“Catherine, Lady Tavistock is looking for you.”
“I shall go to her at once, Sir John. Thank you.”
Letty had thought the drawing room populated entirely by members of the fair sex, but as she glanced toward the stern voice, she saw at once that she was mistaken. The man who had spoken turned on his heel without so much as a word to her, but she scarcely noted his rudeness.
Directly behind him, looking right at her, was the very handsome man who had nearly knocked her off Mr. Clifford’s front stoop that morning.
FOUR
JUSTIN STARED IN ASTONISHMENT at the young woman in the pale green dress, hardly able to believe his eyes. However, when he blinked, not only was she still there but she was walking straight toward him.
Such effrontery unmanned him. Young ladies simply did not walk bang up to unknown gentlemen, let alone smile at them in that disarming way.
She had small, even, white teeth; and her rosy lips were promisingly full and softly seductive. The dusting of freckles on her small, tip-tilted nose did nothing to mar the beauty of her skin, which was smooth and creamy all the way down to the fashionably deep décolletage that revealed the round softness of her breasts.
“I have the advantage of you, I’m afraid, my lord.”
Her voice startled him out of his brief trance, and an unfamiliar feeling of heat in his cheeks thoroughly disconcerted him. “I-I beg your pardon?”
“You need not do so,” she said kindly, making him flush all the more when he realized that she had misunderstood and thought he had apologized for staring. Fortunately, before he could disabuse her of the notion, she added, “I know who you are, you see, and you cannot possibly know me.”
“Do you always walk right up to strange men and begin a conversation? For that matter, do you—?”
“Are you a strange man?”
Unaccountably he found himself chuckling. “Perhaps we ought to begin this conversation again. In fairness, though, I should warn you that Lady Tavistock is looking our way. I daresay she will not approve of your forward manners.”
“She will not approve of me in any event.”
“You say that quite calmly. I should think that since she is chief lady of the bedchamber her disapproval could well end your welcome here.”
“I doubt that she will pay me that much heed, sir. As a maid of honor, I am little more than a lowly attendant, and besides, I am only a sop.”
“A what?” What mad sort of female was this?
“A sop,” she repeated. “It’s what my brother Gideon called me. We’re Tories, you see—my family, that is—and the queen does not want any Tory women here. She appointed me only to appease the grumblers who deplore the fact that she is attended only by members and toadies of the most powerful Whig families. Now that I come to think of it, though, that must include you.”
“I confess to being a Whig,” he said cautiously. Then, impulsively, he added, “You are certainly an original, ma’am, if I may say so.”
“Well, I wish you wouldn’t,” she retorted. “It makes me feel like some sort of objet d’art that you’d like to stick up on a shelf somewhere.”
“You pronounce that phrase like a veritable Frenchman.”
“Like a Frenchwoman, I should hope. The fact is that I spoke French before I spoke English, or at all events, from much the same time.”
“Then you had a French nurse as well as a French governess, I expect.”
“Yes, but my situation was not quite what you must be thinking.”
“What I am thinking is that you are a most unusual young woman, who will likely find herself in the suds before long.”
“Do you think so?”
“My dear girl, I found you on a solicitor’s doorstep with no one to protect you but another female. I grant you, she looked a proper dragon, but that is not an area of town in which I should be pleased to find my sister.”
“Have you got a sister?”
“No, but—”
“Then I don’t think you should set yourself up as an expert on the subject,” she said. “For that matter, Mr. Clifford’s office is quite near St. James’s—”
“Exactly my point. Many gentlemen’s clubs sit in that district, you know.”
“Are you suggesting that I might have been molested by a gentleman?”
“No, of course not, but—”
“Now that you put me in mind of it, I very nearly was, was I not?”
“What the devil are you talking about now?”
“You say that you found me, but the truth, sir, is that you nearly knocked me flat. Although that is not molesting in the truest sense of the word—”
“It certainly is not!”
“Well, I just said so, didn’t I? Still, I do take your point.”
He felt dizzy. She made it sound as if she were agreeing with him, but he found it hard to remember what his point had been. He certainly felt none of the satisfaction that such agreement ought to have given him.
Drawing a slow, deep breath, careful to let none of his disconcertion show, he said gently, “I feel obliged to offer you some advice, my girl.”
“Then I must warn you, sir, that I do not take kindly to unsolicited advice, particularly not from strange men, and most particularly not from one who addresses me as his girl. Moreover, I daresay Lady Tavistock’s disapproval of me would pale by comparison with her disapproval of your addressing me in such a rude and heedless fashion. We’ve not even been properly introduced!”
His temper ignited. “Why, you little spitfire, I meant only ki
ndness. How the devil you have the nerve to take me up like that after you accosted me—”
“Accosted you! My dear sir—”
“Hush,” he said abruptly, when his attention shifted to a familiar figure approaching them. “Sir John is returning, and little though you deserve—”
“Sir John who?” An arrested look in her eyes stirred his interest even more.
“Sir John Conroy,” he said, watching her narrowly. “Look here, do you make it a habit constantly to interrupt other people, because I must tell you—”
“Yes, I do. I’ve striven for years to overcome the fault, but to no avail, I’m afraid. It is my besetting sin—or one of them,” she added with a conscientious air of setting the record straight. “Do you admire Sir John Conroy?”
Justin was grateful for the buzz of conversation in the room, because without it both Conroy and the aide who was his constant companion were close enough to have overheard the question. As it was, he could be nearly certain that her voice had not carried to either man’s ears. Offending Conroy was dangerous at the best of times. Just now, his mood seemed grim enough for an offense to prove deadly.
“I would offer to introduce you,” Justin said, “if I knew your name.”
She had turned, frowning, to look at Conroy, who had paused nearby to exchange a word with someone. When she glanced back at Justin, her frown vanished, and an engaging twinkle lighted her silvery eyes.
“I shall be sorry to end our conversation,” she said. “Still, I expect I must tell you my name, for I can scarcely refuse now. I’m afraid I am Letitia Deverill.”
“Good Lord.” He stared at her, dumbfounded.
“I want to speak to you, Raventhorpe,” Conroy said, startling him. Justin had not noticed that he and his shadow were on the move again.
Still dazed, he greeted the other man vaguely.
Conroy shook his hand. Then, shooting a glance at Letitia, he added in a falsely jovial tone, “I see that you have met our little Tory. Are you growing accustomed to life at court, Lady Letitia?”
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