James merely nodded and smiled fleetingly.
An aw
kward silence
followed, broken by the dowager.
‘
W
ell, Madeleine, we are all to attend the Carm
ichaels’ ball on Friday
and I’m sure James would be delighted to accompany you, would you not
,
James
?
’
‘
Wh-what
’
s
tammered
James, the sound of his name
obv
iously breaking his musings.
‘
I was just
informing Madeleine, that you w
ould be delighted to accompany her to the Carmichaels’ ball on Friday, would you not?
’
By her firm tone, there was no doubt this was n
ot a question, but
an order
.
‘
Oh
. O
f
, er,
course,
’
faltered James.
‘
I should be
delighted, Lady Madeleine.
’
The
d
owager
and
Madeleine exchanged contented smiles while James
resumed
his study of the flames. Eleanor
slanted him a
glance.
Anxiety was written all over his handsome features.
Something
had obvious
ly changed since that morning; s
om
ething that had had a
serious effect on his demeanour
;
something that had
definitely
started with the arrival of th
e note at breakfast
.
SEVEN
Whatever brief notions Eleanor had been harbouring for a
friendship
with Lady Madeleine
, she very
quickly
discarded
, for it soon
became
clear that she was not
amongst those persons whom
Madeleine deemed worthy of her company.
Two days ago, fo
r example,
Eleanor had enquired if Madeleine would care to
accompany her on a stroll around t
he gardens
. The woman had declined on the grounds that she was ‘feeling a little
peaked and
going for a
lie-down
’
.
A
n
hour later
,
however,
Eleanor had
bumped into her
strolling
with James who, despite the presence of the beautiful
Hu
ngarian, had remained somewhat
subdued over the last few days.
In another incident that
morning, the
d
owager
had
invited
Madeleine to accompany
herself and Eleanor on a trip
to Richmond.
The regretful excuse this time wa
s that sh
e had a pile of correspondence to catch up on. With
in
half an hour
of
their departure
, though
,
Eleanor had
been reliably informed by Milly that M
adeleine
had joined James in the drawing-room where the pair had spent the entire morning
taking tea and chatting.
‘
If you’re asking me,
’
Milly
had puffed
,
‘
she’s a top scholar at flirting, that one.
’
‘
Well, that’s as may be, Milly,
’
Eleanor had
replied,
‘
b
ut it
seems
that
she has everyone under her spell
. Even my godmother appears to have warmed t
o her. Obviously
on
e can get away with a great deal
when one is as beautiful as Lady Madeleine.
’
‘
Hmph,
’
Milly had tutted
.
‘
The woman ain’t one bit prettier than you, miss
, and that’s the truth
of it
.
’
Eleanor
soon discovered that she was
no
t the only
member of the household to whom M
adeleine had taken a
dislike
. T
he wom
an made no secret of her revulsion of the lecherous Derek
Lovell
, who, undeterred
by
the
Hungarian
’s caustic
c
omments, continued with
his lewd remarks whenever the
d
owager
was out of earshot.
But
Derek Lovell’s lack of
popularity did not st
op with the Whitlock females. E
ven James, in his melancholy state,
seemed to
be growing tired of the man’s irritating
,
frivolous behaviour.
The previous evening
the
d
owager
had taken dinner in h
er room leaving
the four of them
to dine downstair
s. Following a juvenile comment from Derek
Lovell regarding
two pink moulded blancmanges
,
Madeleine had piped up,
‘
In Hungary, we have a saying, Mr Lovell, that the constant need to refer
to something signifies that the
p
erson is lacking in the
something to which they are constantly referring.
’
‘
And what do you mean by that
exactly, Lady Madeleine?
’
Derek Lovell had sneered.
‘
You may read into
it
what you will, Mr Lovell,
’
came
the caustic reply.
‘
Now
,
if you will excuse me, I should like to take a stroll around the gardens.
James,
w
ill you
accompany me?
’
‘Wh-what?’
James
had stammered
, lost in his thoughts once again.
‘
Please accompany me in a stroll around the gardens,
’
Madeleine
had said
,
rising to her feet.
‘
I have no wish to spend a moment longer in this disgusting man’s presence.
’
And with that, she
had
flounced out of the room, with James
,
a
nd indeed Eleanor
,
not
far behind her.
‘
Enfin! E
n
fin!
’
Monsieur A
minieux clapped his hands
.
‘
She can do it
en
fin
.
’
Indeed even
Eleanor
was feeling quite pleased with herself.
In additi
on to her dreaded daily
lessons with M.
Amini
eu
x, it had taken an additional,
and much more enjoyable
,
two hours each day
for the last week
w
ith Milly,
for her to master
t
he complicated steps of the quadrille.
Not wishing to cause any trouble, the two girls had deemed it wisest to keep the extra tuition a secret
, but
Eleanor
was
determined
to
find some way to show
Milly
her appreciation.
‘
Excuse me, your grace
.
’
Lady Madeleine appeared in the ballroom doorway, looking he
r usual radiant self in a
day gown of worked muslin.
‘
I wondered if I might take the carr
iage into London this afternoon
.
’
‘
O
f course,
’
said
Lady Ormiston
, before roaring
,
‘
Stevens
! Ha
ve the
carriage brought out later
for Lady Madeleine.
’
The timid footman bowed h
is consent and retreated
hastily
. Eleanor flashed him a sympathetic look.
The man looked as though he was living on his wits. Hardly surprising
with
the
d
owager
continually bellowing
orders at him.
E
leanor
had a good idea
how he felt. She
was finding it d
ifficult keeping her own
nerves in check with
the incessant stream of
commands, criticisms and chasti
zings
from the woman
.
Lady Madeleine
,
on the other hand, appeared to have a similar effect on the dowager as her nephew.
The Hungarian
c
ould do no wrong where the
old lady
was concerned
. Perhaps that was because,
contemplated
Eleanor, unlike herself, no one could ever
accuse Lady Madeleine of being
‘unbecoming’
.
‘
Madeleine, have you met
Eleanor’s dancing
master,
M.
Aminieux? He
is
one of
the best in
all of London
,
’
sai
d
the
d
owager
.
‘
Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,
’
smile
d Lady Madelei
ne
, in her usual charming manner
.
‘
H
ow delightful,
’
he beame
d
,
evidently
falling
instantly
u
nder the woman
’s
bewitching
spel
l.
‘
May I ask where you are from,
madam
e
?
’
‘
I am from Hungary,
m
onsieur
.
’
Monsieur
Aminieux clapped his
hands together in amazement.
‘
But this is fantastic
,
’
he enthused.
‘
Ma
dam
e
Aminieux is from Hungary also
, and she is rarely having the opportunity to speak to her compatriots. I wonder if I might be so bold,
madame
, as to ask if you might acco
mpany me to my house one day to meet my wife?
When it is convenient for you, of course.’
At this suggestion,
Lady Madeleine
visibly
balked. Indeed, for one
brief moment, Eleanor thought the woman could not have looked more horrified if someone had asked her to walk barefo
ot through a pit of
slugs.
‘
Er thank you,
m
onsieur
,
’
she said, rapidly rearranging her features
into
their usual perfect order,
‘
t
hat would be
…
delightful.
Now if you will excuse me,
I have a great many things to do before this afternoon.
’
‘
Of course,
madam
e
,’ beamed M. Aminieux
.
‘
I will be speaking to Madam
e
Aminieux and we will be sending you the invitation.
’
‘
How very
…
kind,
’
mut
tered Madeleine.
She shot him a
brief
smile before
whisk
ing out of the room.
While
Eleanor’s dancing may have
improv
ed
, her embroidery most definitely
had
not. Later that afternoon, the
d
owager
picked up
the
reticule Eleanor w
as still embroidering with
pearl daisies
,
and examined it carefully through her lorgnette.
‘
Good gracious, girl,
you were supposed to have this
finished in time for the Carmichaels’ ball.
’
‘
Er, yes,
I was
, Godmother.
’
‘
And when, pray, is the ball, Eleanor?
’
‘
T
he evening of the morrow.
’
‘
And do you really think you can have it finished by then?
’
‘
O
f course.
’