Althea (6 page)

“Miss Ervine, I hope you enjoy our little fete.” Althea
owned herself privately amazed that a woman of Lady Fforyding’s imposing size
and mien could contrive to appear so coy, but allowed that she was indeed
enjoying herself.

“But I should never call it a
little
fete, ma’am.
Quite the contrary. Of course I am but lately come to town and so must be held
unaccountable for these things.” This answer apparently found favor with Lady
Fforyding, who drew the young man at her elbow forward. He was of sober mien,
with that haunted look common to young men wearing a dress suit for the first
time. It occurred to Althea after a moment that perhaps he was not so much
sober as shy, and this supposition was borne out when Lady Fforyding spoke — for
he blushed, painfully, from his collar points to the roots of his hair.

“Miss Ervine, may I present Mr. Jonathan Tidd to you as a
most desirable dancing partner? Mr. Tidd, Miss Ervine is but lately come to
town, so surely you can entertain her with an account of the doings here.” As
Mr. Tidd had been standing not three feet away when Lady Fforyding had learned
this bit of information, Althea could not but feel its redundancy a trifle
foolish. But she smiled and gave a pretty dip. Mr. Tidd bowed, struggled to say
something about the honor Miss Ervine did him, and as he led her out where sets
were forming for for the quadrille, fell into an impenetrable silence. Althea
made one or two attempts to break that silence but then, realizing that he was
taken up with the steps of the
pas de zephyr
, gave up the project. She
was quite startled when he finally spoke. She was, in fact, forced to ask him
to repeat what he had said.

“I am so sorry.” He blushed vividly. “I only asked if you
were well acquainted with the Fforydings.”

“I am afraid I have only met the Baroness and Lord Fforyding
this very evening. Are there more in the family?” Now that her partner had
begun to speak, Althea did not intend to let him lapse into silence again. If a
discussion of the Fforydings’ genealogy would spark his interest, she was just
as willing to listen to that as any other topic of polite conversation she felt
him able to introduce.

“There are three younger sons and two daughters.” Again that
ferocious blush spread to his hairline and receded. Althea, fearing his retreat
into silence, prodded him on, asking for specifics. “There are Giles and Miles,
who are at Harrow, and young Frederick, who is, I believe, in the schoolroom
still, with the younger Miss Fforyding, Miss Alice. There is also Miss Sophia.”
The blush reappeared, so vividly that Althea feared for her partner’s health.
After a moment, however, he appeared to control his evident fervor.

“I collect, then, that Miss Sophia Fforyding is present this
evening? I feel that it would certainly behoove me to make her acquaintance,”
Althea said kindly. “I know next to no one in London, and indeed I am very
eager to meet people. Perhaps you will be so kind as to introduce me to her,
Mr. Tidd?” Althea was rewarded for this bit of tact by another of Mr. Tidd’s
blushes and a look of gratification. He all but pulled Miss Ervine out of the
set, casting an eager eye over the crowd.

“I see her, just over there beside the columns.” Althea’s
attention was turned to a passably pretty, very young girl dressed in white,
conversing with a tall gentleman, next to one of those cunning pillars that
were proving a sore hazard to enthusiastic dancers that evening. The Honorable
Miss Fforyding, Althea realized, was one of Madame Helena’s milk-and-water misses,
over whom she would certainly tower, literally if not metaphorically. Mr. Tidd
did not seem to think that Miss Fforyding was anything but the pattern of
perfection; he began to shoulder his way through the crowd with a mixture of
determination and self-effacement that Althea, trailing behind him, found quite
droll. When at last they reached Miss Fforyding and her partner, Althea let a
sigh of relief escape, for in their dash across the floor she had been in
constant terror that Mr. Tidd would step through her flounced hem.

For her part, Sophia cast a shy look of delight at Mr. Tidd,
and a glance of admiration and awe at Miss Ervine, who observed the girl in
friendly fashion. Sophia, Althea noted, did not share her mother’s love of the
unsuitable, and, aside from one beaded knot at her waist, was almost elegant in
her dress. She had been conversing with a very tall gentleman some years older
than herself, but when Miss Ervine and Mr. Tidd arrived, all conversation
ended. Both Mr. Tidd and Miss Fforyding lapsed into silence and
blushed
.
To Althea’s intense relief, the tall gentleman very politely drawled, “Well,
Tidd, are you going to present your partner to us?” Again Mr. Tidd flushed and
turned to Miss Fforyding with abject apology in his eye. She blushed back, and,
with an air of one freed to perform a necessary chore, he began his
introductions.

“Miss Irving, may I present Sir Tracy Calendar and” — with
an air of royal presentation — “The Honorable Miss Sophia Fforyding.” Again his
blush, hers, and the two of them stood wordless and bemused by each other.
Althea caught Sir Tracy’s amused eye over the top of the younger girl’s head.

“Perhaps, Miss Irving, you would like to sit for a few
minutes? The atmosphere in this room can most kindly be referred to as stifling.
Why my aunt must drape the wall with that pink stuff . . .” He gestured to a
few gilt chairs set some yards from their present position and Althea followed
gladly. She noted that his dress, while far less extravagant than that of Lord
Bevan or even Mr. Tidd, contrived to be far more elegant in its understatement.
She decidedly approved of this control of fashion, and for a change it was a
distinct pleasure to meet a man she did not look virtually in the eye.

“I must apologize for my cousin and her suitor, Miss Ervine.
They are extremely tiresome in each other’s company, but I assure you that they
have both been heard to utter entire phrases when apart.”

Althea darted a glance at her companion and wondered in
passing if that red head betokened irrascibility.

“I am at a loss to know how you corrected my name when Mr.
Tidd was most scrupulous in his mistake of it. I suppose he has been under a
cloud all evening, and did not much attend when we were introduced.”

“I saw you enter with Lord and Lady Bevan and had heard that
Lady Bevan’s sister, a Miss Ervine, was visiting. I concluded the rest from
these facts.”

“You are most perspicacious, sir.” She glanced back toward
the spot where Mr. Tidd and his lady were still engaged in that silent,
blushing perusal of each other. “I must admit that I have never seen the like
of it, sir.”

“What, ma’am? The ball, or my cousin’s infatuation with
young Tidd?”

Sir Tracy took his seat beside her, folding those
extraordinarily long legs neatly beneath him around the legs of the gilt chair.

“You cannot think me so rag-mannered as to say such a thing
of a ball I have scarcely arrived at yet, let alone left. I was speaking of
Miss Fforyding, and Mr. Tidd. Their attachment appears to be like something out
of a novel, or at least that is my opinion. Of course, where I am used to live
I never saw anything of that sort. London ways may be quite different. Oh, I
ought not to have said that!” Miss Ervine frowned at herself, to Sir Tracy’s
amusement.

“Why not, ma’am? The statement seemed unexceptionable to
me.”

“Sir, I will not scruple to tell you that for the past
fortnight my sister has been contriving to teach me to behave like a gazetted
belle, and the first thing she told me was that I must at all times appear as
though I had lived in London all my life. I shudder to think what she would say
had she heard me just then.”

“Fortunately, ma’am, she did not, and I give you my word
that I shall never betray your confidence.” His eyes glinted under those dark
brows. Althea smiled in return. This man did not seem shocked, as Maria had
assured her anyone would be, at her mention of country upbringing, and Althea
could not help but like him the better for it. He did seem to be laughing just
a bit at her frankness, which did not please her quite so well, but she
determined not to mind his teasing.

“How long will you be in our city, ma’am?” He put the
question with such consummate propriety that Althea could hardly keep a
straight face, and when a lifted eyebrow assured her that she was being quizzed,
she permitted herself one gurgle of sheer delight.

“I have been here but a fortnight, sir,” she said in tones
to mimic his. “Though I have the strangest notion that I have met you before —
which I am sure cannot be possible. I must say I had hardly planned to be so
amused tonight, for to hear my sister speak, everything is done with such
exquisite sobriety that all that is ever required of a lady is a genteel nod
once in a while.”

“People do laugh in London, ma’am, but seldom with such
refreshing relish as you. I’m sure all of London will do all that’s possible to
keep you properly amused. For my part, you may call on me at any time and I
will endeavor to contrive something amusing to say. My Aunt Fforyding
introduced you to young Tidd, did she? Another of her ploys to keep her
daughter from him. I never saw such a pair of ninnyhammers, and I am sure they
will suit each other to a nicety.” He wagged an eyebrow distastefully. “But I
see your sister searching for you, Miss Ervine. Allow me to return you to her.”

Over Calendar’s extended hand Althea glimpsed Maria glancing
through the crowd in a preoccupied manner. Sir Tracy offered his arm and began
to steer her expertly across the room. They continued to speak as they went,
and at some point something that she said so amused him that he threw his head
back and laughed — Althea thought — with considerable relish. It did not change
his face in any particular but made it easier, less hard. He felt her eyes upon
him and smiled, disconcertingly, down upon her. Althea, accustomed as she was
to look most men directly in the eye, found that she was blushing at the
straightforward look in Sir Tracy’s eye, his height, and his shameless use of
it.

“Don’t fear, Miss Ervine, no doubt your sister would
disapprove, but I am said to retain some few of the social graces.” He stopped,
for they had almost reached Maria’s side, took her hand and led her toward
Maria, bowed, smiled, and strolled off.

“Lord, Ally, you begin well! First Jonathan Tidd, who is one
of the richest young men in the City — but has a grandfather somewhere in
trade, more’s the pity — and then Tracy Calendar, who is all but a gazetted
nonpareil! Oh, and several other young gentlemen have come up and begged
introductions! I swear, I am as excited as if this were my own come-out ball!
Sir Tracy is one of the smartest of the Corinthian set. Francis admires him no
end.” At the mention of her husband, something in her ladyship’s manner became
a trifle subdued, and her chatter ceased momentarily.

“I have the notion that Sir Tracy is here to look after his
cousin, who is quite taken up with Mr. Tidd.”

“Matilda Fforyding has been trying for years to get Calendar
to fix his interest upon Miss Sophia, and now she is furious that the foolish
girl has fallen in love with that boy. They shall make a fine match of it, I’m
sure: the two loobies will probably blush each other to death.”

Althea was surprised by her sister’s suddenly embittered
tone, but there was no time to say anything, for one of the young men Althea
had mentioned returned for his promised introduction and to beg the favor of
the next dance. Althea naturally consented, and from that point onward had no
chance to search out her sister and ask her the matter of it. What appeared to
her an endless procession of honorables, sirs, and my lords seemed intent upon
dancing with Miss Ervine, each begging an introduction from the other, and
Althea found herself unable to remember the names of many — for since most of
the syllables were swallowed up in shyness or in the imprecise drawl of the
Pinks, it was hard to pick out a whole name from the lot. These gentlemen
seemed to understand that Miss Ervine would prefer
not
to waltz until
she had made a first appearance at Almack’s, and there was always someone — or
two or three — to sit beside her during these dances.

As Althea had not been promised before the ball for the
supper dance, she found herself in the company of a Mr. Edward Pendarly during
that dance, and afterward for supper. Some time before, Althea had espied Maria,
whirling in the arms of Mr. John Wallingham, to that forbidden waltz with a
determined look on her face. Consequently, knowing her sister and that look,
she despaired of finding her now. It was plain enough that Francis had wandered
off and Maria was bent upon demonstrating that she had no need of his escort.

This turn of affairs fretted Althea, but Mr. Pendarly, aside
from being almost garishly handsome, contrived to occupy her enough so that she
forgot — or at least put in abeyance — her fears for Maria and Francis. When he
sat her down on the corner of a settee and went to fetch her a plate and a
glass of punch, however, she did make some effort to discover her sister or her
brother-in-law. That effort was quite unsuccessful.

As Mr. Pendarly was still gone, Miss Ervine continued to
amuse herself by watching the people about her. At one point she caught sight
of Sir Tracy Calendar, and he of her. He could not approach, as he was cornered
by two elderly gentlemen apparently intent upon having Sir Tracy’s opinion upon
some matter of taste; but he did not refrain from raising his glass to her and
smiling slightly.

Althea was not unpleased by the attention, although Sir
Tracy was not exactly to her taste; he was good company and, if all Maria said
was true, a very important man in the ton. Mr. Pendarly returned with her plate
and a glass of punch, drawing Althea’s attention back to himself. To her
surprise she found that she was quite famished and remarked as much to
Pendarly.