Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] (19 page)

“I—I expect you want to know where I was.”

“I doubt that it would surprise me if you told me.”

Jenifry stared at her. “Do you know, then?”

Letty chuckled. “I daresay you have been making friends with the Duchess of Sutherland’s footman. I remember how you looked at him.”

“Him?” Jenifry sniffed disdainfully. “He’s all right, he is, but I’ve got more than one string to my bow, Miss Letty. I have found that a gentleman’s man is not so high in the instep as a duchess’s footman, and far more genteel.”

“And which particular gentleman’s man would that be?”

“None in particular, yet,” Jenifry replied with her nose in the air. She added with a grin, “But there be two that make my heart beat faster, and that’s fact, miss.”

“Who are they?”

“I’m not one to kiss and tell,” Jenifry said, winking as she handed Letty a towel. “I will say that one of them has a deal of charm and the other can make a girl feel as if she lacks guts in her brain, as often as not.”

“Jenifry! Where on earth did you get such a phrase?”

“Me dad used to say it,” Jenifry confessed, reddening. “He said it just meant to be knowledgeable, but he did say I wasn’t to say it. I didn’t know I was going to just now till I did. It’s the effect that one has on me, I expect. He’s a one. I met him that first day, if you must know. He’s the one as showed us the common room.”

When she said no more, Letty knew she was hoping for a demand to continue, but Letty felt too tired to coax her. It would serve as a suitable punishment for her lateness, she decided, if for once she treated Jenifry like most people treated their servants instead of like the friend she had become.

A
FTER LESS THAN FOUR
hours sleep, Letty nonetheless awoke feeling much her usual self. Jenifry, too, seemed cheerful and as if she had got more than enough sleep, for she hummed a little tune as she opened the curtains to let in the early-morning light and fairly danced across the room with Letty’s chocolate.

“I’ll fetch your riding habit, miss,” she said as she plumped the pillows. “This room’s much warmer than the dressing room today. The girl lit the fire in there, but it don’t seem ever to have caught hold, and the place is like an icebox.”

“Very well,” Letty said, settling back against her pillows to enjoy the rich chocolate for the few moments left before she would have to get up and dress.

Jenifry returned a few moments later and, still humming, laid the blue-green riding habit on the bed, along with Letty’s frilled chemisette. The round, ribboned hat she would wear Jenifry placed carefully on the side table before collecting the tray to set outside the door for one of the maids to take away.

“You’re mighty cheerful this morning,” Letty said as she got out of bed.

“I expect I am, miss. It is going to be a fine day.”

“It can’t be the weather that has put you in such good trim, because it looks like another drizzly day,” Letty said. “Therefore, it must be the glory of knowing you’ve got a number of handsome gentlemen dangling on your string.”

Jenifry chuckled as she poured water from the hob kettle into Letty’s basin and handed her a towel. “I like London, miss, that’s all. I say, did you know the queen is thinking of marrying?”

“I did hear that,” Letty admitted, “but I’m surprised the news has reached the servants’ hall already. Until there is an official announcement, Jen, I think we had better not talk about it, or I’ll find myself accused of gossiping about the court. Are you ever going to tell me your gentlemen’s names?”

After a pause, during which Letty continued to scrub her face and hands and Jenifry apparently weighed the pros and cons of complying with her seemingly offhand request, the dresser said, “The best-looking one calls himself Walter, miss. He can be a bit abrupt at times, but he’s that handsome, Walter is.”

“And the other?” Letty folded the towel.

“Mr. Leyton, but I think it’s Walter I fancy most. Mr. Leyton is too full of himself to suit me. I’ll just fetch your boots now, miss.”

“Whom do these paragons serve?” Letty asked when she returned.

Jenifry blushed. “I don’t know who Walter serves, miss. One don’t like to ask, and he didn’t say, only one gets the notion from his attitude that his master is someone important. Mr. Leyton …” She eyed her mistress warily, then said in a rush, “You won’t like it, I daresay, but he is my lord Raventhorpe’s man.”

Letty shrugged. “I cannot see why that should distress me, Jen, especially if he is not the one you fancy most.” Striving to sound casual, she added, “What manner of man is he?”

“Mr. Leyton?”

Letty nodded.

Jenifry grimaced. “He’s the sort who thinks he knows everything, and he’s that toplofty, too, miss. I asked him what his Christian name is, and he said it would not be appropriate for me to use it. Always trying to tell a body what she should do and what she shouldn’t, is Leyton. Looks down his nose when he does, too.”

“Like master, like man, then,” Letty said without thinking.

“They usually are, miss. It’s getting on for half past now,” she added.

Letty dressed quickly, then hurried into the chilly dressing room to glance at her reflection in the cheval glass. The tight-fitting, pointed bodice with its soft velvet collar revealed her cream-colored, neatly tied cravat and frilly chemisette. The habit boasted short swallowtails, gigot sleeves, and a full pleated skirt, beneath which the lacy edges of her pantaloons would occasionally peep when she mounted, dismounted, or rode at a canter.

“I’ll do,” she said, adjusting her hat to a more rakish angle. “Fetch my whip and gloves, will you, Jen?”

Jenifry already had them in hand, along with her own cloak. They found Jonathan Coachman waiting below with Lucas and the carriage. Letty’s groom was also with them, ready to ride behind the carriage; and he led her favorite mount, a bay gelding she called Denmark.

At that hour tradesmen’s carts and wandering pedestrians comprised the only traffic, so they made good time to the palace, and she arrived with twenty minutes to spare. Catherine arrived several minutes later, and they chatted while they waited for the queen and the other ladies who would ride with them.

The more Letty came to know Catherine, the better she liked her. She had assumed after surprising her with her lover that the other woman was not happy in her marriage. Today she learned that Catherine had a small son whom she adored, which clearly made up for a much-older husband who displayed little interest in his marriage. Catherine did not complain or speak ill of him, but Letty had seen him for herself. His age alone, she thought, would preclude their having much in common. Hopefully the lover, whoever he was, provided more harmonious companionship.

They talked together amiably until the queen arrived with her bedchamber ladies, then continued to chat during their ride to the nearby riding school. The school possessed a large ring in a parklike setting, and the proprietor could admit members of the
haut ton
who possessed the entrée while shutting his doors to any commoners who might wish to ride at such an early hour. Thus, he assured the royal party some privacy.

At first, the ladies had the ring to themselves, but they had been riding for less than half an hour when Letty saw several gentlemen arrive, including Raventhorpe and, to her surprise, the prime minister. Victoria greeted the latter enthusiastically, instantly signing to the ladies nearest her to fall back and allow her to ride alone with Melbourne.

Letty and Catherine had been talking together almost without interruption. Not only did Letty learn much about Catherine’s precocious young son but she soon found herself telling the other woman about her own childhood in Paris, even describing some of her more daring escapades.

“Surely, you did not go about that huge city untended,” Catherine exclaimed at one point. “How did you dare? I would be terrified even now to do such a thing.”

“I wasn’t entirely untended,” Letty said. “I made friends with many of our servants and their children, you see, and because I spoke French, I was able to go about with the other children quite unnoticed. My parents did not approve at first, certainly, but I was intrepid and rather headstrong, I’m afraid. Fortunately, they soon came to realize that I would come to no harm.”

Catherine pretended to shudder. “I can just imagine what my father’s reaction would have been to
my
playing with servants’ children.”

Letty chuckled reminiscently. “Mine didn’t like it much, either, at first. And, even after he grew more accustomed, whenever my grandfather visited us, I did not dare go in search of adventure, as I called it. Papa is quite an indulgent parent compared to most, but he would not allow us to displease his papa. Nor did one wish to. Grandfather had no sense of humor and his temper was so icy that it utterly froze one stiff.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

“Two brothers,” Letty replied. “Both are in England now, at school. Gideon is at Oxford, and James at Eton.”

“It must be pleasant for all of you to be here together,” Catherine said.

“It might be, if we saw anything of each other,” Letty said with a grin. “They are both busy at present, but I daresay I shall see them next month when my parents arrive in town.”

“Don’t they write to you?”

“My parents do, of course, but my brothers do not. I have had precisely one letter from James. Since he has decided the navy might suit him, he blithely chose to assume that I have only to whisper in Her Majesty’s ear and she will arrange for him to be put in command of a fine ship just as soon as he is old enough.”

Catherine laughed. “What did you tell him?”

“That even if I could get Her Majesty to arrange an interview with the First Lord of the Admiralty, which I most assuredly could not, he would be unlikely to provide a ship for a young Tory naval officer who would rather play cricket than attend to his lessons. Why are you frowning?”

“Because I just noticed that everyone is ignoring us. Her Majesty is riding with Melbourne, of course, staring at him with sheep’s eyes, like she always does, so it is not odd that she is paying us no heed. However, when I chance to catch anyone else’s eye, that person looks away.”

“It’s not you,” Letty said with a sigh. “They’re ignoring me. They have never been friendly, of course, but word must have got round last night that I had stepped beyond the pale at last. Perhaps you should ride with someone else.”

“Nonsense,” Catherine said. “I choose my friends,
they
don’t.”

Only a moment later, however, she paled and said, “There is Sir John and … and his aide. Whatever do you think he is doing here?”

“I’m surprised they let him in,” Letty said, watching Conroy.

He had ridden in ahead of Charles Morden, and for a moment, it looked as if the two would head right toward the queen. Then Raventhorpe turned away from the group he was riding with and made his way toward the pair, effectively cutting off their path to Victoria.

Quietly Catherine said, “I hope they don’t make trouble.”

“I don’t think they will,” Letty said reassuringly. “Not now. Sir John cannot want to displease Her Majesty, and to interrupt her when she is enjoying a ride with Melbourne would infuriate her. He must know that.”

Apparently Raventhorpe had pointed out either that fact or an equally persuasive one, because Conroy and Morden, after a token turn, left the ring again.

Lady Portman rode up to Letty and Catherine as Sir John was departing. She looked uneasy, and at first Letty assumed it was because the plump woman disliked riding. However, she soon realized her error.

“Catherine,” Lady Portman said, avoiding so much as a glance at Letty, “Lady Tavistock would like you to ride with us for a time, if you please.”

For a moment it looked as if Catherine would tell her it did not please her at all, but then, with a rueful glance at Letty, she said, “As you wish, ma’am.”

Letty understood Lady Portman’s discomfort. Clearly her mission had been to separate Catherine from an undesirable influence.

As they rode away, she wondered what she ought to do. The queen did not want her company, nor did the other ladies. If she approached any of them, she could be certain of meeting rebuff. Lost in thought, she did not notice the approach of another horse from behind until Raventhorpe drew alongside.

With a smile he said, “Woolgathering?”

“I was wondering what, if anything, I can do to repair my position here,” she said frankly. “I have begun to think it is a lost cause.”

“Be patient,” he advised her. “Think of something else instead.”

“You always have advice to offer,” she retorted, more sharply than she had intended. “Do you order
your
thoughts so easily, sir?”

“No, I don’t,” he said, surprising her. “It might astonish you to know that occasionally I find myself quite overwhelmed. Have you met my father?”

Emerging from her gloom at once, she nearly laughed. She had heard about Sellafield, and guessed that he must be a thorn in his son’s side. Changing the subject to one more appropriate for discussion, she said, “How is your mother, sir? I have not seen her in some days now, and I think perhaps I ought to pay her a call. She invited me to do so, and I like her very much.”

“Do so by all means,” he said, adding with a much warmer smile, “I like her quite a lot myself. In point of fact, I believe she said something recently about giving a dinner party at Sellafield House and inviting you and the aunts.” He looked toward the entrance just then, and his expression changed abruptly, giving Letty to fear that Sir John had returned.

Turning, however, she saw only a handsome young man on an elegant black.

With a glance, Raventhorpe said grimly, “My scapegrace brother. He ought to be hard at his studies, but doubtless he needs mon—” Breaking off with a grimace, he said more evenly, “I daresay he has a good reason for coming here.”

The younger man looked wary, Letty thought, as he approached them, and his nerves evidently affected his mount, for the black skittered and nearly reared. He held it in skillfully, however, as he drew rein in front of them.