Beatrice Goes to Brighton by M. C. Beaton

Author:M. C. Beaton [M. C. Beaton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849019118
Publisher: Constable & Robinson
Published: 2011-01-04T05:00:00+00:00

Lord Alistair Munro was surprised to receive a letter from Miss Pym in which she said she had moved in with Lady Beatrice. He felt Miss Pym was being duped in some way. He was sure Lady Beatrice had some ulterior motive and refused to believe she was being forced into marriage. But there was another surprise in store for him. On the day of the ball, an announcement appeared in the local paper to the effect that the engagement between Lady Beatrice Marsham and Sir Geoffrey Handford was at an end. He studied it for some time and then came to the conclusion that it was merely Lady Beatrice playing her old game but worse than before. She had rejected Sir Geoffrey in a public and humiliating way.

Lady Beatrice’s enraged parents called to find she was out walking with Miss Pym. Sir Geoffrey and his mother called, to be told she was ‘not at home’.

By evening, both Hannah and Lady Beatrice were secretly wishing they did not have to go to the ball. Hannah was sure she would be dreadfully insulted by one and all, and Lady Beatrice was sure Sir Geoffrey would make a public scene.

But she was deeply indebted to Hannah Pym and could not bring herself to let that lady go on her own. Admittedly Hannah was being escorted by Lord Alistair, but Lady Beatrice knew Hannah needed the support of another woman. Lord Alistair could dance with Hannah only twice and that left acres of evening in which she could be attacked.

After her maid had dressed her, Lady Beatrice went to Hannah’s room and found to her amusement that Benjamin was trying to persuade his mistress to wear pink feathers in her hair. How he had come by the feathers, Hannah did not know, but she could not get him to listen when she protested that pink feathers would look ridiculous with a gold silk gown.

‘You must wear jewels, Miss Pym,’ said Lady Beatrice. ‘We shall both go armoured in my best jewellery.’ She herself was wearing a blue silk gown with a fairy-tale tiara of sapphires and diamonds on her black hair. She sent Marianne to fetch a diamond tiara and diamond necklace and then stood back to survey the effect as the necklace was placed around Hannah’s neck and the tiara on her sandy hair.

‘Very grand,’ she said at last. ‘You’ll do. Just look at all the jewels I have, Miss Pym. We will be able to live in great comfort. There are some pieces which belong to the Debrens and which must go back to my parents, but the rest are very fine and should fetch a good sum.’

Hannah was dazzled as she looked at her own reflection in the mirror. Who could snub a lady dressed in such magnificence? If only Sir George Clarence could see her now!

Then a shadow crossed her face. Lady Beatrice was now to be her friend and companion, the beautiful, the magnetic Lady Beatrice. Would Sir

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