Connie Brockway by The Bridal Season

Author:The Bridal Season
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Nothing seduces vanity

like the word “help.”

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE,” CABOT SAID. HE STOOD inside her bedroom door, his jowls even droopier than usual.

“Now, Cabot-me-love, who’d have thought that you’d go sweet on me.” Letty bit through the thread and dropped the spool back into Lady Agatha’s work-basket.

“Please refrain from levity, Letty. I mean this. You can’t leave The Hollies.”

Letty held the needle up to the light and squinted as she slipped the threaded end neatly through the eye.

“I’m not leaving. I’m sewing. And I won’t be able to finish sewing and get this dress done for dinner unless you let me get on with it.”

She picked up a fold of the deep green-and-lilac-striped muslin. She wished Cabot would leave. Her head was crowded with unnerving thoughts, ridiculous thoughts.

What had Sir Elliot meant, saying that he was “courting her?” He couldn’t mean it. There had to be some explanation. “Courting” probably didn’t have the same meaning to his class as it did for her sort. He couldn’t really mean what she thought he meant... because then she... Well, he just couldn’t mean it, is all!

“—In order to protect you, I burned it.”

Cabot’s last words penetrated Letty’s thoughts. “Burned what?”

“Lady Agatha’s letter to Miss Bigglesworth.”

“What?” The dress slipped from Letty’s fingers. “What letter?”

“The letter Miss Bigglesworth received from Lady Agatha while you were in Little Bidewell yesterday afternoon. For heaven’s sake, Letty, this is important. You really must make every effort to attend,” he said.

Letty ignored his peeved tone. If she intended to bolt, she’d need to know how much time she had to do it in. “What was in the letter, Cabot?”

Cabot sniffed. “It was a private correspondence, Miss Potts. I would never—”

Letty wasn’t having it. “If you’d burn it, I don’t think you’d have any compunction about reading it. So what did she say? This is important, Cabot.”

Cabot’s superiority fell away with a sigh. “It was short. She apologized for the inconvenience caused by her marriage and sent a money order reimbursing the Bigglesworths for their initial outlay. She then listed some firms in London whose services she could recommend to replace her own, and closed by stating that she would be out of the country for several months. On her honeymoon.”

Letty blew out a deep breath. Good. Lady Agatha was still safely away and the Bigglesworths none the wiser. Her immediate danger passed, she found herself smiling. She lifted the seam she’d been working on again. “Good for her,” she said.

“Good for her,” Cabot intoned, “but not good at all for Miss Angela.”

“Well, there is that,” Letty conceded, her needle flashing expertly. It left little Angie in the lurch, and Angie already had problems enough, what with the former boyfriend making threatening noises. Not that it was any of her lookout. She smoothed the newly created seam with her fingers. A bit of lace would cover the crease on the outside and dress it up a bit.

“And that,” said Cabot, “is precisely why you have to stay and arrange Miss Angela’s reception.

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