Forever After by Jill Gregory

Author:Jill Gregory
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, historical, romance historical romance, romance regency, romance 1800s
Publisher: Jill Gregory

CHAPTER 14

The Earl of Westcott created quite a stir when he arrived in Berkeley Square the following day with an entourage worthy of a king. His guests included his fiancée, his two brothers and young sister, and his brother’s wife. A score of liveried and uniformed servants accompanied them. Seven carriages heaped with baggage were necessary for the journey, and it took the Earl’s quick-moving footmen the better part of an hour simply to unload all of the family’s belongings.

No one strolling or driving down the street at that time had an opportunity to glimpse the Earl’s betrothed, however, for she was whisked inside the house quite swiftly. No one saw more than a flash of her elegant blue pelisse and matching bonnet, but rumors were already spreading in the drawing rooms of London society.

“She is an Incomparable,” said one young dandy sporting a yellow coat and puce pantaloons, speaking with authority.

“She is a plain dab of a thing,” Florence Persimmons, Lady Brittany’s friend, proclaimed.

“Well, if she is cousin to Charlotte Audley she is no doubt a boring, straight-laced chit. Lady Charlotte’s people are certainly good ton, but as prim and conventional as a pack of bishops,” Lady Asterley concluded.

Her friend Lady Jersey, patroness of Almack’s, held a different opinion. “Westcott would never offer for a straight-laced, conventional chit. If he is truly betrothed to her and this isn’t simply another one of those ridiculous rumors circulated about him, I predict she will be every bit as unusual and fascinating as he is.”

Inside the mansion at Berkeley Square, Camilla settled in quickly. She was delighted that Philip had changed his mind at the last moment and decided to let Dorinda accompany them to London, after all. He engaged a new governess for her, a plump, bright-eyed young woman named Miss Brigham, who came highly recommended, and who instantly showed a partiality for dark-eyed little girls, and for cats, dogs, and assorted other pets. The moment she’d seen Tickles she’d burst forth with an account of the time her papa had brought home a monkey for her and her brothers, and all the mischievous tricks it had engaged in, and Dorinda had been instantly captivated.

The house in Berkeley Square was all anyone could wish for, furnished in excellent taste, containing countless elegant salons and drawing rooms, and staffed by an army of attentive servants.

Camilla found the spacious rose and cream bedchamber assigned to her every bit as enchanting as the Blue Room she’d grown so fond of in the country, and her only source of turmoil was nervousness over the upcoming tests she faced, and a strange feeling at being back in London, no longer as a serving maid but as a young lady of fashion and consequence.

The first few days in London as Miss Camilla Smith were a blur to her, a hazy confusion of dressmakers, mantua-makers, jewelers, and visitors calling to pay their respects to the Earl and his guests. She greeted everyone she met with her usual friendliness and warm manner and had no idea what sort of impression she was making.

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