Friends and Relations: A Regency Romance by Mira Stables

Author:Mira Stables [Stables, Mira]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

THERE WAS LITTLE TIME FOR BROODING over the surprising things that could happen in a respectable library on a wet morning. Since the weather continued unkind, several picnic parties had to be cancelled and one alfresco breakfast which was blessed by fitful sunshine ended in a storm which drenched most of the guests. But the succession of rout parties, musical soirées, dress balls, plays and concerts more than made up for this lack. Charmian heard people bewailing the impossibility of arranging any form of outdoor entertainment and wondered how they would have found the time for it if the weather had been favourable. As it was she was obliged to change her dress three and four times in a day and was never in bed before midnight.

Having decided that in general her protegée’s taste in dress was to be relied upon, Lady Cecilia rarely interfered with her choice, but on the day of Miss Hoborough’s reception she began fussing at breakfast time.

“I would like you to wear the peach-blossom satin tonight, my dear,” she said seriously. “And I will lend you my coral set to go with it. Just the necklace and a bracelet, you know. Very simple and girlish, but the colour will bring out the richer tones of the satin and the whole ensemble will serve to remind your hostess of her own girlhood without being impossibly outdated. If she can see you at all, poor thing. She is very near blind, alas! Some kind of a film over the eyes—a cataract I think they call it. Which reminds me—do not be alarmed or distressed if she seems to peer very closely into your face. She is apt to do so with new acquaintances. But there! I daresay she will not single you out for any particular notice, and perhaps that would be as well. She is very outspoken and can, at times, be downright embarrassing.”

Her ladyship should have given more thought to this characteristic. She might then have deferred their arrival in Cheyne Walk until Miss Hoborough’s rooms were so crammed with company that newcomers were inconspicuous. As it was they were early—and their hostess was able to bestow her whole attention upon them.

She was not much taller than Charmian, and so thin that she looked almost emaciated, but she wore her plum-coloured satin and her diamonds right regally. The white hair piled high on her head in the fashion of her youth added to her stature and an aristocratic beak of a nose and a determined jaw suggested that it might be wiser to repress the stirring of compassion evoked by that strained, searching gaze. Miss Hoborough might not be able to see very clearly in the physical sense but mentally she was very wide awake.

Her greeting to Lady Cecilia was brusquely friendly and she turned at once to Charmian, extending a slender white hand on which two magnificent rings hung loose and heavy. Charmian curtsied. Miss Hoborough’s cool firm fingers drew her closer. She

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