How to Care for a Lady by Jerrica Knight-Catania

Author:Jerrica Knight-Catania [Knight Catania, Jerrica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerrica Knight-Catania

Chapter 15

Hannah could hardly contain her excitement. Today was to be her first outing since she’d been wounded. Now that Grace was feeling better thanks to Graham’s ginger concoctions, Hannah would accompany her and her relations on a little shopping trip. Nothing terribly strenuous—just a visit to the modiste, where she and Grace could sit most of the time. She had a lofty dream that they might have a ready-to-wear gown for her that she could wear to Lady Wolverly’s soiree in a few days’ time. She knew Graham held her in high esteem no matter what she looked like—he’d seen her at her very worst, after all, and had still somehow fallen in love with her—but she still wanted to surprise him by looking her absolute smartest for his sister’s party.

“Are you ready?” Grace asked, poking her head around the door of Hannah’s bedchamber.

Hannah turned slowly from the mirror and smoothed her skirts, noticing that the color was back in Grace’s cheeks. One would hardly have known that just a few days ago she could barely get out of bed.

“How do I look?” Hannah asked. She wore a day gown of dark lavender trimmed with a floral chintz pattern. Her maid had braided her hair into a crown on top of her head, leaving a few tendrils to peek out from beneath her yellow bonnet, which she was currently tying around her neck.

Grace smiled sweetly at her. “Oh, Hannah, we thought you’d never walk again, and now look at you. You’re as lovely as ever.”

“Well, perhaps not as ever,” Hannah deflected, “but I must say, I’m feeling quite in my prime, even if I do walk with a bit of a limp.”

“One can hardly even notice,” Grace gushed. “Besides, there are lots of people who walk with limps. Miss Macintosh, for one. She had some awful disease as a child and never fully recovered.”

And the girl used it to her every advantage. She was quite pretty and she knew it, so she often played Damsel in Distress with the young men of the ton who were more than happy to take pity on her and dance their attentions upon her. Of course, there were others who weren’t so kind, but Miss Macintosh didn’t seem to notice them. Hopefully, Hannah would be oblivious to those who might mock her as well.

“While that is meant to be comforting, this affliction is not something I would wish on anyone.”

“Oh, of course you wouldn’t,” Grace said. “You’re far too good-hearted for that.”

“I am only that which God made me.”

“Well, God made you the nicest of all, then.”

Hannah laughed. “You’re awfully nice yourself, you know?”

Grace scoffed. “Hardly! But it is kind of you to say so. I do love you so, Hannah.”

“And I you,” Hannah replied, taking her sister-in-law by the arm. “Shall we go?”

She limped alongside Grace to the carriage, which conveyed them across town to Regent Street, where they were to meet the others. Hannah was somewhat acquainted with all the Wetherby women—of course, Lady Chloe lived right next door, so she knew her best.

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