Mary Jo Putney by The Wedding of the Century

Author:The Wedding of the Century
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-06-01T14:16:19+00:00

Dinner was another strain. Sunny sat at the opposite end of the table from her husband, so far away that she could barely see him. Before the first course had been removed, it was obvious that the dowager duchess was a tyrant, with all the tact of a charging bull. She made a string of remarks extolling Gavin’s noble spirit and aristocratic style, interspersed with edged comments about the deficiencies of “poor dear Justin.”

Charlotte tried to divert the conversation with a cheerful promise to send Sunny a copy of the table of precedence so that she would never commit the cardinal crime of seating people in the wrong order. That inspired the dowager to say, “There are about two hundred families whose history and relationships you must understand, Sarah. Has Justin properly explained all the branches of the Aubreys and of my own family, the Sturfords?”

“Not yet, Duchess,” Sunny said politely.

“Very remiss of him. Since he wasn’t raised to be a duke, he hasn’t a proper sense of what is due his station.” The dowager sniffed. “So sad to see poor dear Justin in his brother’s place—such a comedown for the family. You must be quick about having a child, Sarah, and make sure it’s a boy.”

Sunny was tempted to sling the nearest platter of veal collops at her mother-in-law, but it seemed too soon to get into a pitched battle. A quick glance at her husband showed that he had either not heard his mother, or he chose to ignore her. Clearly Alexandra had heard, for she was staring at her plate.

Carefully Sunny said, “The eighth duke’s death was a great tragedy. You all have my sympathies on your loss.”

The dowager sighed. “Gavin should have betrothed himself to you, not that Russell woman. If he had, he might be alive now, in his proper place.”

Sunny had heard enough gossip to know that the fatal problem had not been Gavin’s fiancee, but his inability to keep his hands off other women, even when on the way to his own wedding. Hoping to end this line of discussion, she said piously, “It is not for us to question the ways of heaven.”

“A very proper sentiment,” the dowager said. “You have pretty manners. One would scarcely know you for an American.”

Did the woman suppose that she was giving a compliment? Once more Sunny bit her tongue.

Yet in spite of her good intentions, she was not to get through the evening peacefully. The gauntlet was thrown down at the end of the lengthy meal, when it was time for the ladies to withdraw and leave the gentlemen to their port. Sunny was about to give the signal when the dowager grandly rose to her feet and beat Sunny to it.

As three women followed the dowager’s lead, Sunny’s blood went cold. This was a direct challenge to her authority as the new mistress of the household. If she didn’t assert herself immediately, her mother-in-law would walk all over her.

The other guests hesitated, glancing between the new duchess and the old.

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