Miranda at Heart: A Traditional Regency Romance (The Ellsworth Assortment Book 5) by Christina Dudley

Author:Christina Dudley [Dudley, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BellaVita Press
Published: 2024-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

For, as when Painters form a matchless Face,

They from each Fair one catch some diff’rent Grace;

And shining Features in one Portrait blend,

To which no single Beauty must pretend:

So Poets oft do in one Piece expose

Whole Belles-Assemblées of Coquets and Beaux.

— William Congreve, The Way of the World (1700)

The first assembly in October promised to be well-attended, coinciding as it did with the end of the quarter sessions and the general meeting of the Hampshire militia. The town was full to bursting, with seemingly every room taken in every inn and lodging house.

On such an occasion all the Ellsworth family would be in attendance, including those not living at Hollowgate: the Fairchilds, the Kenners, the Carlisles, Tyrone and Aggie.

“I don’t mind tonight at all,” Beatrice announced as the Ellsworth coach made its slow way toward St. John’s Rooms. “For I can dance with my brothers-in-law and not all those strangers.”

“And don’t forget your actual brother,” Aggie teased, poking her husband. “Tyrone will do his duty. I myself cannot wait to dance and will gladly take all the strangers you don’t want, Bea! It has been too long—since before Joan and Margaret were born.”

“Since before we eloped, you mean,” her husband chuckled. “It took some time to live that down.”

“True enough,” agreed his wife, “but we have been so utterly respectable ever since that I hope Beatrice’s unwanted strangers might not even know of our past scandal.”

“And how can you call such people strangers, Beatrice?” Miranda asked. “Mr. Dodge and Mr. Bracewell are well known to us by now. Too well known, perhaps.”

“And don’t forget Mr. Wolfe,” put in Aggie. “For he asked you as well, Bea.”

“Yes…even if he had not, I fear his sister Lady Hufton would have compelled him to it, on pain of death,” Beatrice grumbled.

Miranda joined with the others in teasing the girl, but inwardly she thought Beatrice as astute as ever. It had been plain to Miranda as well that Lady Hufton thought Beatrice a good match for her brother and a better one than Emmy. Equally plain, but far more painful, was the realization that, far from thinking Miranda a poor match for Mr. Wolfe, Lady Hufton simply did not consider her at all.

It had been this humbling reminder of invisibility which guided her toilette that evening. When Monk came to dress her, the maid found Mrs. Ellsworth had laid out a plain grey silk with lilac ribbon at the waist and sleeves.

“Your half-mourning, madam? I thought you had chosen that nice blue one with the silver thread.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Oh, madam—not the cap!” The distraught maid held up the grey silk cap. “It makes you look a hundred years old.”

“Monk!”

“Of course I will do whatever you like,” said Monk, “but it was bad enough having to dress Mrs. Carlisle before she married because she never cared a pin what she looked like. These things reflect on a person, you know. And what is the use of my efforts, when they are not appreciated?”

“Monk, of course I appreciate your efforts.

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