Seeking Celeste by Solomon Hayley Ann

Author:Solomon, Hayley Ann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2012-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

Lady Caroline Dashford surveyed the pretty blue chamber with an eagle eye. It was hung with azure cretonnes offset by cheery, daffodil-coloured muslin blinds. Her nightstand was of cherry oak, but the bedstead was of the very height of fashion—iron emblazoned with balls and rails. Lady Caroline, however, thought she might prefer brass.

Her stockinged feet slid over the Kidderminster rug noiselessly. She approved of that, for it was the very height of exquisite taste and luxury. Perhaps, when she was countess, she would have it removed to her own quarters. Mind you, more likely than not, she would merely procure another such a one. Certainly, the walls would be rehung with patterned silk, and the beds—well, unless they were four-poster or brass at the very least, they would be relegated to the nursery or servants’ quarters.

With a little smile, she contemplated life as the newest Lady Edgemere.

It was all so simple. Just as soon as that sapskull Robert handed over the diamond necklet, she would wear it downstairs to dinner and coyly announce that they had a declaration to make. Robert could hardly cry off with half the eyes of the ton staring at him—and at the lavish gift he had just bestowed upon her. She felt, rather smugly, that she had been sufficiently careful with her reputation for no suspicion to attach to her baser motives. Robert would be in a spot, and there was only one way out of it. Marriage, she had come to see, had its advantages. Despite the evidence of her looking glass, she knew, with more than faint dismay, that she was not getting any younger. It was imperative that she land her fish now, before it was too late.

And that vile governess... for all her modest attire she did not trust her an inch. Robert had been behaving unaccountably strange lately. She must have a care.

To this end, she threw down her curling papers and called in her dresser.

“Jane!”

It did not take long for the excellent Jane to appear from the dressing room, where she had been repairing a tear to one of the modish bombazine walking dresses she had sole charge of.

“Ma’am?” She bobbed a curtsy and waited on her mistress’s pleasure.

“Jane, I wish you to dress my hair in a psyche knot. I believe the curls will show to great effect over my new poke bonnet.”

“The azure straw?”

“Whichever else? Hurry, the men shall return soon, and I wish to appear at the best advantage.”

“You always do, ma’am!”

Lady Caroline sank into the settle with an air of supreme satisfaction. “I do, don’t I, my dear? If you manage the ringlets tolerably, you shall have my batiste gown with the mameluke sleeves. The colour, I find, is a trifle outmoded. Besides, that detestable governess was wearing something of that nature this morning.”

The maid did not point out that a faded dimity did not in any way compare with an exquisite chintz morning gown designed by Madame Fanchon. Lady Caroline’s loss was, after all, to be her gain.

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