If a Lady Lingers by Anna Harrington

Author:Anna Harrington [Harrington, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rose Garden Books

5

Month Five

“What a magnificent job Elias Daring did on these rooms!”

Daisy smiled at Lady Gantry as the woman approached, clutching a glass of champagne in one hand and her full, old-fashioned skirt in the other. “Thank you, my lady.” She bobbed a shallow curtsy. “It was a great deal of work but worth every minute.”

The baroness didn’t mean the compliment to be for her, yet Daisy glanced around the room with pride. The newly built garden room shined in the lamplight, every inch of it freshly bright and decorated with the finest décor—every inch deserving of the appreciative murmurs and compliments of the guests.

Baron and Baroness Hansen had opened their Belmont Square house tonight to all their friends and acquaintances—and seemingly another two hundred or so more people beyond that. All of them were curious to see the new renovations.

Daisy knew they wouldn’t be disappointed.

What they were seeing tonight was simply nothing that had been used in any of those rapidly built, identical boxes comprising the rest of the terraces in London’s West End. Everyone who stepped into this house knew it, too. Their necks craned to take a better look at the fireplace in the drawing room whose mantel of plasterwork grapevines and climbing roses seemed to grow right out of the half-circle end wall. Their mouths fell open when they stepped into the oval-shaped stair hall whose marble and ironwork stairs circled seemingly unsupported toward a stained glass doom above, now lit at night by a blaze of hidden lamps behind it.

But it was the dining room that took everyone’s breath away when they saw its amber window. A design of twining honeysuckle had been cut through the curving overlay that hid the long horizontal window gracing the top of the wall. During the day, warm sunlight filtered through the design and made the flowers come alive with an amber glow, while at night, hidden lamps and mirrors directed the light downward onto the built-in marble topped sideboard. Its single mahogany leg was deeply carved to look like the twisting wooden stems of a honeysuckle vine flowering in the window cover above.

“It is certainly a beautiful house. Doesn’t look like the same home at all.” Lady Gantry’s gaze searched the crowd around them. “And where is Mr. Daring? I wanted to personally congratulate him on his achievement.”

“I’m sorry to say that my father couldn’t be here this evening.” As the guest of honor, his absence was conspicuous, yet he hadn’t been feeling well enough to attend the party with its crush of people and all its heat and noise. So she’d come in his place, only to disappoint the guests when they asked for her father and were directed to her instead. “But if you have any questions, I could answer them for you.”

Lady Gantry patronizingly clucked her tongue. “Oh, but you know nothing about architecture, my dear!”

“Actually, I know a great deal.” But now wasn’t the time nor the place to argue. So she waved a gloved

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