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A lady of the peerage would never be chosen May Queen at a pagan festival.
And Lavinia knew it.
Patricia examined Lavinia. She was beautiful in her own way. Pale blond hair and fair skin, bright blue eyes. But they lacked the depth of Sarah’s or Clarissa’s eyes. Or indeed even of her own.
Lavinia was long and lean. Small busted. Some men liked that, Tricia supposed. Tricia considered herself lucky to have inherited her mother’s ample bosom.
She listened with only one ear as Lavinia chattered on about someone or something.
When she became bored, she excused herself discreetly, walking toward her mother and Kat, who were talking to the dowager countess herself.
“Why, Patricia,” the dowager countess said. “How beautiful you look this morning.”
“Thank you, my lady.” Tricia curtsied. “You are looking lovely as ever.”
Indeed, the countess was what Tricia’s sister-in-law, Rose, would no doubt look like in the next few decades. While Thomas and Lily favored their late father, Rose favored her mother, Flora Jameson, who was blond and blue-eyed and simply beautiful.
“The countess has invited us to join her for tea this afternoon,” Tricia’s mother said.
“Of course we would be honored,” Tricia said.
“And I’m invited too!” Katrina beamed.
“Oh, little Kat,” Tricia said to her. “You are going to be the belle of the season in just a few short years.”
“Won’t she though?” The dowager countess agreed. “You are such a lovely thing.”
Kat curtsied flawlessly. “You are very kind, my lady.”
Lady Clementine smiled at her younger daughter. “We shouldn’t take up any more time of yours, my lady,” she said to the dowager countess. “I’m sure many of the other ladies here are waiting to pay their respects.”
“Of course,” the countess said. “Though I do enjoy talking to all of you. Rose just couldn’t have made a better match than Cameron.”
“You’re very kind to say so,” Lady Clementine said. “Of course we adore Rose just as much.”
Tricia curtsied politely and then followed her mother and sister away from the dowager countess, resisting rolling her eyes.
She’d been taught from a young age by her mother, who was gentry born, how to address numbers of the peerage.
Still, though, it was all a complete bore to her. Of course she enjoyed the privileges that such membership provided. She now had everything she could want—a lovely wardrobe fashioned by the most sought-after modistes, enough money from her allowance to purchase whatever her heart desired, and even though, as a woman, she didn’t have a title, she was now a lady of the peerage. And she was treated as such, even with all the gossip Lavinia and her followers spewed.
Although she loved Sarah dearly, she had no desire to return to her, as she was still with Lavinia and Clarissa.
So she found another group of ladies she had made acquaintance with in the past and walked toward them, forcing her smile to be bright and contagious.
All the time wishing she could leave the party and go back to the fourth floor of the mansion, where she and Thomas had almost…
She drew in a breath, willing her racing heart to calm.
Then she joined the ladies.
13
After spending a few moments relaxing in the parlor, Thomas stood, thanked the servants for their attention, and strode out into the foyer and down the hallway to his father’s study.
Correction.
His study.
