Page 28 of Appointment in Bath

“After a fashion, yes. In her absence, Mr. Pinnock means to bring his oldest son, Nigel, to dinner. I fear that will mean only one thing once the port starts flowing. You must know how Mr. Pinnock likes to matchmake.”

Meg had heard something to that effect from Mrs. Church and Mrs. Stapleton. “I understand he claims responsibility for two recent b-betrothals in the parish.”

“Oh yes. No unmarried person is safe when he’s about. And if he brings his son, that will make five gentlemen altogether and only one of me. I don’t like to be the sole female, even if my father is present. It’s never quite comfortable, is it? Retiring to the drawing room alone while the gentlemen remain with their port and cigars? Not to mention the burden on me to perform. I’ll be obliged to remain at the pianoforte all evening. You know how these dinners run on.”

Meg tensed, anticipating Miss Colfax’s request.

“My father suggested I might invite you,” Miss Colfax said. “I thought it a splendid idea. That’s why I’ve ventured out in this maelstrom, to ask if you’ll join us tomorrow.”

Meg took a sip of her tea. “I d-don’t often attend dinner parties.”

Her father preferred local landowners and men of influence to come to Letchford Hall. Mrs. Church and Mrs. Stapleton had put on many a dinner for them during Meg’s youth. Meg had been allowed to attend only a handful of times.

Her experiences with dining in the village had been even less frequent and were mostly confined to dinners with her father at the vicarage during Mr. Applewhite’s tenure.

“It will be nothing overly formal,” Miss Colfax assured her. “The gentlemen mean to discuss business. It promises to be a lonely evening for me without you there. Do please say you’ll come.”

“My father is unable to attend.”

Miss Colfax nodded in sympathetic understanding. “I presumed as much. His gout is still troubling him, is it not? Dr. Spragg mentioned that he’d had another attack.”

“He has,” Meg said. It was only to be expected after eating red meat and drinking port. The sugary pudding he’d had last evening hadn’t helped matters. By the wee hours, he’d been in agony, shouting at all and sundry. “He’s in n-no state to go out at present.”

“He wouldn’t object to your coming alone, would he?”

Meg lowered her teacup back to its saucer. She didn’t think her father would object. Not if the dinner was at the vicarage, in company with Miss Colfax and her father. Still…it would be a creditable excuse. Meg was tempted to use it to evade the awkwardness of an outright refusal.

But no.

She hadn’t yet been reduced to lying to the daughter of a vicar.

“No,” she admitted. “That is…I d-don’t think so.”

Miss Colfax brightened. “Then you will come?”

Meg hesitated. She had no more desire to fall victim to Mr. Pinnock’s matchmaking efforts than Miss Colfax did. However…

Were Miss Adams here, she’d have urged Meg to go. To be sure, in her last letter, she’d reminded Meg that attending local dances and dinners was a means of practicing for the inevitable flurry of social events when Meg at last had a season.

If she had a season.

Her father seemed in no mind to finance one for her at present.

But perhaps—just perhaps—if he heard that Meg had acquitted herself well at a dinner party in the village, he may be persuaded to reconsider his opinion?

With that in mind, Meg came to a decision. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll come. If it means so very much to you.”

Miss Colfax beamed with gratitude. “Oh, thank you. That is a relief. Now, if only Mr. Beresford’s sister were in town to accompany him, our numbers might almost be even.”

Meg came to abrupt attention. With the thunder rumbling outside and the rain beating against the windowpanes, she couldn’t be entirely sure she’d heard correctly. “Mr. Beresford? Is he going to b-be there?”

“Did I not say? It’s he who has prompted the entire event.”

Meg stared at Miss Colfax, too stunned by the news of Mr. Beresford’s inclusion in the dinner to fully comprehend her meaning. “How do you m-mean?”

“He called at the vicarage earlier this week and wasted no time in securing an invitation to dinner. Indeed, he was rather eager.”

Meg’s stomach knotted painfully.