Page 14 of A Sham Engagement

“Again,” put in Frannie. “They were very specific that it was again.”

Elenora pushed the bedclothes back. “They were. I danced with some of their friends who I’m sad to say were also not handsome enough for you two. Now, off you go, because I think I can hear Agatha’s footsteps outside in the corridor.”

She was right about the footsteps, but when the door opened it was not to reveal her maid, but rather her mother and Aunt Penelope, who looked to be all of a flutter.

Aunt Penelope was fully dressed in a demure gray gown, but Mama swept into the room resplendent in a purple silk peignoir over her nightgown. “Elenora, have you been telling your sisters all about your success last night?”

In the other bed Petunia threw back her covers and sat up, hair awry. “I give up. Why don’t we invite all the servants in here too and have a party?”

She was again ignored.

“Success?” Augusta, who’d been about to leave the room, reversed at speed and swung around. Frannie had no need to as she’d not moved from the bell pull.

Aunt Penelope clasped her hands under her chin and seemed to swell like a bullfrog in the pond at home in Penworthy. As if she’d had something to do with it herself.

This morning, Mama had a definite cat-in-the-dairy-finding-a-big-pot-of-cream look about her. “I see you’ve been too shy to do so. Bless you, darling girl. You should be shouting it from the rooftops. Well, not quite, but I think you know what I mean.”

Augusta closed the door and fixed Elenora with an accusing stare. “What success, Ellie? Did you neglect to mention something?”

Elenora turned her back on them and whipped the curtains open with unnecessary force.

“Don’t pull them down, Elenora,” Aunt Penelope said, ever with an eye open for the safety of her furnishings. “Open them gently.”

“Is anyone going to tell us?” Frannie asked. “Or do we have to guess?”

“We know she didn’t dance with the Prince of Wales,” Augusta put in with a sniff. “So what could it possibly be that would trump that?”

Mama positively swelled with pride. “Of course, it’s not something like that. Although it would have been an honor had he been there and chosen to dance with your sister. No, girls, you see before you an engaged young lady, who one day will be a countess, no less.”

Augusta’s and Frannie’s mouths fell open in unison.

Aunt Penelope let out a chortle of glee.

Petunia, who’d been more than a little disgusted last night on being told of her cousin’s precocious triumph, as Mama had put it when they told her about it, harumphed.

Mama glowed with pride.

Elenora scowled. “I can see right down your throat, Gussie.”

Augusta shut her mouth. “Don’t call me Gussie. You know how I hate that.”

Frannie, ever the romantic, clasped her hands. “A countess? She’s going to be a real countess?”

Mama and Aunt Penelope nodded in unison.

The door opened yet again, this time to let in Agatha, Elenora’s maid who not so long ago had been just a housemaid at Penworthy. Her cheeks shone as though she’d been hurrying. Seeing how crowded the room already was, she dropped a curtsy to Mama and Aunt Penelope and remained by the door, her fingers twiddling with her apron. “Miladies.”

“Come in, Agatha,” Elenora said. “I’d like to get dressed if the rest of my family will give me leave to. They seem to think my bedroom is some kind of Assembly Room.”

“It’s my bedroom, actually,” Petunia said, but was yet again ignored.

“You’re really, truly getting married?” Augusta at last managed to enunciate. Perhaps shock that her awkward older sister had snared a man first time out had rendered her mute for a moment. That she thought her odd, Elenora was well aware.

“Married, miss?” Agatha echoed. “Ooh, that’s proper good news.” And she too took on the demeanor of someone who’d lost a farthing and found a guinea. Why was everyone so overjoyed at the news? It was a good thing it wasn’t a real engagement.

“Just engaged,” Elenora said, beginning to feel a tiny bit anxious about all this unwanted attention. “A long engagement, as we hardly know each other.”

“Nonsense.” She might have known Mama would take this attitude. “The sooner the two of you are married, the better. Your papa will be sorting out the marriage contract this morning, and then we can set a date.”