Page 73 of The Lord Next Door
“Lady Thurlow, forgive me for being late,” he said smoothly.
“Nice to finally see you here, my good fellow.” Lord Wade betrayed a wicked gleam in his eye.
“Thank you for amusing my wife.”
David spoke blandly, but Victoria noticed that Lord Wade’s eyebrows shot up, and his grin became wider.
“Any time,” Lord Wade said.
Then finally David met her questioning gaze, but he said nothing. She knew he would never say anything in public, but she didn’t know what to expect when they returned home. And she welcomed their coming discussion. He had to see the logic of her position. Somehow, she would explain it to him.
Two by two, people began to press forward to speak to them. David remembered to introduce her each time.
Soon a man pulled David away, and Victoria was left with one of the wives, Lady Walcot. The woman rattled on about the lovely evening, and the beautiful painting on the wall above them. Victoria nodded at the appropriate points, but her gaze followed David as she admired the easy way he spoke with people. She was so proud of him—proud to be with him. Was this love?
The switch in topic came so suddenly that Victoria almost missed it. Lady Walcot was forced to repeat herself.
“Lady Thurlow, is Banstead House still as grand as it used to be?”
“It is a wonderful home, my lady, but I never visited it before my marriage, so I cannot truthfully answer.”
“I, of course, never attended one of those…parties,” she hastened to say.
She emphasized “parties” as if they were a forbidden pleasure.
“My young cousin Humphrey attended. Such stories he brought home—” She leaned forward, blinking eagerly through her eyepiece. “The women—so scantily clad!”
More scantily clad than tonight’s ladies—like Victoria herself—with necklines that displayed so much? Perhaps Lord Banstead’s guests had not been proper women? Her eyes sought out her husband again. She could only imagine how he felt having such things occur in his own house.
He was speaking to a tall young woman, with very dark hair and very pale skin, who was staring up at him intently with a look that Victoria found…confusing.
Lady Walcot was still talking, but Victoria only caught the end.
“And the piano! Surely it was burned afterward.”
“The piano in the drawing room?” Victoria said, remembering Miss Fogge’s similar conversation. “I cannot be certain, but surely it is old enough to be the original. Burned, you say?”
To Victoria’s regret, Lady Walcot reddened and excused herself. As Victoria turned to watch the older woman leave, she realized why—another woman was approaching.
The woman David had just been speaking to.
Victoria smiled up at her, suddenly feeling very short and very plump. But very intrigued.
“Good evening, Lady Thurlow,” the woman said. “I know I should have waited to be introduced, but David—Lord Thurlow—would surely want us to meet. I am Lady Sarah Palmer.”
“How pleasant to meet you,” Victoria said, hoping that it would be.
They curtsied to each other.
“It’s good to see that Lord Thurlow has finally married,” Lady Sarah said in the sweetest voice. “I did worry about him after…well, you understand.”
Victoria smiled. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
Lady Sarah tilted her well-coifed head, and feathers fluttered. “You did not know that my father adamantly refused when Lord Thurlow asked permission to wed me?”
“No, I did not,” Victoria said, wondering how David felt that this woman even dared to speak to him again. Or were they both still heartbroken over her father’s decision? There were so many ways that she could act on such news. “It must have been dreadful for you.”
“It was far worse for Lord Thurlow,” the woman said.
