Page 11 of Lady Louisa and the Carriage Clock
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“Oh, Louisa!” Edith pressed her hands to her cheeks when Louisa entered the drawing room. “You are a vision!”
Louisa’s evening dress of crepe over white satin flattered her figure, and a blue satin band encircled her midsection, drawing attention to her tiny waist. Her headdress was a thin tiara with a band of white satin, her hair fashioned into curls on her forehead and dressed low on the sides.
She felt heat on her cheeks and resolved to become more skilled at receiving and replying to compliments. “Thank you, Edith. You look like a fairy tonight.”
Where Louisa had copper-colored hair and dark green eyes, her friend had blue eyes and golden locks. As a married woman, Edith could now wear darker colors but often wore light blue as the color complemented her fair complexion.
“Good evening, Louisa.” Nathaniel stepped forward and bowed. “You’re our first guest to arrive.”
“Your sister Alicia isn’t joining us this evening?” she asked, looking about the room.
Nathaniel replied, “She is attending a play with Lady Kettering. They have become quite bosom friends.”
A footman announced Lady Diana.
“Diana!” Louisa and Edith exclaimed together.
“I have so much to tell you about the registry.” Diana strode forward with a wide smile. “You'll be happy to hear the enterprise has been running smoothly.”
The lady was a handsome woman who sported the same cobalt blue eyes and dark hair as her brother Lord Ashford, their friend Charlotte’s husband.
Their host and hostess offered refreshments, and after the new arrivals declined, the women seated themselves in one corner of the large room. Nathaniel looked content to sit near the drinks tray, nursing a glass of port.
Louisa marveled at her exquisite surroundings. Nathaniel and Edith had the largest home in Grosvenor Square, and the room was ablaze with lit candles, another sign of the baron’s wealth.
She remembered that Charlotte had told her Diana kissed Cecil in front of her brother Ashford in this very room. Ashford believed she did it to punish him as he’d decreed that Diana should wait until after the war to marry her fiancé. Diana’s intended was killed at the battle of Toulouse soon afterward. She felt a twinge of jealousy, although Charlotte had asked Diana about the kiss, and the lady replied, “I merely wanted to punish my brother for making me wait to marry my captain.”
A footman announced another guest, “Lord Wycliffe!”
And in the viscount strolled, looking far too attractive and far too self-assured. Louisa caught his gaze, and the gentleman smiled quickly and inclined his head. She took his gesture to mean he was congratulating her on her victory.
Louisa hadn’t expected the viscount’s good-natured surrender. His smile briefly blinded her before she remembered who she was dealing with. Lord Wycliffe was not easygoing nor one to take defeat lying down. He was up to something. She returned his nod and tore her gaze away from him, her pulse ratcheting up a notch.
You’ve met your match, Lord Wycliffe, she thought triumphantly.
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The sparkle in Lady Louisa’s eyes and the alertness of her expression put paid to his belief he could fool the lady into thinking he wasn’t irritated that she’d won the clock. She wasn’t an empty-headed deb, after all. Neither were Charlotte or Edith. A man would underestimate those three ladies at his own peril.
But she was still a woman, and women adored him. A glance here, a light touch there. Perhaps he could win her over by appearing to like her against his will, an idea that somehow felt too close to reality to make him entirely comfortable.
“Cecil!” Nathaniel approached him and held out a glass of port.
“Thank you.” He took a long sip of his drink. “Did you hear Louisa won the clock?”
“Edith told me,” Nathaniel replied, "Louisa's brother helped her secure the prize."
Cecil sighed. “He did.”
They approached the ladies, and he made his greetings.
“I hear Louisa bested you in a bidding war,” Diana said coyly, her eyes dancing. She looked decidedly like her brother when teasing him.
“In all fairness, her eldest brother Leopold did,” he replied smoothly.
“And the item was a carriage clock?” Diana turned to Louisa.
