Page 35 of The Proposition
That confusion was quickly obliterated, as from around the corner leading deeper into the house, came scratching and scrambling, and then two hulking, shaggy dogs charged toward her, their paws the size of saucers. She reeled back in surprise, clutching for her chest, pulling off her veil as she didso.
“Talos! Argus! Come, you ruddy beasts!”
Clemency recognized the voice, but it was not Mr. Ferrand’s. A man hastened around the corner, catching the dogs by their collars and keeping them from leaping on her skirts. Ralston, the dark-haired man she had met at Beswick, had come to her aid. He blinked at her and then smiled, taking a moment to study her face.
“Ah! Miss Fry, welcome,” Ralston said, wrestling with the jolly, drooling dogs. They were wolfhounds, massive and gangly, and they soon lost interest in tackling her and instead turned to licking and nuzzling Ralston’s hands.
Behind him, a small figure entered the foyer. The wigged man who had helped Clemency down from the carriage had just been on his way to fetch someone, but now there was no need. Delphine Ferrand beamed at her, bird-fragile and pale in a soft, billowing dress of cocoa brown silk.
“Miss Fry! What a lovely surprise, though Audric said wemight expect you,” Delphine said, holding out both her hands for Clemency to take. She eased by the dogs, who whined up at her. “My brother’s dogs, they are cumbersome and a nuisance but sweet; I promise they will do you no harm, only beg for attention and the occasional belly scratch. He never takes them hunting; they are now more spoiled children than animals.”
Clemency let Delphine take her by the hands and maneuver her away from the foyer, around the corner, and into a spacious sitting room that overlooked the street. This too was modestly appointed, though comfortable enough. A roaring fire greeted them on the opposite wall, and the furniture huddled near it.
“Is your brother at home?” Clemency asked, trying to sound conversational. “He bade me call when I reached London.”
“How diligent of you, and still weary from the road! Fear not, he will be returning soon,” Delphine assured her, gesturing to the tea and cards already laid out by the fire. With only Delphine present, she could only assume Ralston had been her partner for cards. “Again you must sit with me and wait, and make the customary talk of weather and road conditions and accommodations….”
Clemency sat on the sofa, glad for the fire, and not at all bothered by the company. Ralston lurked in the hall, speaking softly to the dogs before letting them loose. They came, slowly this time, and curled up side by side before the hearth, their loving, glossy eyes trained on the new woman in their house.
“More tea, Ralston, I think, unless Miss Fry has a taste for something stronger?” Delphine picked up the two handsof cards and shuffled them back into a single deck. It was obvious she played cards often, for she handled them deftly, without so much as a glance at her hands.
“Actually…” Clemency considered the alien, mysterious woman that had gazed back at her in the mirror and felt a queer tremor pass through her from head to foot. What was London doing to her? And after only a few hours…Honora would be scandalized. “Brandy, if that is all right and not too daring.”
“Brandy!” Delphine shrieked with excitement. Her whole face brightened, banishing some of the sallowness from her hollow cheeks. “Two brandies, Ralston. And do not be stingy.”
“Miss Delphine, I do not think your brother would—”
“Forget my brother, Ralston, I am the lady of the house when he is absent.” Delphine sniffed and raised her chin. Despite all their wealth, she did a very poor job of looking imperious. It simply wasn’t in her nature, Clemency mused. “Two brandies.”
Ralston shuffled off with a huff, and then the only sounds in the room were the crackle of the logs behind the grate and the softhush-hushof Delphine shuffling the cards.
“Ralston and I have only just arrived ourselves,” Delphine informed her. “Last night, in fact. That big, empty house made me feel like a ghost. Like I was haunting it. Dreadful. I may not love London society but itfeelslike there is so much happening all the time. It lifts my spirits. May I ask where you are staying, Miss Fry?”
“My brother and his wife are staying with her family on Gracechurch Street,” Clemency told her. “It is not as lovely as all this, Miss Ferrand. Your home is beautiful.”
Delphine raised her thin, dark brows. Ralston hadreturned, and he set down two crystal glasses of brandy, though to Clemency’s eye they did not seem generously full. He retreated quickly, as if not to be scolded for exactly that.
“You are so kind, Miss Fry,” she said, swiftly dealing out hands for cards. “But my brother oversaw the decorating of this place, and it shows. He has such sober taste. I should have done a better job, I will never know why he chose a plum-colored sofa, of all things….”
Clemency carefully sipped her brandy and found the taste extraordinary. Between the hearth and the drink, she was sure her cheeks and neck were bright, shiny pink. “I quite like it. It is rather simple. Simple but inviting.”
“Really? You are the only one to think so, I assure you,” Delphine teased, eyes bright with mischief as she drank almost half the brandy in her glass in one go. She did not seem ready for it, sputtering a little as she dabbed her lips with the back of her hand. “I will absolutely not tell Audric; he will gloat and be impossible to live with. Do you play cards or games of chance?”
“A little,” Clemency said, taking up her cards. “And not well.”
“I rely on instinct,” Delphine instructed her with a wink. “And of course in that regard, brandy is always useful. It has been such a long, long time since I have had the chance to enjoy a wicked taste of brandy and a wicked hand of cards with a woman close to my own age.”
She sighed and called for Ralston to return and fill their cups. Clemency hurried to finish her first glass, finding that her head felt light and stupid, and her body heavy and bolted to the sofa. Her mother disapproved of ladies drinking, and so even at balls Clemency always behaved herself.
“My brother’s wife is likely a better match for you,” she told Delphine. “Tansy is diabolical when it comes to whist.”
“Then you shall have to make introductions, Miss Fry, though I do not doubt you will be a charming partner also.”
“That is much too kind,” Clemency said with a chuckle. “And soon to be disproven. You will trounce me so easily it will be no fun at all.”
“Oh, there is plenty of fun to be had in a trouncing,” Delphine replied lightly. Ralston, for his part, did not seem happy about refilling their drinks, but he acquiesced, wearing a hangdog look all the while. The brandy was refreshed, and Delphine again partook with the eagerness of a girl suddenly unchaperoned. “The next game we play must be on Gracechurch Street, if such a thing would please you, of course.”
Clemency hesitated, the cards nearly slipping from her grasp. Though Miss Ferrand seemed the exact kind of sweet, rich company Tansy would love to have, there was the complication of a certain Mr. Turner Boyle coming to stay at that very house. She sensed an opportunity to tease out more about the situation, and perhaps gain an advantage over Audric. He had omitted any mention of Delphine and Turner knowing each other, and now she had her chance to discover why.
