My Last Duchess, стр. 36
Ophelia did understand.
She herself had married above her station when she became espoused to Peter. Luckily, she’d had a relatively smooth introductionto polite society. Peter was an excellent tutor, and she learned a great deal from observation.
Lady Woolhastings was comfortably used to being among the highest in the land. She was a lady-in-waiting to the queen, forgoodness’ sake. She didn’t care what other women said about the inadvisability of wearing a low-cut gown at her age.
All that didn’t mean she was prepared to negotiate the thicket of scandalmongers.
No gossip about Lady Woolhastings had ever circulated. Ophelia, on the other hand, had faced rancorous disapproval from somewho had considered her uppish and called her a night mushroom because her father had been a mere esquire. They pronouncedthe marriage a misalliance, eyed her waist for signs of pregnancy, and felt free to speculate about how she might have trickedPeter into proposing.
In Ophelia’s opinion, Lady Woolhastings likely had no idea how vicious “polite” society could be.
Thankfully, the end of intermission was signaled by a loud trumpet, and Lady Arden rose to return to her seat.
“I saw you talking to Lady Arden,” Maddie whispered, once the play began again. “Everyone else was happy for me, but I findher a bit frightening. Did you convince her of my child?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Ophelia said.
But she was thinking.
And watching the box across the way from under her lashes.
Chapter Fourteen
Lady Fernby’s supper after the opera was a small, informal affair.
“I’m so sorry to have disrupted your numbers,” Ophelia said, curtsying to their hostess.
Lady Fernby manifestly didn’t mind; she was a jolly woman who rushed to meet them at the door of her drawing room, genuinelythrilled by the news of Maddie’s condition.
“This shall be my last public outing,” Maddie announced. “But I would be most happy if you paid me a morning call, Lady Fernby.I expect these last months will be endlessly tedious, although I will be lucky enough to have my dear cousin’s company.”
“Of course, you must go into confinement,” Lady Fernby agreed, nodding. “You’re already showing, my dear. One does not wishto leave society with an unpleasant memory of one’s enlarged waist.”
Personally, Ophelia thought this was absurd. If she ever carried a child again—which she would not, obviously—she would doexactly as she wished, no matter her size.
“I agree,” Maddie exclaimed, smiling as proudly as if she were truly carrying a child.
“Toward the end of my first confinement, I resembled a whale,” Lady Fernby said. “Have you seen images of that sea beast?”
Maddie shuddered.
Who would have thought that her cousin would be such a good actress? Ophelia followed her hostess across the drawing room,silently shoring up her resolve to treat Hugo as she might any other gentleman whom she’d met once or twice.
He rose as they walked toward him, and Ophelia was unable to look away. Wearing pink silk had had a civilizing effect. Butnow? In sober navy?
Without a glittering, silky veneer, Hugo was all man. He looked massive and powerful, like a man whose ancestors commandedlarge armies and built a country. A man who could direct a horse with his knees, the better to use his hands to wield a lanceor a sword.
Did he say that he was judge for the shire? He looked like a judge.
Not his expression, though.
She shivered, despite herself. He was staring at her, just as he had in the ballroom when she first saw him. And this time,she had no trouble deciphering his emotions. Hugo was burning with need and desire. There was an unmistakable intimacy inhis eyes as well.
Beside her, Maddie whispered, “Phee! Did you forget to tell me something?”
They reached the group, and sank into curtsies for a round of greetings.
“We’ve met,” Maddie said, smiling at the Duke of Lindow mischievously. “You remember, don’t you, Your Grace? It was at a ballsome weeks ago. You were asking me . . .” She tapped her chin with a finger. “Now why can’t I remember what it was you wereinquiring about?”
“A woman’s memory is often affected by carrying a child,” Lady Woolhastings commented.
“May I offer my congratulations on your happy state, Lady Penshallow?” Lady Knowe asked.
“Thank you,” Maddie said sweetly. “I am very excited. My husband and I have been married for some years without being blessedwith fruit of our union, so this is a true joy.”
Something flashed through Lady Knowe’s eyes and Ophelia realized that she knew. Somehow this lady knew that Maddie had a rollof cotton tied around her waist. But one glance at her face told Ophelia that Lady Knowe would never engage in cruel gossipor divulge such an important secret.
All the same, she had better inform the world that Maddie was confined to bed for the last weeks of her pregnancy. She couldhandle morning calls herself, just in case more women had the same intuitive grasp of the truth as the duke’s sister.
“It is a pleasure to see you again, Lady Woolhastings,” Ophelia said, dropping into another curtsy. “I hope you are well?”
“Absolutely,” the lady said.
Hugo didn’t say a word, just kissed Ophelia’s hand. But there was something about the intensity with which he looked at her . . .
Lady Woolhastings showed no signs of feeling possessive, or even particularly happy about the fact that she and Hugo wereattending the supper together. And yet they were betrothed.
Strange. If Hugo were her fiancé . . .
“Lady Fernby,” Ophelia said, pulling her hand back from Hugo’s, as he showed no sign of letting it go. “Don’t you have a collectionof miniatures? I would dearly love to admire it.”
“Of course!” Their hostess bustled over to the side of the room, where a glass-topped cabinet presumably held her treasures.“Lady Woolhastings, do come look at the darling miniature I have of the queen!”
Hugo watched as Ophelia walked away without a backward glance.
Her features were pleasant, whereas her cousin Maddie had the cheekbones of an aristocrat. Ophelia’s figure was round, andher hair—even powdered—unfashionably red.
But . . . she was the only woman for him.
She hadn’t looked at him in the theater. She had been seated opposite him,