Part 3 (2/2)
”Well, what do you think?” Lord Astor asked after a while.
”I cannot imagine living in a country where such creatures run wild or where they are ridden down the streets,” Frances said. ”I would be extremely frightened to venture outdoors, my lord.”
”Is there only one elephant?” Arabella asked.
”Did you expect a whole herd?” Lord Astor grinned down at her.
”But it has no company,” she said. ”It is all alone, my lord. And in a bare cage.”
”The expense of having two and housing them in a larger area would probably be prohibitive,” he pointed out to her.
”But he looks so lonely,” she said. ”Look at his eyes, my lord.”
”I am very glad it is locked safely away in its cage,” Frances said with a shudder.
”There used to be many different kinds of animals here,” Lord Astor explained. ”Unfortunately, now there are only the elephant and a grizzly bear, apart from various birds. Shall we look at the bear?”
Arabella was glad to move away from the quiet, patient, sad-looking elephant. But the poor bear looked even worse, she found. Its fur looked moth-eaten and dusty. It was pacing its cage with a slow, rolling gait.
”The bear is a far more deadly creature than it appears to be,” Lord Astor explained to them. ”One blow from one of those paws would doubtless kill any one of us.”
Frances took a step backward. ”I do hope the bars are strong,” she said.
”You are quite safe, Frances,” he a.s.sured her. ”Would you feel better if you were to take my other arm?”
Frances hastily availed herself of the offer. Arabella felt herself unaccustomedly close to tears. She hated it! She could have howled with pity for the two poor animals, so far away from where they belonged, so irrevocably cut off from all communication with animals of their kind, so utterly devoid of activity or exercise or love.
”What do you think of it, Arabella?” Lord Astor asked.
”It is very nice, my lord,” she said politely.
He looked down at her lowered head and smiled fleetingly.
”Oh, how I wish Mama and Jemima could have been with us this afternoon,” Frances said half an hour later when they were all in the carriage on their way back to Upper Grosvenor Street. ”How they would have loved the Crown Jewels. And the dangerous splendor of the animals.”
Arabella sat beside her husband, her hands in her lap. ”Thank you, my lord,” she said. ”It was kind of you to take us. I am very grateful.”
Lord Astor looked thoughtfully down at the top of his wife's bonnet while his sister-in-law gazed eagerly from the carriage window. He reached across finally, lifted one of Arabella's hands from her lap, and drew it through his arm. He kept his hand over hers.
Arabella did not look up or try to withdraw her hand.
Lady Berry was an attractive and fas.h.i.+onable lady in her early forties. She loved to entertain and to be the focus of attention. There was a Lord Berry, an earl in fact, but people tended to forget the fact. He lived in his wife's shadow, seemingly content to finance her whims and to keep himself quietly out of sight. On the night of his wife's soiree, he spent the evening in his library with a bottle of port and two particular friends who enjoyed social pleasures about as much as he did.
Lady Berry was in her element, having a new niece to introduce to the ton. And if the niece was not a remarkably pretty girl, she was fortunate to have brought along with her a quite extraordinarily lovely sister, who was bound to have all the unmarried young bucks swarming around her in no time. The two of them would take quite nicely. There was a certain fresh charm about Geoffrey's bride that would set her off from the majority of the young girls who had begun to descend on London in large numbers.
And so Arabella found herself being conducted around the drawing room in Grosvenor Square on the arm of her husband's aunt, Frances beside her, being presented to a bewildering number of elegant people. She did not feel nearly as shy as she had feared. Lord Astor had been left behind almost in the doorway, and she did not feel quite as plain and inadequate without his splendid person at her side.
And he really did look quite dauntingly magnificent tonight, dressed to match her ice-blue silk gowna”in dark blue velvet coat, paler blue silk waistcoat, and silver silk knee breeches. Arabella had quailed when she had joined him in the drawing room at home, despite the fact that she had been twirling before her looking gla.s.s a few minutes before, feeling quite delightfully pretty in her new gown and with her new newly acquired short curls. And she was inordinately proud of her new pearls, which his lords.h.i.+p had brought to her room one hour before and clasped about her neck himself. A present from her husband! He must not be entirely displeased with her if he had bought her such a costly and lovely gift. And surely she must have lost at least one pound of weight.
Frances, of course, looked breathtaking in her pale apricot satin gown with its netted tunic. And her blond hair was dressed in s.h.i.+ning ringlets. Arabella looked eagerly at all the people to whom they were presented, especially at the young men, to see if her sister was properly appreciated. And she was not disappointed. Frances' blushes and shy, downcast glances were creating a decided stir. Frances would have a splendid Season before going home to Theodore in the summer.
Strangely, Arabella felt no inadequacy at all when in the presence of her far lovelier sister. She was always too busy feeling proud of Frances. And so her manner quickly became relaxed and unselfconscious. She smiled about her with the greatest goodwill and talked to everyone without first stopping to consider whether she had anything of interest to say. And Lady Berry was proved right. It seemed that the new viscountess and her sister would take very well.
Arabella was delighted to see Lord Farraday again. And she was not mistaken in her first impression of him. He was remarkably amiable. She felt quite as comfortable after a few minutes of conversing with him as she did with Theodore at home.
”Did you find your mother and grandmother this afternoon?” she asked him.
”Yes, I did,” he said cheerfully. ”And I was entirely to blame for losing them, of course. I got caught up in examining some old armor, they wandered off chattering nineteen to the dozen without even noticing I was not with them, got themselves lost, and I was to blame.”
Arabella laughed.
”I have a family of nothing but females,” he said. ”Three sisters. All older than I. All tyrants. All expect me to be at their beck and call, and all complain that I am underfoot when I am.” He grinned.
”I have a mother and two sisters,” Arabella said, ”but then, of course, I can see things from their point of view, being female myself. If I had had a brother, I think I would have made much of him.”
”I shall have to present you to my female relatives,” he said, still grinning. ”They are all expecting me to marry. When I do, I shall probably produce five daughters. And love them too.”
”Ah, Farraday,” a somewhat languid voice said. ”How are you, my good fellow? I have not set eyes on you for a veritable age. This is understandable, of course, since I have been rusticating. I do not believe I have had the pleasure.”
Arabella found herself being regarded by a tall gentleman, his handsome face somewhat marred by a cynical twist of the lip. He was fingering a quizzing gla.s.s.
”How d'ye do, Hubbard?” Lord Farraday said. ”I have been wondering when we would see you again. Ma'am, may I present Mr. Hubbard, another university friend of Astor's and mine? Lady Astor, Hubbard.”
Mr. Hubbard sketched an elegant bow and raised one eyebrow. ”Astor's bride?” he said. ”I did not know he had tied the knot. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, ma'am.”
He did not sound remarkably pleased, Arabella thought. She curtsied and smiled. ”You are my husband's friend too?” she asked. ”I am pleased to meet you, sir. And you have recently come from the country? Is it not lovely at this time of the year? I am truly glad I was there during March to see all the spring flowers. Have you seen his lords.h.i.+p since returning? He is over by the door. I am sure he would be delighted to talk with you.”
”I shall stroll that way,” he said, turning and walking away without another word.
Arabella looked at Lord Farraday.
”A sad case,” he said. ”Mrs. Hubbard left him a year ago, taking their son with her. He has not been able to recover from the blow, though he pretends.”
”Oh, poor man,” Arabella said, turning to look at the retreating figure of Mr. Hubbard. ”How could anyone do anything so cruel? Oh, the poor man.”
”He will not thank you for saying so,” Lord Farraday said.
Lord Astor had been invited to join a table for cards in one of the salons. He would normally not have hesitated, as card playing had been one of his favorite pastimes for years. He had never been in the habit of playing very deep, as until recently he had had no great fortune to lose. And he had discovered since he did that his playing had lost some of its charm. Other men expected him to bet more rashly now that he had the money with which to do so, and yet at the same time he became aware of some of the responsibilities of owning a large fortune and having an equally large number of persons dependent upon him for their very life.
A card salon at a respectable soiree, of course, was not the sort of place in which whole fortunes were likely to change hands. It was not the fear of loss ora”worsea” the fear of losing all rational common sense that had made him hesitate. Rather, he felt obliged to stay in the drawing room for at least half an hour to make sure that Arabella was well-established and did not need his arm to cling to. She could be such a shy little thing. He had feared for her first appearance in polite society.
”Later,” he had told the acquaintance who had asked him to play cards. ”I shall play the next hand.”
And he watched Arabella, who was glowing with excitement or fright or some emotion that had helped her through the ordeal of being promenaded around the room by Aunt Hermione and was now aiding her in conversing with various guests. Her mouth appeared to be moving almost constantly and at a rapid rate.
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