~ Eleven ~
CHARLES HAD RELATED NOT ONLY Letty’s story, but the true reason for being in Paris to his aunt, who interrupted with clucking and shocked gasps. When he was done, she stood up, moved her hands agitatedly, then went to the corner of the room and pulled the bell rope. This brought forth a bewigged young lackey almost immediately.
Charles fondly studied his aunt. She was his mother’s younger sister, but nearly forty now, though he couldn’t be certain. She was still quite a handsome woman, with dark brown hair stylishly curled and piled at the top of her fine head. She was tall, graceful, and her hazel eyes were always alight with amusement. Above her good looks was her kind heart. He was sure she would immediately love their little Letty and take care of her just as they had hoped.
She sweetly asked for her coach to be brought ’round, and when the lackey left them, she turned on Charles to say, “What is her size? We must stop, and I shall buy her a ready-made gown until we can have some made.”
“I don’t know her size…?” Charles said beneath a frown.
“Then show me how high she stands.” He put his hand up to his chest and she said, “Oh, a few inches more than five feet no doubt. Fine…and her figure…full, thin…?”
“She has a most feminine figure, a bit on the thin side, and she has had to cut her hair…like a boy’s.”
“Good, come,” Fanny said, and led him into the hall, where her man appeared with her hooded dark cloak.
She put the cloak on, pulled the hood over her hair to protect it from the wind, and allowed Charles to lead her to the steps of her coach as she told him, “I don’t think I have had this much fun all year. It is all very exciting, and as I despise the Rochdales, it makes it all the better!”
Just as Charles was helping his aunt take the steps of her carriage, a musical voice hailed them from a passing vehicle. Charles looked ’round, as did his aunt, and found the exquisite features of Lady Elizabeth Broadhurst.
“Belfort’s old flame…be careful, Charles,” his aunt cautioned.
He smiled. “Always.”
Fanny waved amicably, but proceeded into her coach saying, “I suppose you must pay your respects. It will help your cause.”
Charles approached Lady Elizabeth’s coach. She leaned out her open window and extended her gloved hand to him. He gave it a squeeze and said, “Beautiful as ever, Liz.” Yes, he thought to himself, she was a beauty, but not to his taste. There was that in her cold ice blue eyes he could never take to.
“Did you make the trip to Paris alone?” she asked curiously. “Or are Fitz and Belfort with you?”
“Yes, both are with me,” he said, noting a change in her features when she mentioned Bel. Oh yes, the lady would start up with him again if she could.
“You will come to my establishment soon, Charles. Now promise,” she said. “Number ninety-one, just down the road.” She gave him an inclination of her head and told her driver to move on.
Charles grimaced and returned to his aunt. Once inside, he asked, “I have heard she has taken up with Boney’s man, Bourriene. How deeply involved is she with him?”
“I am not really certain, though one does see her in his company a great deal,” Fanny said, frowning.
They stopped at a fashionable dress shop, and after a great deal of deliberation, and much to Charles’ relief, purchased two gowns, one green and suitable for a young maiden, and the other blue and not quite suitable Charles thought, but he supposed his aunt knew what she was doing.
“Is not the blue gown a bit risqué for our Letty?” he asked.
Fanny laughed. “Not risqué enough. When I take her shopping for gowns, she will have far more fashionable gowns than these!”
“Oh, by the way, Bel will reimburse you for everything,” Charles said.
“I am sure he will, but is it proper that he do so?” Her ladyship frowned over the issue.
“Probably not, but you shouldn’t have to…”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Charles, I can well afford it, and as I was widowed long before I was blessed with children of my own, I find this quite enjoyable.”
They stopped at yet another shop and her ladyship purchased all the fripperies and undergarments a young woman would need until she could take Letty shopping.
Armed with bandboxes containing Letty’s immediate needs, they entered the hotel and hurried unnoticed to Letty’s room.
* * * * *
Letty opened the door just a fraction to peek just as Charles said, “’Tis me…”
She opened the door wide, and when she saw the lovely and fashionable Lady Marling, she felt her cheeks go hot. What must her ladyship think of her in boy’s attire!
Fanny quickly put her at ease by exclaiming sweetly at Letty’s blushing cheeks and putting a motherly arm around her shoulders. Having been denied the warm attentions of a mother all these years, Letty felt a deep emotion well up, and she burst into tears.
Charles looked startled, but Fanny cooed to Letty, “There, there, you poor dear little thing. I am here now. You will call me Aunt Fanny, and so I shall be.” Fanny looked at Charles and said she would take over, for the sooner Letty changed into her new clothes, the sooner they could escape.
Fanny then opened the bandboxes and said, “I do hope they fit, but if they don’t, my woman will attend to it. She is a wonder with a needle.”
Once again, Letty felt a welling of tears as she touched the beautiful gown of green. It didn’t take more than thirty minutes and Letty had been transformed. Her tawny curls surrounded her piquant and lovely face, and a green stylish bonnet adorned her head. The gown fit her nearly to perfection, and certainly well enough to get her to Lady Marling’s residence. The shoes, however, though lovely, were slightly large, and Fanny clucked her tongue and said they would take care of that in the morning.
Fanny made a circle around Letty and exclaimed, “Indeed, you will break hearts, and those curls…short, but not overly so, fanning your ears like that. I do believe you will set a trend!” She then pulled out the dark green velvet cloak she had purchased and said, “Put this on, for ’tis time we make haste and leave this place.”
Letty lifted her puppy into her arms and said hopefully, “Max…I hope you don’t mind Max?”
“Mind?” Aunt Fanny ruffled the puppy’s head. “Of course not. Dear puppy.”
As they left, they made certain they picked up the empty bandboxes before they made their way down the stairs.
“How will Bel explain…his page’s disappearance?”
“Ah, Charles tells me the lad’s father has fallen ill and I came to fetch him, as friends of mine are returning to London and offered to escort him home. It should answer.”
A note, as per her nephew’s instructions, was hastily scribbled when they reached the lobby, and a lackey was given a coin and the instructions to take it to the viscount.
Once inside her waiting coach, her ladyship released a sigh of relief and said, “Well done, I think. We have escaped without notice.”
* * * * *
The note was delivered to Bel. Darcy stood aside as the viscount thanked the lackey and he received yet another coin.
“I hope nothing is amiss?” Darcy said curiously.
The viscount grimaced. His friend was beginning to annoy him with his questions. He decided to take it head on. “Indeed, you might as well know now as Lady Marling has taken the matter in hand. Upon our arrival, Charles went to visit his aunt—Lady Marling, and she advised him that my young cousin’s father has taken seriously ill. She was kind enough to arrange for him to travel with friends back to London and has fetched him. She writes that there was no time to lose, as her friends have already been kindly waiting for his arrival.”
“What? But—wait now, hold on. This is beginning to look too smoky by half,” Darcy snapped.
“Hold on,” Charles stuck in. “Are you saying my aunt is cutting a sham?” Charles made a show of giving Darcy a cold stare.
“No, of course not, but…” Darcy answered. “Bel, never say you wearied of the lad and are sending him home? He has only just arrived!”
“How can you ask that of me?” Bel snapped. “The lad’s father is ill, and would I involve Lady Marling in such a thing? She would box my ears!”
Darcy knew Lady Marling, and this stalled him. “Hmm. I daresay she would. But he did not even stop by to say good-bye to you. Seems odd.”
Charles sighed heavily. “As we told you, my aunt had arranged for him to travel with her friends, and they were waiting on him. The lad knows full well Bel would understand.”
Darcy eyed his friends suspiciously, but gave it up.
The viscount could see that while he had presented a plausible tale, his friend was far too shrewd to take it on face value. However, he also knew there was nothing Darcy could presently do about it.
It was near dinnertime and Charles said, “Come on then, John…do you join us for dinner?”
“I do. Where do we go?”
“The Palais Royale,” Fitz said.
There, they enjoyed a great deal of wine and very good food before they headed for the casino, where they sat at the faro table. Bel watched his friends each take a Parisian lovely in hand, but he found he had no desire to do the same. What the devil was wrong with him?
* * * * *
Letty and Aunt Fanny, as she instructed her new charge to call her, enjoyed a quiet dinner as they got to know one another. It didn’t take long for them to form an affection for one another, and as Letty swooned over the room her ladyship had set up for her, her ladyship said on a hushed note, “My dear, you have no notion what a beauty you are! Your smile is devastating. It won’t be long before all of Paris will be speaking your name. All the men, both eligible and ineligible, will fall in love with you. But first thing after breakfast, we visit my favorite shops and order gowns…many gowns, in every color that suits you—also shoes, and fripperies, ribbons, and such.”
Letty laughed and said, “You are too kind.”
“Not at all. You shall be the daughter I was never lucky enough to have. Now sleep, Letty, and dream of tomorrow.”
Letty, however, knew her dreams would be of Bel—always of Bel!