3
Diana had no intention of staying at the Clarendon for more than a week; it was far too expensive and she had been poor for too many years to enjoy such luxury without keeping a mental ledger of what it was all costing her. But she needed a convenient place to invite the women in the directory to call on her, and many of them lived in the West End.
Of course, Diana could have called upon them all herself, but it would have taken her an inordinate amount of time; several days, if not weeks. No, the logical thing to do was to invite the group to attend her here, where she could inform them all at the same time of the despicable scheme that was afoot.
She had no desire to make any sort of social debut or to insert her unwelcome self into London society. She had no connections in the haut ton and no social ambitions. Since arriving in town, she’d even regretted her choice of hotel, as luxurious as it undoubtedly was, once she’d discovered how many of the nobility were among its patrons. She ate all her meals in her own suite and was made very uncomfortable by the notice she attracted whenever she passed through the public areas.
Diana had not invited Mildred to accompany her as Diana had reasoned that she was a respectable widow, not a young debutante making her come-out, and she did not need a chaperone, whatever Mildred herself might think. But Diana did wonder if she’d have been the object of less curiosity if she’d had an older lady with her. Then again, Mildred’s chief joy in life was complaining, and she would have undoubtedly found some way of loudly doing so and attracting notice to them both, so having Mildred with her would have been no guarantee of anonymity.
The proprietor of the Clarendon, a French gentleman by the name of Monsieur Jacquier, had been of great assistance in reserving a private room for Diana to receive the ladies she’d invited to call on her. The meeting was to be held on Friday morning, though she had no idea how many of the twenty she’d invited would accept her invitation. It had been a difficult letter to compose; there were so many to be copied and sent that she had written only a few sentences, while still attempting to convey the importance and delicacy of the matter she wished to discuss. She hoped she’d struck the correct tone, but after the letters were dispatched she realized her words could be misconstrued a dozen different ways, and the recipients might assume her to be anything from a social climber to a blackmailer. However, Diana quickly reassured herself that this was one reason to be glad she was staying at this very proper hotel on Bond Street: the ladies had to be aware that a petty thief could never afford these prices.
Diana was quite nervous at the prospect of meeting even a few ladies she was unacquainted with, never mind the twenty she’d invited, and began to hope, somewhat perversely, that none of them would come.
There were at least fifty women listed in the directory, but Diana had confined the invitations to those living nearest to her hotel, thinking they would be the most likely to accept. She also assumed they would be the most obvious targets of Mr. Dean and his peers, living in the middle of fashionable London as they did. She was somewhat surprised that Mr. Pryce and Lord Jerome had ventured outside of town to meet her, but she imagined she had stood out since she was the only lady listed who lived in Twickenham, and for all Diana knew they had already tried their luck with the ladies in their own circle.
She dressed carefully for the meeting in an attempt to boost her confidence, and Sally, as careless as she might be about many things, was a very good dresser. She and Diana decided together on a white muslin morning dress paired with a spencerette of rose-colored velvet and a lacy cornette ornamented with flowers to wear on her head. Her gloves were lemon-colored, and whenever she peeked down at them, the bright, happy color immediately raised her spirits.
However, Diana’s heart sank down to her pale pink slippers when her first guest was introduced, as she’d never seen such a vision of elegance in her life, and felt she must look very provincial, indeed, compared with this rich society lady.
“Mrs. Boyle?” the woman asked, coming to stand in front of Diana and looking at her very haughtily. Diana nodded, thinking the gesture would answer the lady’s question while also doubling as a polite greeting. “I am Lady Regina Townsend,” the lady said, returning Diana’s nod with an infinitesimal inclination of her head.
Lady Regina was the daughter of a marquess, and one of the highest-ranking ladies on the list. When Diana had seen her name, she’d felt Mr. Dean must have been out of his mind to include her; surely Lady Regina would not look twice at a younger son and had no need of suitors.
Though now that Diana had met her, she realized Lady Regina was somewhat old to still be unmarried, which the directory claimed her to be, as her entry was in the “Spinsters” section. She looked to be in her late twenties, had light brown hair and blue eyes, but was not conventionally pretty; her nose was a trifle too wide and her chin somewhat pointed. However, she had such an air about her that Diana felt any observer would immediately classify her as a beauty, whether it was true or not.
Before Diana could do anything other than thank Lady Regina for coming, another lady had arrived. A few minutes later there were a dozen women in the room, some of whom were already well acquainted. There were exclamations of “You received an invitation as well?” and “But what is it all about? I almost didn’t come.” Though most appeared to be in their twenties, there was one lady who looked to be in her mid-thirties and another on the shady side of forty.
Diana cleared her throat as loudly as she could and eventually the chatter died out and the ladies turned to look at her. “Thank you for coming,” Diana said, willing her voice not to squeak. She hoped that she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt. “If you would please take a seat, I will explain why I invited you here.”
The ladies obediently sat down, though the door opened just then and another woman entered. However, seeing the program had already begun she took a seat right away, and after a moment Diana began speaking again. “All of you, as well as myself, are listed in a directory of rich young women, printed for the sole purpose of acquainting impoverished gentlemen with our information, so that they can court us and eventually wed us for our money.”
There was a shocked gasp, and Diana found that her nervousness was beginning to dissipate. “Were any of you already aware of this?” she asked.
There were cries of “No,” “What effrontery!” and “I had no idea!” accompanied by shakes of the head.
“I think it’s obvious that none of us had any knowledge of such a thing; I know I did not,” Lady Regina said, having apparently appointed herself the group’s spokeswoman. She glanced around the room to confirm her statement and found all the ladies nodding in agreement. “Pray continue,” she told Diana. “How did you discover such a document exists?”
“I obtained a copy,” Diana said. She took the directory out of the drawer where she had placed it before the meeting began and held it up for them to see. She hadn’t hidden it for dramatic effect, but because she had not wanted any of the ladies to see it until she’d had a chance to explain what it was. However, no stage performer could have received a more satisfying reaction from an audience. There were again gasps of shock, and each woman instinctively leaned in closer to Diana, their attention riveted on what she held.
“Two young gentlemen I’d never before met called on me, and my butler was able to procure this from them,” Diana explained. “A Lord Jerome Vincent and a Mr. Raymond Pryce. Have any of you begun receiving calls from mysterious gentlemen?”
Lady Regina, whose reaction hadn’t been quite as intense as the rest of the women’s when she’d learned of the directory, her aristocratic mask still firmly in place, did look startled when she heard the men’s names, but Diana had no chance to question her as one of the other women started speaking.
“I met a nice gentleman just last week, at Gunter’s. I dropped some of my ice on his boot, and we discovered we had an acquaintance in common. He called on me again this morning, just before I came here. You don’t think he somehow arranged our meeting . . .” she said, her voice trailing off in dismay at the thought.
“There’s no way of knowing,” Diana said. “That is why I wanted to make each of you aware of the directory, so you could be on guard.”
The room again disrupted into chatter before Lady Regina silenced everyone again. This time, however, she did so with a laugh.
Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at her, wondering at her odd reaction.
“Why, this is wonderful!” she said, smiling brightly and managing to look pretty, rather than coldly elegant, with her features transformed for the first time into a pleasant expression. “Don’t you see? It changes everything.”
Diana wasn’t the only lady confused, and so Lady Regina hopped up from her seat to stand next to Diana. “May I?” she asked Diana politely.
“Please,” Diana responded, taking the seat Lady Regina had vacated and relinquishing the floor to her.
“I’m sure this is not the first time some of you have been prey to fortune hunters,” Lady Regina said, looking carefully around and locking gazes with many of the ladies, who nodded in reply. “Of course, if you are a rich man’s widow, perhaps this is a new experience, but if you were raised as I was, an heiress to a large fortune, you have been pursued since you put up your hair, if not earlier. And even though that was the case, you were still taught you had to be agreeable to them; dance with them, but not too close; flirt with them, but not too much; smile at them, but not too often. Well, this is our chance to hold a position of power. Let them dance to our tune is what I say.”
There was one call of “Hear, hear!” but most of the ladies just looked confused.
“Instead of cowering in fear and locking ourselves away from these men, why not embrace our role?” Lady Regina continued. “After all, we now possess the upper hand. Think of all of us at eighteen, rigorously conforming to society’s many rules for women, while these noble gentlemen could engage in all kinds of nefarious conduct, which didn’t even get them barred from Almack’s assemblies, as long as they were punctual,” she said, her voice dripping with scorn.
There was a slight pause, and then the lady in her thirties suddenly spoke. “I just realized who you are. You’re Lady Regina Townsend, are you not?”
“I am,” Lady Regina replied, staring defiantly back at her. “I recognize you as well, Mrs. Seymour.”
A few of the ladies looked as puzzled as Diana at this interchange, but it seemed as though most of them recognized Lady Regina’s name and some disapproved of her as strongly as Mrs. Seymour did. This was made obvious when both Mrs. Seymour and another lady got up and walked out of the room.
“Good riddance!” the elegant lady who looked to be in her forties announced, before smiling kindly at Lady Regina. “They obviously haven’t the backbone for your plan. Now please, finish explaining exactly what it is,” she encouraged Lady Regina.
Lady Regina looked for a moment as if she couldn’t continue, so taken aback was she by the unexpected support of the older woman. But though her eyes welled up with tears at this act of kindness, she blinked them away and took a deep breath before saying, “Thank you, Lady Gordon.” Diana remembered seeing Lady Gordon listed as a widow and a baroness.
“So,” Lady Regina said briskly, having pulled herself together, “I propose that we make it clear that we are aware of this document, and allow the gentlemen to exert themselves to please us, in a reverse of what generally occurs during the London season, where we are the ones seeking suitable mates. Let them meet our requirements, for once, and fear being cast out of our society, or of displeasing us in any way.”
“But what if we do not wish to marry?” Diana asked, much more loudly and stridently than she’d intended. The women around her all turned to look at her in surprise.
“Why, what other option is there?” one of the younger ladies asked.
Lady Regina was looking at Diana in sympathy. “Then don’t. That’s the beauty of it: we can choose to trifle with their affections as much as we like, the same way they do with ours. We have the power. They’ve granted it to us by means of our inclusion on this list. We are . . . ‘The Ladies of the Registry,’ ” she announced, with a triumphant smile, gesturing toward the directory that Diana still held, where the title, The Rich Ladies Registry or the Batchelor’s Directory, could be seen.
Diana thought about making Mr. Dean dance to her tune and felt a tingle of excitement at the prospect.
“And we’ll begin by throwing a ball,” Lady Regina said.
The eleven women who remained were introduced to one another, though nine of them were already acquainted, as they traveled in the same exalted circles. It was only Diana and a Miss Jarmyn who were unknown to the rest. Diana passed the directory around the room, and they divided the remainder of the names among themselves, each being assigned to contact two or three others. They excused Diana from having to contact anyone else, however, as she’d already done more than her fair share.
Diana was happy to relinquish control to the much more confident Lady Regina. She was still not sure that she completely grasped or even agreed with her plan; Diana didn’t understand how she would be avenging herself on Maxwell Dean by allowing him to woo her.
But that didn’t mean she didn’t find the prospect exciting, indeed.