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For years, lady Georgiana Evans had maintained that her goddaughter was the only reason she kept a house in London at all. At the beginning of each season, she sent for Lady Winifred Westerly to move into the tall, square house with many windows on upper Brook Street overlooking Grosvenor Square.

On the morning after her arrival at Grosvenor Square, Freddy, a trim energetic girl of twenty with tumbling, blond curls, came down from her room on the third floor of her godmother's elegant house and met a household in shambles. Maids in uniform ran up both front and back stairs with bundles of linen cradled in their arms while footmen carried larger furniture. Far away and almost inaudible under the din, someone knocked insistently at the front door. Freddy breasted the tide of servants to the entry hall and opened the front door overlooking the central square. "How do you do, Duchess."

A handsome woman in her late forties stood on the front step. She carried the remnants of her beauty in her face and in her bosom which would have done a much younger woman proud. Her lavender silk gown outlined a figure grown thick with age, but still graceful as a Grecian column. "Winifred dear, what have you done with Lady Evans' staff?"

Freddy looked behind her at the stream of scurrying people in livery. "I don't know. What?"

"I have been knocking these five minutes and more. I can't believe Lady Evans doesn't have so much as a scullery maid to answer her door for her."

Freddy tilted her head. "She has a butler. His name is Stipple. Has Dickie come with you?"

The visitor rolled her eyes. "So sorry dear. Richard will be along in a day or two. Is Lady Evans receiving this morning?"

"I should think so," Freddy said. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes dear, but be so good as to hold the door while I fetch the girls from the carriage. I had much rather leave them, but it wouldn't do."

Freddy stood in the doorway while her visitor descended the stairs to a gleaming white and gold barouche with a ducal signet of the house of Darke painted on the door. She spoke to the occupants, and a moment later, one after the other, a pair of girls somewhat younger than Freddy descended from the carriage. Arm in arm, they followed the older woman up the stairs.

In the entry, the duchess turned the girls toward Freddy. "Lady Winifred, may I introduce my stepdaughters, Ruby and Beryl Picket."

Beryl appeared to be the younger at about sixteen years. She was a tall blond, sturdy and strong with a common face, more handsome than pretty. She nodded to Freddy in a frank and artless style that was very attractive. Then her eye lit on the front of Freddy's gown. Her elbow jogged her sister.

Ruby, perhaps a year older than her sister, was a showy brunette, more delicate of form than Beryl. She recovered her balance and followed Beryl's gaze. She tittered.

Freddy looked down. A brown streak stained the white muslin. "Bother. I've spilled my chocolate again. Peebles will be furious."

The duchess' eyes snapped. "Girls, I have the honor of presenting you to my cousin, Lady Winifred Westerly. Her godmother, Lady Evans, was a good friend of my grandmother and is presently one of the most influential women in London. If you hope to gain entry to Almacks this season, I recommend you to behave with the utmost circumspection. Do take us up to her, Winifred dear. Ruby and Beryl will behave themselves."

Ruby flushed with consternation. Beryl looked scornful at the notion that someone with chocolate on her morning dress could possibly influence her future.

Freddy showed the visitors up the stairs. They had to stop halfway up and squeeze against the wall as a breathless housemaid scurried up the stairs with a linen-wrapped bundle clutched to her breast.

Beryl looked down her blunt nose. "What are they doing?" She stared at the servants scurrying all around her like ants.

Freddy glanced over her shoulder. "They are taking all the breakables to the attic."

Ruby said, "What for?"

Freddy fixed the girl with a lucid gaze. "Godmama commands them to do so every season."

She opened the parlor door and ushered her guests into a parlor stripped of clutter. Dents in the carpet showed where tables had been removed in haste. Half the chairs had disappeared as well, leaving a vast, barren space in the middle of the room. "Godmama, the Duchess Darke has come to call with her stepdaughters Chalcedony and Pearl."

Beryl gave Freddy a cold look, and Ruby opened her mouth. She had no chance to correct Freddy's error.

An elderly woman, so hunched and wrinkled with age she might have been a gnome in the straight-backed chair by the fire, let out a shriek. "Abominable. Inexcusable. Do you know what she has done now?"

Freddy said, "No."

Lady Evans snapped the pages of the Morning Post. "Come to a bad end. I said it time and time again. 'Come to a bad end,' I told her mother. Told your father, too. 'A mistake to marry her,' is what I said to him."

Freddy tilted her head. "You mean Mama."

"Of course I mean your mama. Listen to this. 'Regarding the violent demise of a certain Sir T at his home in cheapside two days ago, Bow Street has at last discovered a lead. It seems a certain Lady AW, whose friends call her The Diamond, but who is better known as The Scandal of London, was a friend of the baronet. She is known to have been blackmailing him and had good cause to wish him with the angels.' Did you ever hear such pap? Wish him with the angels indeed. And this blasted, simpering over initials and so on as though everyone were not perfectly aware who they are talking about. Hello, Laura. I hear you've remarried your husband. Mistake if you ask me. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing more ill-judged than divorcing him was marrying him the first time."

The duchess removed her gloves, and bent to kiss the old woman on her cheek. "Good afternoon, Georgiana. I must say, I cannot credit that Alice had anything to do with Sir Taverner's death. That just doesn't sound like Alice. Does it, Winifred dear?"

Freddy shook her head. "Mama is not usually a blackmailer."

Lady Evans snapped the paper again as if by abusing its pages, she could alter their contents. "It is only a matter of time until...Dog!"

Her shout caused Freddy and the duchess to snatch up their skirts and do a little skipping sidestep. Beryl and Ruby stared at them. Suddenly, Beryl gave a shriek, and kicked out with one foot. A small dog which had been poised like a three-legged dust mop at the hem of her skirt let out a yelp and scuttled under the chaise-longue.

Beryl clutched her skirt. "That animal has soiled my gown."

Lady Evans rang a bell by her elbow. "You'll be quicker next time. Which one are you? Chalcedony or Pearl?"

Debutants with better sense than Beryl Picket had been known to reach for their vinegrettes when Lady Evans addressed them directly. Beryl leveled an offended gaze at the old woman. "I'm Beryl Picket, Ma'am, and I want to know what you intend to do about my gown."

The old woman's eyes glittered with something that could have been either malice or amusement. "Beryl is it? Sounds fishy to me. It doesn't do to give people a wrong name. Leaves a bad impression. Now who are you?" She addressed her last remark to Ruby.

The duchess said, "This is my elder stepdaughter Ruby. I promised their father I would launch them on the ton when I came back to England."

Lady Evans snorted. "I suppose you want me to give them my favor, don't you. Well, your luck has failed. I will have to take Winifred away from London until this latest scandalbroth of Alice's blows over. I may as well resign myself to having Winifred on my hands until I die. Which won't be long if I'm required to live with her year round."

A maid carrying a bucket and rags knocked on the door. "You rang for me, my lady?"

Lady Evans waved her hand in the general direction of Beryl Picket. "Dog again."

"Yes my lady." The maid approached Beryl. "If you please, Miss, I'll sponge your gown for you."

Holding her damaged skirts away from her ankles, Beryl minced toward a chair and sat down. The maid knelt at her feet and began to apply warm water to the fabric with a damp rag.

Ruby sat down beside her sister.

The duchess said, "Now Georgiana, don't do anything in haste. You don't want to give credence to gossip, and that is just what you would do by fleeing to the country at the beginning of the season."

Lady Evans puckered her wrinkled face at the duchess. "I suppose you have a better idea?"

"Brave it out, of course. Your credit is high enough to carry it off."

"Pooh. What if I don't want to spend the rest of the season defending Alice Westerly's latest scandal? What is that dog barking for? Dog, quiet."

The brown mop of a dog glanced once at his mistress and returned to barking at the door, sounding very much like a lady trying to muffle a fit of sneezing.

Heavy footsteps thumped on the stairs as though someone were taking them two at a time. The parlor door opened. Dog scuttled back to his lair under the chaise, and an elegant blond gentleman with well-shaped lips and eyes looked into the room. "Well, here we all are. There was no one at the door so I let myself in. Georgiana Evans, you look splendid."

Lady Evans raised her cheek. "Mr. Cobb, since when have you run tame in my house?"

Mr. Cobb crossed the room and delivered a kiss to the withered face. "Since I read the morning paper. I note you have already seen it. What do you intend to do about it?" He nodded toward the battered paper at Lady Evans's feet.

The duchess snorted. "She is planning to cower in the country with Cousin Winifred until it blows over. Come and greet me properly, Artemis dear."

Artemis Cobb obliged the duchess with a respectful buss on the cheek. "You can't be serious, your grace. Is she serious, Georgiana?" He turned an inquiring eye to Lady Evans.

"I'm too old to sit about pretending to be deaf while scandalmongers whisper about me behind my back, and the good Lord knows Winifred's reputation won't stand the strain."

"That reminds me. Delightful to see you again, Lady Winifred. You are in looks as always." Mr. Cobb awarded Freddy a wink and a bow over her hand.

Freddy regarded him gravely. "Have you come to tell us about Mama's adventure?"

Lady Evans stared at her goddaughter. "Winifred, did I hear you call murder and blackmail an adventure?"

Freddy furrowed her brow. "Or did I mean misadventure?"

Artemis Cobb snapped his fingers. "I did have something to say on the subject. Do you ladies care to hear the details that did not appear in the paper this morning?"

Lady Evans tossed her aged head. "We do not."

Laura Darke frowned at Lady Evans. "Yes we do, Artemis dear. Do tell."

Mr. Cobb bowed. "You can imagine my horror when, upon perusing the morning papers, I discovered the unfortunate misadventure of my good friend, Lady Alice Westerly."

Lady Evans sniffed.

"Naturally, I did not believe for a moment she had blackmailed anybody."

Freddy nodded. "It isn't like her."

"The murder charge, however, I felt bound to investigate. So I popped down to Bow Street and had a talk with the inspector general who's a decent chap and an acquaintance of mine. Here's what he told me.

"You all know that on the night before last, around two o' clock, a certain Sir Taverner of Cheapside was found by his servants in his study in a state of advanced mortification. In short, he was dead. Shot in the chest and left to bleed to death."

His listeners acknowledged general knowledge of this fact.

He went on. "When informed of the murder, his wife mounted the first post out of the village near their country estate and presented herself to the Runners. She had in her possession a letter addressed to her by Lady Alice Westerly. In this letter, Lady Alice revealed certain examples of immoral conduct on the part of Sir Taverner, and accused him of cheapness and a parsimonious nature. The letter also mentions specifically, that she is not attempting to blackmail anybody, but felt morally obliged as a fellow female to inform Lady Taverner of her husband's behavior."

Freddy said, "That does sound like Mama."

Mr. Cobb winked at her. "On the basis of this letter, Lady Taverner feels sure Lady Westerly had a hand in murdering Sir Taverner, and she has retained the services of the runners to prove it."

The duchess nodded. "Oh dear, I have not kept track. Was Sir Taverner?" She raised her eyebrows meaningfully.

Cobb nodded. "They were quarreling last time I saw her. He was tiring of her, and she was complaining of her bills which he was refusing to pay."

Lady Evans swatted at him with the newspaper. "Enough. I won't have you speaking of such things in front of Winifred. You ought to be wary of his talking so in the presence of your stepdaughters, Laura. You will never get rid of them if they learn to natter on such topics."

Beryl and Ruby cast their eyes down to their laps in a display of ostentatious modesty.

The duchess waved a negligent hand. "The girls know what is proper, and it will not hurt them to know some of the realities of a woman's lot."

Freddy beamed at Artemis Cobb. "Have you met the duchess' stepdaughters Opal and...Dog!"

Mr. Cobb executed a light hop step and a brisk side kick, and the villainous canine let out an outraged yap.

"Ha. Missed, you blighter. Sorry, Lady Winifred, I believe you were presenting me to the Miss Pickets."

The duchess intervened. "My stepdaughters Beryl and Ruby, Mr. Cobb."

Ruby eyed Mr. Cobb from head to toe, took in his gleaming boots and tightly fitted coat. Her eyes glittered. She stood and curtsied. "How do you do, sir."

Beryl stiffly indicated the sponging process going at her feet. She said, "I beg your pardon. I cannot rise."

Cobb glanced down at the maid working diligently over Beryl's hem. "Perfectly understand. You've made the acquaintance of Dog."

Mr. Cobb turned to the duchess with an astonished expression. "But Laura, how do you keep your composure with two such beautiful, young rivals in your house?"

Laura Darke's lips twisted humorously. "My husband informs me I should be grateful I am already married and need not compete with young women anymore."

Cobb laughed. "Darke is teasing you, Duchess. It is the young ladies who should be grateful you are married. Now your lovely stepdaughters may have the field to themselves."

Lady Evans snorted. "By rights, your tongue should be tied in knots from trying to flatter everybody in the same breath, boy."

The duchess helped herself to a chair. "I must agree, Artemis dear, you have gone quite blue in the face."

Freddy tilted her head and examined Mr. Cobb's handsome features.

Laura Darke said, "Not literally, Winifred dear. More to the point, Artemis dear, I wish you will tell Georgiana she must not on any account leave the city."

Cobb nodded. "Absolutely the last thing you ought to do. Don't let them see your heels."

"You are all mad," Lady Evans snapped.

The duchess brightened. "Then you will stay?"

Lady Evans sniffed. "I don't know how I can expect to find Winifred a husband with this hanging over our heads, but I do hate to turn tail and run."

The duchess dimpled. "I shouldn't worry about finding Cousin Winifred a parti this season. I've a feeling she will satisfy you at last."

Lady Evans frowned and gave her a sharp glance. Her eyes moved to Artemis Cobb who was in the process of nodding and winking at Freddy. She stared until he turned his attention back to her. Lady Evans said, "After five years on the marriage market, I find I can't share your optimism."

The duchess said, "Speaking of which, Almacks holds its assembly tomorrow evening. If I can get vouchers for the girls, perhaps we might bring Winifred along. That would be the perfect thing to settle gossip and show the ton you are not driven to cover by Alice's latest contretemps."

"Think you can get those girls into Almacks?" Lady Evans said.

The duchess smiled. "My dear Georgiana, I think with your assistance, we might convince a few of the patronesses to stand behind us. After all, it's not as if the girls were not well connected on their aunt's side, and I am a duchess again--which will be considerable help."

Lady Evans scrunched her face into a mass of bad-tempered wrinkles. "I see what you're up to now. You want me to help you get these girls fired off. As if I hadn't got enough trouble with Winifred here." She cast a sharp glance at Artemis Cobb.

The duchess shook her head. "It's not as bad as all that. You need to make a few calls today anyway to show you intend to remain in town, and the social lionesses are the most important people to convince. And you won't find that my two girls are any more trouble than dear Winifred alone."

Lady Evans threw the last of her paper aside. "That's quite enough of that. You might as well come out and say it."

The duchess, Cobb and Freddy all stared at her. Beryl and Ruby Picket looked out of the corners of their eyes while trying to pretend indifference.

Lady Evans glared at Artemis Cobb. "Out with it, boy. Enough skulking around my back. I won't stand for it, make no doubt. Winifred is to marry a title, and that's the end of it."

The duchess said, "Georgiana dear, what are you ranting about?"

"Wouldn't melt butter in your mouth, would you, Laura? I don't miss the signs. You say Winifred will be no trouble to me this season. You say I'm sure to get her off my hands this season. Mr. Cobb shows up kissing everybody except Winifred. Treats her with perfect propriety, but I've caught him winking and nodding at her every time he thinks my back is turned. Winifred's gone and made a secret engagement, and you knew about it all along."

The duchess flushed. "Oh dear. I didn't think you would guess so soon. We wanted to break it to you gradually. But really, Georgiana dear, surely it's not so bad as all that. They're very much in love, and it's a brilliant match for her."

Lady Evans stared. "A brilliant match? He's a wastrel, barely acceptable in society. Winifred's reputation is none too steady as it is without her marrying a notorious dilettante."

The duchess shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "True, Richard has had some unfortunate adventures, but he didn't mean any harm, and his motives were misunderstood."

Lady Evans squinted her wrinkled face together. "Laura, what are you talking about?"

The duchess hesitated. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Winifred getting herself engaged to marry Mr. Cobb."

A moment of shocked silence followed.

Cobb broke the stillness with a laugh. "Georgiana, how could you suspect me of such an underhanded dealing? Lady Winifred isn't engaged to me."

Lady Evans turned her basilisk eyes from one person to another. "Then what are you winking at her for? And what is Laura talking about?"

Artemis Cobb cleared his throat and glanced at Freddy for permission to speak.

She pretended she did not see him.

He sighed. "The truth is I'm standing in for my friend Danleigh."

Lady Evans glared at the duchess. "Your son?"

Laura Darke nodded.

Cobb continued. "Lady Winifred has pledged herself to marry Richard Ansley, Marquis of Danleigh."

---

Lady Evans glared at Freddy. "Did I or did I not instruct you to refuse any offer of marriage made to you by any member of that family?"

Freddy gazed at her godmother. "You did."

"And?"

Freddy tilted her head. "And what?"

"And you deliberately and consciously disobeyed me is what. I should like an explanation."

Freddy considered. "I decided I had better accept him after all."

"Against my express wishes and instructions?"

Freddy nodded. "That's right."

Lady Evans threw up her hands. "It's out of the question."

The duchess leaned forward. "Now Georgiana, be reasonable. They are very much in love, and what is so far wrong with Richard? He has a substantial fortune of his own, and he will fall heir to his father's title and fortune, although I would prefer he should not do so for a very long time."

Lady Evans' wrinkled face pinched up in a squint. "You may not have noticed, Duchess, but Winifred is...well, not to put too fine a point on it, she is not quite right."

Cobb stiffened. "I feel obliged to protest, ma'am. If Danleigh were here, he would take very serious offense to hear anyone speak of his intended in those terms."

Lady Evans sniffed. "And if he did, then what? Is he going to box with me? He can hardly deny that Winifred is considered odd by most of the ton and positively half-witted by the rest."

Cobb did not relax from his stiffly formal posture. "I believe he would inform you that the ton is mistaken."

"Oh stop puffing yourself up like an offended rooster. I'm loyal to my own kin, and there's nothing wrong with Winifred she couldn't fix herself if she would pay a little attention. But that's not how the world sees it. And what do you think they will say when 'Flighty Freddy' marries 'Deadly Danleigh'? I shudder to think of it."

The duchess winced at her son's nickname. "Since when did Georgiana Evans ever care what the rest of the world said?"

Lady Evans glared. "Since I had a goddaughter to bring out and marry. And you had better bend an ear yourself if you want to get that pair off your hands. It matters, believe me. It matters when it's your girl losing her chances for a good match because she's considered fast or odd or just not quite the thing."

"Be practical, Georgiana dear. If Richard is offering to marry her, your troubles are over."

"Only if I die before Winifred has daughters old enough to come out."

"Now you're just being perverse, Georgiana. You know it's a brilliant match. If there are obstacles, we'll overcome them."

Lady Evans grumped in her seat. "Brilliant it may be, but I'm not sure it's suitable. I've my eye on a very steady gentlemen who would provide Winifred with a stabilizing influence and keep her from running off on her wild fits and starts."

The duchess stopped. She tilted her head. "Has a fortune, does he?"

Lady Evans shrugged her humped shoulders. "Not quite up to Winifred's inheritance, but she ran through all the eligibles in that class years ago."

"Good looking?" the duchess asked.

"He'll do."

"Young?"

"If you must know, he's Evelyn Montmorecy, the grandson of my old school friend, Lucy Montmorecy. He's just sold out of the army, and come home to take up his father's estates. He inherited a modest fortune, and he'll be glad to add Winifred's money to his own."

"Georgiana, I'm surprised at you. Not even a title?"

The old woman drew herself up. "He's the relative of a friend of mine. He has no need of a title." She glanced away.

"You should be ashamed of yourself. If Winifred wants my advice, I'll tell her to insist on having Richard. At least he doesn't have to be bribed to marry her."

Freddy said, "I am going to marry Dickie."

Lady Evans glared at everyone around her. "Don't count on getting my approval."

Freddy gazed limpidly back at her godmother and said, "I wonder how long it will take to get vouchers for Amber and Tourmaline?"

The duchess made a little sound of dismay and clapped her palm to her cheek. "That is right, and here I've sat for more than half an hour when you have your own calls to make this afternoon. I must be losing my wits."

Lady Evans snorted. "If you ever had 'em."

"Be nice, Georgiana dear. I have a thought. Why shouldn't you join the girls and me. I should think we have many of the same people to speak to today. Cousin Winifred, would you like to go with us? We'll pay a call on Maria Sefton and some of the others. You can get to know Beryl and Ruby."

Freddy scowled and opened her mouth to reply.

Mr. Cobb jabbed her ribs with his elbow.

She frowned at him.

He said, "Lady Winifred is pining to go. I think I'll join you myself, in fact."

Lady Evans rang her bell. "Have your way then. Send your driver home, Laura. We'll take my carriage."

The duchess shepherded her stepdaughters out to Lady Evans' carriage. She said over her shoulder to Lady Evans, "We will call on Maria Sefton. Emily Cowper hasn't spoken to me since I divorced the duke, but I'll beard Sally Jersey if I have to, and if I toady to Princess Esterhazy and the girls are very courteous, she might be willing to help. I think we ought to avoid Countess Lieven entirely; she hates Cousin Alice like poison."

Lady Evans hoisted her withered figure into the carriage with the assistance of two footmen and an attentive Artemis Cobb. "We'll see Lady Castlereagh as well. She has a soft spot for Winifred, and I can deal with Mrs. Cowper. Lady Jersey will cooperate out of respect for me. That will be enough without the countess."

Their grand plans came to dust. At door after door, the party climbed from the carriage, mounted the stairs at the fronts of grand houses and sent their cards in only to be informed that the occupants were not at home. At Lady Castlereagh's fashionable doorstep, they thanked the supercilious butler and returned to the street where three carriages stood beside their own, the drivers patiently waiting for their passengers to emerge from the house.

Lady Evans shuffled over to the carriage. "Not at home indeed. That is Lady Midgevale's carriage behind us. She's probably peering out the windows at us this minute and gossiping with La Castlereagh about my fall from grace."

Artemis Cobb assisted the ladies into the vehicle one after the other. He leaned his elbow on the window frame. "Well ladies, you've had your try. Are you willing to put yourselves in my hands?"

Lady Evans scowled at him. "What have you got in your mind?"

"We haven't called on Sally Jersey. It's clear the patronesses have all heard about Lady Alice's troubles, and are going to cut you. But Sally is a friend of mine, and I think she'll let me in--particularly as she knows I am intimate with Lady Alice as well. Let me ride ahead and soften her up for you. When you present your cards, I'll see to it she invites you up."

The duchess leaned out her window and gave Mr. Cobb a blinding smile. "Will it work, Artemis dear? If it did, I would be so grateful."

He bowed. "Damsels in distress are my stock in trade, Duchess. I'll see you there then, shall I?"

The carriage lurched out into the rattle and roar of traffic. The ladies quickly drew up the windows and shut out the cacophony.

The duchess sighed. "I confess I had underestimated the difficulty."

Beryl raised her blond head and said reasonably, "The problem, Mama, is that Lady Winifred and Lady Evans are related to this Lady Alice person. Ruby and I have nothing to do with that. Why should we suffer for it?"

Ruby nodded. "It's not fair."

The duchess tightened her lips and said, "First of all, young ladies who have not yet come out do not speak to their elders unless they are first spoken to. Second, if you wish to make an advantageous match in London, you must attend Almacks. In order to attend Almacks, you require vouchers. In order to receive vouchers, you must get the approval of one or more of the patronesses. In order to get the approval of the patronesses, you must be of a certain social status. You, Beryl and Ruby, have no social status to speak of. Therefore, you require the sponsorship of those who do have it. Since I remarried the duke, my credit is much improved, but still not enough to entirely overcome the memory of my divorce from him. Lady Evans and Lady Winifred are among my few acquaintance who have both the social credit to support me and the will to do it. I suggest you make an effort to mind your manners."

Ruby withdrew into her seat with a blush, but Beryl raised her chin. "Ruby and I have been out for over a year now."

Lady Evans snorted. "In the West Indies, I take it. Won't wash. Out in Jamaica is not out in London."

"Exactly," the duchess said. "Don't try to address London society with the same freedom you were used to at home, or you will never see the inside of Almack's."

Beryl subsided and regarded Freddy as though she blamed her for the entire predicament. After a moment, her eyes took a sly light. "I hope our brother Richard returns to London soon. I thought him so charming the first time we met."

Ruby frowned and stared at her sister as if she had run mad.

Beryl whispered in her ear.

Ruby snickered. She glanced at Freddy and said, "Yes indeed, I was prodigious fond of him. He promised to dance with me at the first party we attended."

Freddy ran her finger lightly over the crescent-shaped scar that marred the white skin above her left eye and gazed out the window.

The duchess slitted her eyes at her stepdaughters. "As well he should. I instructed him myself to dance attendance on both of you and see to it you come into fashion. Richard is a good boy and will cheerfully sacrifice his comfort."

Beryl smiled like a cat. "I, for one, am grateful. Brother Richard is so handsome and dashing, so fashionable, I feel sure Ruby and I will take at once."

Freddy tilted her head. "Are you sure you met him?"

The duchess laughed. "For shame, Cousin Winifred, Richard is everything Beryl has said he is."

Freddy gave the duchess a lucid glance and said nothing.

The carriage pulled up at the front of another fashionable residence. Freddy looked out the window. "There is Mr. Cobb's horse."

The ladies dismounted from the carriage and presented their cards at the door. A stiff footman took the cards on a silver salver and left the ladies in the hall. He returned in a moment to inform them the lady was receiving.

The sitting room was above stairs. Artemis Cobb rose from his seat as they entered, and came forward to take Lady Evans' hands and kiss her cheek. "Georgiana, I was just speaking of you to Sarah. You must not have heard the dreadful news about Lady Alice."

Lady Evans snorted. "Clearly, I haven't."

The duchess lifted her cheek for his salute. "What has happened to Cousin Alice, Artemis dear?"

Beryl Picket stared at them all. "Why we all heard she..."

Fortunately, she was cut off before she finished her thought. Freddy had fallen behind the others, picking her way among the fragile tables with their loads of breakable ornaments that cluttered the room. At one particularly chancy turn, a three-legged Georgian table bearing a mock Chinese vase stood a little too close to an Egyptian style chair which for some reason supported a heart-shaped petit-pointe pillow. Freddy lost her balance, trod on the back of Beryl's gown and toppled against the girl, interrupting whatever she had been about to say.

Beryl yelped and landed safely on the Egyptian chair. Freddy tried to regain her balance, took a few ragged steps and would have measured her length on the braided rugs on the floor except for Artemis Cobb. He said, "Whoops," and caught her around the waist.

He set her on her feet, bowed over her hand and said, "Lady Winifred isn't it? You bear a strong resemblance to your mother."

Freddy said, "Mama likes to say we are sisters."

Lady Sarah Jersey looked very slightly put out. "How nice to see you, Lady Winifred, Lady Evans, Duchess." She seemed to choke slightly on the last title.

The duchess smiled. "Dear Lady Jersey, how good to see you again. I haven't seen you since before your elopement. How is the dear earl?"

Artemis Cobb cleared his throat. "Laura, are you going to present these two charming ladies to us? They are your stepdaughters are they not?"

"Oh yes, the girls. Lady Jersey, may I present to you my stepdaughters? This is Beryl, and Miss Ruby Picket is the elder. Girls, make your bows to Lady Jersey."

Beryl rose gingerly from her seat, and joined Ruby in a curtsey. "How do you do," they murmured together.

Lady Jersey said, "Are you bringing them out this season, Duchess?"

Laura Darke nodded. "As a favor to their father. He wanted them presented to society."

Lady Jersey raked Beryl and Ruby with a glance. "Well, they're handsome girls. You ought to find them satisfactory matches. What are their connections?"

The duchess waved Beryl and Ruby to chairs on the edge of the room. She herself sat near the fire.

Freddy started to cross the room behind the Picket sisters, but Lady Jersey, evidently in terror for her furniture, stopped her. "Do sit here, Lady Winifred." She indicated a very sturdy chair with no cushions to stain or tear.

Some small time passed while the duchess related her stepdaughters' antecedents.

One gentleman uncle, two clergyman's daughter Aunts and a distant cousin with a baronetcy later, Lady Jersey leaned forward. "I confess, Georgiana, I was never so surprised as when Alvin brought up your card. I would have thought you would be halfway to Yorkshire by now. Mr. Cobb here has just been telling me about Alice Westerly's latest scandal."

Lady Evans snorted. "You'll have to refresh my memory. I don't keep track of all Alice's adventures."

"Misadventures," Freddy murmured.

Lady Jersey said, "But it was in the papers this morning, and I know you never fail to read the paper."

"Dog," Freddy said thoughtfully.

Lady Evans glanced at her goddaughter and hunched herself stubbornly into her chair. "Didn't read it this morning. Blasted Dog got hold of it."

Lady Jersey evidently knew Dog. She scowled. "Well, you must ask Mr. Cobb to tell you all about it, then. He is a fount of gossip."

Mr. Cobb related anew the details of his investigation. The visiting ladies greeted the tale with cries of consternation and dismay.

"Infamous," Lady Evans pronounced. "I wash my hands of her."

The duchess shook her head sadly. "I have long thought poor Alice was meant for a bad end. Poor Cousin Winifred, you must be worried sick for your mama."

Freddy blinked at her. "Must I? I suppose I must. Poor Mama. Perhaps they will hang her."

"Surely not." Lady Evans glared at Freddy.

The duchess shook her head. "Thank goodness we came to you, Lady Jersey. We might have gone for days with not an inkling as to what was going on under our very noses. So embarrassing when we found out."

Lady Jersey glanced from the duchess to Lady Evans. "What will you do now? Are you going to leave the city?"

The duchess turned to Lady Evans. "I don't see what else we can do. The girls will be so disappointed."

Lady Evans snorted. "I haven't decided. I've Winifred to think of, and she's a deal too long in the tooth to wait until next season to catch a husband--assuming I live that long in the first place. But I don't know how folks will take it. There may be nothing else for it, but to flee to the country."

The duchess put on a great show of winking and nodding. "Yes indeed. But think, Georgiana dear, you have every reason to suppose Cousin Winifred will make a very eligible match this season." She added another wink for emphasis. "Perhaps you really ought to come to the country with me and the girls."

Lady Evans squinted her wrinkled face into a mask of contemplation. "I had forgotten that. Perhaps you are right, Laura."

Lady Jersey followed this discussion with avid eyes. She now sat forward in her chair. "But you can't be serious. Leave the city just as the season is beginning? That would only make the situation worse, set gossip flying with no one to temper it with the truth. No, I can't advise it."

The duchess frowned. "Do you think so, Lady Jersey. I must confess, you do make me reconsider. I suppose we might brave it out at that."

Lady Evans shook her head. "Better let the storm blow over is what I say. Winifred and I will be very comfortable in Bath or Brighton. Much more comfortable than staying in the city when no one will see us or invite us anywhere."

Lady Jersey snorted. "Nonsense. No one will cut you on Alice Westerly's account."

Lady Evans shook her head. "We will consider the matter, won't we Winifred. We will consider. Thank you, Lady Jersey, for your advice and for your information. We must be going lest we overstay our welcome."

The duchess rose to her feet. "Indeed, we have stayed too long already, but we are so grateful to you, Sally, for your help."

The ladies took their leave and descended the stairs to the hallway. As they left the house, Ruby Picket said, "But you didn't even ask her for the vouchers. How will we get into Almacks?"

A footman hurried down the hall behind them. "Excuse me. Wait a moment, your ladyships. Her ladyship has sent me to bring you these." He held out to them the silver salver on which lay two slips of paper.

The duchess displayed them to her stepdaughters. "Voila. Vouchers for Almack's. You must learn to have faith in your elders, my dears."

---

A parade of gay carriages blocked King street and St. James as they did every Wednesday evening during the season. Lady Evans, Freddy and Artemis Cobb waited for over half an hour to be let out at the front of London's Seventh Heaven.

"Lady Evans, Cousin Winifred dear." Laura, Duchess Darke waved to them as her own white and gold carriage rolled away from the door.

Behind her, Beryl and Ruby Picket stood in white muslin gowns. Ruby had a hectic, excited color to her cheeks. Beryl eyed the undistinguished brickwork and pedimented, Ionic doorcase of the building before them.

The duchess met Freddy with a nervous clasp of hands. "I am in such a temper, I can't tell you. I sent a messenger to Richard and Ashley begging them to join us this evening, but I have heard nothing of them, and I fear they are not coming."

Freddy brightened. "Dickie will be here, though he is usually late."

The duchess rolled her eyes and laughed a little breathlessly. "For that matter, there is nothing Ashley loves better than to gallop in at the last minute and effect a dramatic rescue."

Freddy frowned.

Laura Darke glanced sidelong at her. "I am sure he will leave the horse outside on this occasion."

Mr. Willis, the guardian of the hallowed portal, examined their tickets and passed them through with a nod.

At first sight of the assembly rooms, Beryl and Ruby stopped short and stared around them in disappointment and disbelief. Ruby said, "Is this all?"

Six undeniably fine windows with round arches graced a huge spare room already crowded with people. Debutantes in white clustered in little bouquets about the room. Their chaperones in bright turbans and plumes haggled in clutches of two and three over whose charge was the prettiest, the most charming, the most accomplished, the most likely to form a brilliant match this season. Gentlemen in somber colors glided back and forth from chaperones to girls and back to the pool of similarly clad males hugging the wall abutting King street.

Beryl looked around her and said with contempt, "The Cutters' plantation in Jamaica had a better ballroom. I don't see why we went to so much fuss to get in here."

The duchess looked exasperated. "Beryl, you are too inclined to judge by appearances. Almack's may look dreary and unexceptional, but if you wish to marry well, it is essential to be seen here."

Beryl subsided, but her contemptuous expression said she supposed her elders to be all about in their heads.

As the party edged further into the room, it became plain that Lady Alice's contretemps had become common knowledge. Ladies turned aside as they passed, and tittered behind their hands. There was a flurry among the brightly-colored chaperones as those who knew the gossip hastened to inform those who didn't, and the newly enlightened were as quick as their sisters to turn their faces away from Lady Evans' party and pretend not to have seen them.

Lady Evans called a halt. "Stop here, Laura. There's no point in circling the room and giving everybody the chance to cut us." She snorted. "Look at Mrs. Swallow. Think her girl would have got in here without a word from me to La Castlereagh? And Lady Thoroughgood. Went into debt to the moneylenders to outfit that sheep-faced daughter of hers. I got her out of trouble and found her a husband for the chit, a perfectly good gentleman, too: fit for Winifred, only she scared him off. And there's Lady Torrance. She lost twenty pounds to me in silver loo last month, never paid it, and there she is just as proud as the rest of 'em, pretending I'm a fly on the wall. Well, there are a few here who will find themselves wishing they had paid their debts in full."

Artemis Cobb bowed to the ladies. "I'll leave you to your plotting, Georgiana. So long as I stand with you, I'm as invisible as you are. So I'll take myself off."

Lady Evans glowered. "Deserting the sinking ship are you?"

He winced. "Georgiana, I'm astonished you could think it. Damsels in distress are my particular specialty as I've told you before, and I would be deeply remiss if I left my best friend's fiancée in such a difficulty."

Lady Evans scowled.

Cobb stooped over her hand. "And so I am off to rouse my fellow gentlemen to a display of chivalry and to charm, if I can, some of the more influential ladies in the turban and plume brigade." He bowed to them all and strode away.

The duchess chewed her lip and turned to her stepdaughters. "Girls, I won't hesitate to tell you we are in a fix. If we leave now, we will never be allowed back in, but we are at the mercy of our friends. You have no one to dance with, no one to talk to except ourselves, and all eyes are on us, prying for any sign of weakness. We must not give it. I want to see you both smile. You will continue to smile all evening as if you had not a care in the world, as if you didn't notice that you were being cut, as if you were having a marvelous time and enjoying everything. Do you understand?"

Ruby whined. "I want to go home."

Beryl shifted from foot to foot. "I don't see why we should stay."

The duchess slitted her eyes. "Smile, or I will pack you off to your aunt's house in the country."

Ruby's eyes widened. "But you promised Papa..."

"All my promises will be for nothing if you don't smile."

Beryl was the first to paste a smile across her lips. It faltered a moment, but she steadied it, and her features froze in place.

Ruby looked from her younger sister to her stepmother and then to Freddy who wore a vague smile herself. She scowled a moment, then with a visible effort, generated a brittle smirk.

The duchess inspected the results. "Very good. Now converse among yourselves. Titter if you can manage it."

The Picket sisters exchanged looks.

"I'll get you started, my dears. Notice Lady Fairleigh across the room from us. Don't you think that gown makes her look as though she had a pair of terriers fighting under the bodice?"

In spite of their discomfort, her stepdaughters turned in the direction indicated.

Lady Evans and the duchess withdrew slightly. The wrinkled, old woman said, "I suppose you think it's wise to set those two up against the polite world."

The duchess slitted her eyes. "Hens will always peck to death the weakest of their number. I don't intend for my girls to be pecked."

"So they're your girls now, are they?"

The duchess laughed, a little shamefaced. "When they are in trouble, they are. When they are well in hand with their situation, I lay no claim to them."

Lady Evans snorted. "Know what you mean." She glanced darkly at Freddy.

Artemis Cobb returned with a pair of gentlemen and bowed to Lady Evans and the duchess. "I say, Laura, Georgiana, I've met a couple of my friends. This is Viscount Pullingcroft on my left."

The young gentleman of eighteen or so bowed nervously to the ladies.

"And on my right is Captain Bradshaw of the Hussars."

Captain Bradshaw wore a mustache and side whiskers. He favored the ladies with a courtly bow.

Lady Evans and the duchess exchanged glances.

Artemis Cobb said, "Pullingcroft has just expressed an urgent desire to dance with Miss Picket, and as soon as he said it, Captain Bradshaw here announced a long-standing infatuation for Lady Winifred. Naturally, I could not refuse to introduce them in the hope that you would show them favor and allow them to dance with the young ladies."

The gentlemen fidgeted nervously.

Ruby Picket said, "I couldn't possibly dance if my sister is not to be asked."

Artemis Cobb turned. "Why as to that, I had hoped Miss Beryl would favor me with a dance herself. I confess I discouraged a number of rivals for fear she would be too besieged to save me a dance."

The gentlemen escorted the ladies out on the floor for the quadrille which opened the dancing for the evening. Freddy and Beryl were in the first set. Ruby in the second. It was a strange, hostile dance. The Picket sisters acquitted themselves well, and Freddy escaped treading on Captain Bradshaw's toes, but the ladies in the set with them danced with hard, offended faces and acknowledged them with reluctance.

When the set ended, Captain Bradshaw was tense and sweating.

Artemis Cobb slapped him on the back. "Good show, Bradshaw. You're a soldier to the marrow."

Bradshaw managed a ghastly smile.

"Now just take Lady Winifred on a turn around the room will you old chap?"

Bradshaw looked battle-weary, but he offered his arm to Freddy.

If anything, their temerity in dancing had raised the level of animosity toward them. Instead of the cut direct, several people gave them the cut sublime, gazing past them with blissful disregard.

Captain Bradshaw cleared his throat. "How do you enjoy London this season, Lady Winifred?"

Freddy regarded him with lucid eyes. "I try to pretend I am not in it."

The captain looked alarmed. "I beg your pardon?"

"For what?"

"Nothing," Bradshaw murmured.

They made a gentle circuit of the room and came back to Lady Evans and the duchess.

Lord Pullingcroft's face was full of concern for Ruby who leaned heavily on Mr. Cobb's arm. She was white and shaking.

Beryl wore an expression of astonished outrage. "She tripped me on purpose."

The duchess said, "Who tripped you dear?"

Artemis Cobb said, "Miss Margeuritte Smythe-Sandlemonk. If she is not careful, she'll find she has a reputation for clumsiness."

The duchess smiled brightly. "Smile girls. I'm so glad you enjoyed yourselves. Smile, I said. There is Lady Pullingcroft."

Lord Pullingcroft jumped and looked guilty.

"Steady boy," Cobb said. "Let her come to us."

The Picket sisters manufactured bright smiles, though Ruby's bordered on the hysterical.

A vast, turbaned woman in gold brocade swept down on the little party. She ignored everyone except her son the viscount. "Donald, I have been looking for you this past half hour."

The duchess said, "Good evening, Lady Pullingcroft. Is your daughter here? I should think she would be about the age of my girls by now."

Lady Pullingcroft's horsey face tightened, but she gave no other sign of hearing the duchess. "Donald, I am very anxious to introduce you to the daughter of my good friend Lady Wallace. Christine is a charming girl."

Lord Pullingcroft wavered and looked to Artemis Cobb for support.

Lady Evans snorted. "Lady Christine. Good choice, Veronica. She's got a fortune from her father alone. And there's that uncle who dotes on her. Girl could have ten-thousand a year easily in a few years. Better snap her up quick. No telling what her family would do if they heard what the late Lord Pullingcroft did with his family fortune."

Lady Pullingcroft winced and went pale.

Lady Evans smiled thinly. "But then, who is to tell her? I suppose there aren't many beside myself who know how nearly under the hatches you are."

Lady Pullingcroft shuddered. Without another word, she laid hold of her son's arm and pulled him away.

Artemis Cobb sighed. "A noble effort, Georgiana. Might have worked, too, had Lady Pullingcroft an ounce more imagination."

Captain Bradshaw cleared his throat. "If you ladies will excuse me, I have another engagement awaiting me. Lady Winifred, it was a pleasure."

Freddy tilted her head. "It was?"

Bradshaw retreated in disorder.

Lady Evans snorted. "Winifred, will you please do me the kindness of pulling your wits together? We are in the midst of a social calamity."

The duchess sighed. "Thank you, Artemis dear, for finding the girls partners. I don't know how you managed it."

Lady Evans said, "That has only made matters worse. Now society is angry as well as offended."

Cobb shrugged. "Pullingcroft hasn't yet learned to notice rumor and gossip, and he genuinely wanted to meet Miss Ruby. And Bradshaw is a friend of mine. He owed me a favor. Though to be fair to him, he has a bit of the romantic in his soul, and he didn't mind playing at knight errant."

"You're a miracle, Artemis dear."

He grimaced with his well-shaped lips. "I think that is all the miracle I have in my pocket this evening. I'll make another round in a moment and see if I can scare up dinner partners for you all."

He was gone for over an hour during which time the ladies stood and talked among themselves with brittle smiles on their faces and a wide circle of empty space about them. Beryl's commentary on the clothes and style of the other debutantes had taken on a hysterical edge, and Ruby had never quite recovered from the rudeness of strangers on the dance floor. Two dance sets formed without them, a country dance and a minuet. The Picket girls pretended lack of interest in the dancing, but their eyes glittered when they turned toward the dance floor.

At last Artemis Cobb returned alone from canvassing the gentlemen for dance partners. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, ladies, I have called my last favor, and my silver tongue is dulled to tin."

The duchess sighed. "Never mind, Artemis dear, have you a pocket watch with you? What is the time?"

Cobb pulled a gold watch from its pocket in his skin-tight pantaloons. "Quarter of eleven."

The duchess shook her head. "So late. I think we may as well give up hope of Ashley and Richard."

Lady Evans squinted her face into a knot of wrinkles. "What good would they be likely to do anyone is what I want to know?"

The duchess smiled crookedly. "I don't know exactly, but the situation is quite beyond me, and if nothing else, Ashley does give wonderful setdowns. I should love to see Lady Pullingcroft's face when he looked down his nose at her in that way that makes you feel like something from beneath a rotted log."

"Dickie will be here," Freddy murmured.

The duchess looked up. "Oh, if that is not the last thing we need. Lady Castlereagh is crossing the room, and from her face, I doubt she means to assist us. Everybody smile."

The patroness of Almack's wore a turban of blue silk surmounted by half a dozen plumes of lighter blue. Her gown would have been more appropriate to the hunting field than a ballroom. A mass of gold frogging ornamented the red wool, and epaulettes surmounted the shoulders. She met a bevy of smiling faces from Lady Evans' grimace at one end to Ruby Picket's hectic smirk at the other. She raked her eyes across the party. "How do you do, Lady Evans. Duchess." She seemed to choke over the last word.

The duchess looked concerned. "We are very well, Lady Castlereagh. And you? You seem to have a touch of the croup. I hope it is not severe."

"I am very well thank you. Ladies, I regret to inform you that a mistake has been made."

The duchess raised her brows. "A mistake? I can't think what you mean."

"I mean that I have just spoken to Lady Jersey. She has explained to me that her footman mistakenly supplied you with vouchers which were intended for the use of the Fielding girls. It is all most embarrassing, I realize, but you will understand that we who have in our care the sanctity of our club can't allow even such a trivial error to pass our vigilance. If you care to call on myself or one of my fellow patronesses tomorrow, I am sure we can supply you with the correct vouchers."

The duchess stood frozen in place. No one moved. Freddy faced the doors from the stairway apparently oblivious to the conversation behind her.

Lady Castlereagh nodded her satisfaction. "Just so. I am sure Willis at the doors will help you to find your wraps." She turned and glided away in her peculiar costume.

Suddenly, all eyes in the room were fixed on them in delighted curiosity to see how they would react to being ignominiously thrust from the doors of the Holiest of Holies.

Lady Evans snorted. "Call on her tomorrow indeed. If we were fool enough to take her at her word, we would find her to be not-at-home."

Ruby Picket went white, then grey and swayed on her feet.

Artemis Cobb caught her arm and supported her.

The duchess hissed through smiling lips. "Smile, Ruby, and don't you dare faint. That would humiliate us beyond redemption." She turned to Artemis Cobb with a desperate question on her lips.

He displayed the watch. "Five after eleven. They are too late. The doors are closed."

The duchess slumped. "We are beaten. We shall have to go."

Freddy raised her head and smiled. "There he is," she said confidently.

The doors of the ballroom opened. From those closest to the door, a murmur rose. The crowd parted. In the doorway stood the Marquis of Danleigh and the Duke of Darke.