Belgrave Square - Anne Perry [23]
When the music was finished she thanked his lordship and curtseyed, then excused herself. Duty called. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack and smiled fleetingly, before introducing herself to a group of ladies she knew were influential. She had taken great heed of Emily’s detailed instructions.
Since she knew very little of fashion, it being quite beyond her budget, and to speak about it only rubbed salt in the wound, she was unable to hold a conversation of any detail. Similarly, since she knew nothing about who was courting whom, who had rebuffed whom, been admired or insulted, or what drama was currently playing at which theater, she had decided to exert her charm entirely by asking other people their opinions and listening intently to their answers. It was a ploy which sat ill with her nature, but it was forced upon her by necessity, and it worked astoundingly well.
“Indeed?” she said with wide eyes as a thin lady in blazing sapphires expounded her views on the drama currently playing at the theater in the Haymarket. “Do please tell us more. You make it sound so vivid.”
The lady required no second invitation. She had disliked the play and was bursting to assure her that everyone else did also, and for the same reasons.
“I am not narrow-minded, you understand,” she began vigorously. “And I hope I can appreciate literature of all sorts. But this was totally self-indulgent, every conceivable horror was there and unimaginably vile appetites. It is hardly an excuse that each sin was punished in one manner or another. We still observed things which would outrage every moral instinct.”
“Good gracious!” Charlotte was amazed and fascinated. “I wonder they were able to perform it in public.”
Her eyes widened. “My dear Mrs. Pitt, that is exactly what I said myself.”
A young man walked past them laughing, a girl giggled and blushed on his arm.
“I am so pleased I did not take my daughter,” another woman in gold said fervently, shivering a little and setting her diamonds sparkling. “And I had intended to. Good drama can be so uplifting, don’t you think? And a girl has to have something intelligent to discuss. Silliness is so unattractive, don’t you agree?”
“Oh most,” Charlotte said sincerely. “The prettiest face in the world can become tedious quite quickly if the owner has nothing of sense to say.”
“Quite,” the lady with the sapphires conceded hastily. “But this, I assure you, was beyond a decent person’s desire to discuss, and quite unthinkable for any young lady hoping to attract a respectable gentleman. If she discussed this it would appall any person of sensibility that she was even aware of such subjects.”
Another couple swept past, the girl laughing loudly.
Great-Aunt Vespasia joined the group with a gracious inclination of her head.
“So fashionable, Mrs. Harper,” the sapphire lady observed, watching the couple retreating, heads close together. “Don’t you agree, Lady Cumming-Gould?”
“Up to the minute,” Vespasia granted. “Lovely, until she opens her mouth.”
“Oh! Is she vulgar—or foolish? I had not heard.” There was implicit criticism in her tone.
“Neither, so far as I know,” Vespasia replied. “But she has a laugh like a frightened horse! One can hear it two streets away on a calm night.”
Someone giggled, and suppressed it hastily, unsure whether it was appropriate or not. There was a hesitant silence. Suddenly all the other sounds intruded, the slither of leather soles on the polished wooden floor, the rustle of taffeta, tulle and satin bustles and trains, the murmur of talk, the chink of glass and in the next room one of the violinists retuning his instrument.
“What is the title of the play?” Charlotte inquired innocently.
“Titus Andronicus, but it was said to be Shakespeare,” the sapphire lady answered quickly. “So I went in the belief that it would be noble and uplifting.”
“Was not the language fine?” Charlotte asked.
“My dear Mrs. Pitt, I have no idea.” She bridled slightly. “But if it were, that is no excuse. Far too much is excused these days on a point of style, as if style mattered!