Silence in Hanover Close - Anne Perry [89]
“I am sure you mean well, Miss Barnaby, but that is not sufficient for Society,” Loretta said firmly.
“Nonsense,” Piers contradicted her. “Perfectly all right. Anyway, who would know about it? Harriet certainly isn’t going to say anything.”
“It would be as well if I were to go with you,” she insisted, taking a step towards the door. “This is a most delicate time.”
“For heaven’s sake stop fussing, Loretta!” he said with unusual sharpness. “You worry over Veronica far too much. Danver’s a decent enough fellow, and no stick-in-the-mud. Miss Barnaby is perfectly adequate as a chaperone, and it’s good of her to oblige.”
“Piers, you don’t understand.” Loretta’s voice grated with the power of her emotion. “I wish you would accept my judgment. There is far more to this than you realize.”
“About a carriage ride?” His disbelief was tinged with annoyance.
Her face was white. “There are delicacies, things that. . .”
“Indeed? What, for example?”
She was angry, but she had no answer that she was prepared to give him.
Charlotte looked at Veronica, wondering whether the brief escape would be worth the unpleasantness which would undoubtedly follow.
“Come, Elisabeth,” Veronica said without looking at Loretta. “We shall not be long, but it will be good for us to go out.”
Charlotte excused herself and followed Veronica out into the hallway. She waited a few moments while the footman was dispatched to fetch Veronica’s cloak and muff, and Veronica herself went to change her boots.
The withdrawing room door was ajar.
“You know nothing whatever about that young woman!” Loretta’s voice rose angrily. “Most unsuitable. Brash. Totally unsophisticated!”
“She seemed very pleasant to me,” Piers answered. “In fact, altogether attractive.”
“For heaven’s sake, Piers! Just because she has a handsome face. Really, you are so naïve sometimes.”
“And you, my dear, see complications where there are none.”
“I anticipate, which is not the same thing.”
“It is very often exactly the same thing.”
Charlotte was prevented from overhearing any more by Veronica’s return. Emily came downstairs, too, with a cloak over her arm. At first Charlotte hardly recognized her; she looked so different with her hair under a cap, wearing a blue stuff dress with no bustle and a plain apron over it. She looked thinner than before, although it was probably the clothes, and terribly pale. Their eyes met only for a moment, Emily’s wide and very blue, then Veronica put on the cloak. Emily smoothed it over her shoulders, and Charlotte and Veronica went out of the front door as Albert held it open for them.
The drive was chilly, even with rugs over their knees, but it was exhilarating to be bowling along at a good pace with fashionable streets, wide avenues, and squares passing their windows. For a moment Veronica turned, her eyes almost black in the carriage interior, her lips parted, but Charlotte knew where Veronica wanted to go before she could ask.
“Of course,” she said quickly.
Veronica clasped her hand inside the muff. “Thank you.”
They were received without surprise at the Danver house and shown into the withdrawing room. Since Charlotte had written to Veronica two days ago, it was possible Veronica had written to Julian, and they were expected. Julian Danver himself was there and greeted them, taking Veronica’s hands and holding them warmly for a moment before turning to Charlotte.
“How charming to see you again, Miss Barnaby.” He smiled at her. His gaze was very direct, and Charlotte remembered how much she had liked him. “I am sure you remember my aunt, Miss Danver? And my sister Harriet?”
“Of course,” she said quickly, looking first at Aunt Adeline, whose thin, intelligent face regarded her with interest, and then at Harriet. This afternoon she seemed paler than before; there