A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde Read Free Book Online Page B

“The news that you are leaving your post as lady patroness of Almack’s should appear in A. E. Littlefield’s ‘Society Notes’ this Sunday.”
    â€œExcellent.” A determined satisfaction that Rosalind had not seen for a very long time lit Lady Blanchard’s green eyes. “I know tea and sandwiches are poor payment for a successful effort, but you shall have them all the same.”
    When Rosalind had first come to London in preparation for her debut, Lady Blanchard was a society hostess at the height of her powers. To say that the intervening years had not been kind to her was to do a grave injustice to the pitched battle each had waged against the other. Lady Blanchard still charmed, but like her beauty, that charm had dimmed. She propped up her diminished personal luster with the perfection of her houses and entertainments, much in the way the faded gold of her hair had been reinforced by a special recipe known only to her lady’s maid. She applied the art of conversation and of arranging a guest list as carefully as she did her rouge and powder. Nothing, however, could conceal the fact that her pallor was no longer fashionable, or that years of holding back any unseemly show of feeling had sharpened the once gentle lines of her face.
    The business of pouring out tea and selecting sandwiches of delicate farm cheese, or thinly sliced ham, or spicy preserved meats occupied the following several minutes, and gave Rosalind time to consider her next words.
    â€œYou understand, of course, your fellow patronesses will not be best pleased by our actions.” Rosalind settled onto the sofa with her plate of sandwiches and biscuits. “I expect Lady Jersey at least would prefer some say in the form and timing of the announcement.”
    â€œWhich is why I’m making sure the word is put about now.” Lady Blanchard sipped her own tea, but left the food untouched.“I never should have gotten involved with Almack’s. It has been a disaster from beginning to end, but I thought it would help my husband. He was so pleased when I was tapped for the post.”
    â€œAnd now you’re both going away.”
    â€œYes, we are, and it’s high time.” As she spoke, Lady Blanchard smiled, a soft, distant, contented expression.
    â€œIt’s good to see you happy,” Rosalind said warmly. “I will say, though, that when I’m offering my assistance to a friend, I’m generally told what it is they are after.”
    Lady Blanchard colored at this, but only a little. “I know it. But you know that in society two people can keep a secret only when one of them is dead, even if one of those persons is you, Rosalind.”
    â€œI think I should be insulted.”
    â€œProbably you should. I’m using you rather shamelessly, and what makes it worse is that you are the one person I will truly miss after I am gone.”
    Rosalind waited, and she hoped, but Lady Blanchard was too practiced a political hostess to allow one moment of intimacy to loosen her tongue. “Enough of my dreary business. Tell me how you are doing.”
    Had Rosalind been speaking to Alice Littlefield, she might have ignored the attempt to change the subject. Her difference in age and station to Lady Blanchard, however, made that impossible, not to mention severely impolite.
    â€œTo speak the truth, Lady Blanchard, I find myself in a quandary. I’ve just come from Tamwell House. Lady Edmund Aimesworth wants me to stay with her for the little season.”
    The pause between Lady Blanchard’s taking hold of her cup and her lifting it from its china saucer was small, but it was there. “I’m sure she wants you to help manage her daughter’s return to polite society, just as you helped with her exit.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought at first, but Lady Edmund wanted to discuss a different matter. She’d heard about your leaving London, and the