Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] by Dangerous Lady Read Free Book Online Page A

carefully bestowed the box containing her second dress in the boot. She felt the sway of the carriage as he swung himself up behind, and almost immediately thereafter, heard the coachman give his team the office to start.
    As the carriage passed out of the courtyard, she glanced back at the huge house. Jervaulx London House was impressive by anyone’s standard, but today Letty felt as if it were her anchor, as if it would keep her steady when she entered the unfamiliar new world of Victoria’s court.
    She was not nervous. Indeed, she could not remember ever having been a victim of her nerves. Instead, she felt excitement and anticipation, not unlike what she had felt the first time she had come to England without her parents. At nine, she had looked forward to spending a few months in Cornwall with her maternal grandparents and her much older cousin, Charley. Although the visit had resulted instead in tragedy, adventure, and a more intimate acquaintance with smugglers, wreckers, and spies than her fond parents or anyone else could have anticipated, Letty had enjoyed her adventures. She expected to enjoy her service to the queen, too, although she doubted that it would prove nearly as exciting.
    The carriage approached the palace from the north, rattling along the gravel drive, passing through the magnificent Marble Arch—erected as a memorial to the victories of Trafalgar and Waterloo—to the entrance front. Drawing up beneath a two-story portico of coupled Corinthian columns, the carriage swayed when Letty’s footman jumped down to open the door and put down the step.
    Jenifry, last to enter, was the first to emerge. Miss Dibble followed, and then Letty accepted the footman’s outstretched hand and, carefully managing her skirt and reticule, stepped down to the pavement. Not one of the colorfully-uniformed guardsmen standing stiffly outside boxes that punctuated the colonnade screening the inner courtyard, so much as looked their way or moved to speak to them.
    Letty said to her coachman, “Wait here, Jonathan, until we learn where you are to go and when you should collect us.”
    “Aye, m’lady. Leastwise, I’ll wait till they sends me away.”
    “Perhaps, in that event, Lucas should stay here with you,” Letty said.
    Miss Dibble protested, “Lucas must attend you, Letitia, both to lend you consequence and to carry your second gown.”
    “They will hardly let me keep my footman with me when I am attending Her Majesty, or when I meet with the mistress of robes,” Letty pointed out. “However, Lucas had better carry the gown inside, I expect, and I daresay someone will know where to send for Jonathan when we want him. Come along for now, then, Lucas. Since no one is moving to stop us, I presume that we are to use the main entrance. Ah, yes, I see someone coming out to meet us now.”
    A liveried porter of indeterminate age and magisterial bearing approached them without haste, causing Letty to stifle a sudden urge to chuckle. “He looks as toplofty as Grandpapa’s butler, Forbes,” she said. “I thought I’d never see Forbes’s equal for depressing pretension, but I am very glad we have an appointment here today. I am Lady Letitia Deverill,” she said to the man when he was near enough to hear. “I am to see the Duchess of Sutherland. Show him the letter, Elvira.”
    Miss Dibble did so, and without a word the porter signed to a minion to hold the doors open for them. Inside, Letty and her companions found themselves in a grand hall sixty feet long, forty feet wide, and twenty feet high. At the far end rose an imposing winged, white-marble staircase with a broad center flight and two slightly narrower returning flights.
    Noting her gaze, the porter said austerely, “That staircase leads to the state apartments, your ladyship, but if you will be so kind as to follow me, I shall take you to the Duchess of Sutherland.”
    Letty smiled and thanked him, adding, “My companion will accompany me, of course,