Evelyn Richardson by The Education of Lady Frances Read Free Book Online

arrived in town, and I do so want to see her. Won't you come too? I need your support because I know she means to avoid most of the social functions and I think it would do her good to attend them. She says she refuses to burden any hostess with someone for whom partners must be pressed into service, but I hardly see how that could be. I think she's very elegant and certainly easy to talk to. But she says people don't want elegance and conversation. She keeps telling me that she is not at all the type that is admired, but I think that her opinion is a result of her one and only Season, when she was taken about by Lady Bingley, who is excessively silly herself and moves in such fashionably empty-headed circles that Frances was bound to feel awkward and out-of-place. Do come and help me convince her at least to start off the Season by accompanying us to Lady Richardson's ball.”
    Lady Streatham had not spent a week escorting Kitty to every fashionable establishment in London without having heard about Kitty's unusual neighbor, and her curiosity was aroused. Her own lively family and a devoted elder brother had given her enough confidence to enjoy her come-out and to view making the acquaintance of hordes of unfamiliar people as an exciting opportunity for discovery, but she knew she had been unusually lucky in her family and friends. Too well she could imagine the loneliness of a girl whose parents' tastes had kept them apart from the fashionable world and deprived her of the security of recognizing familiar faces among the ton crushes. The fact that the distant relative who had chaperoned her scarcely shared a single thought with Frances would merely have added to her sense of being completely out-of-place. “I agree. We must see what we can do to change her mind. Come along. My carriage is just outside,” offered Lady Streatham, drawing on her recently discarded gloves.
    “We must be back by three o'clock, because Lord Mainwaring is taking me to tea at his grandmother's,” warned Kitty in a tone tinged with misgiving at this prospect.
    By the time they arrived at Brook Street Frances had succeeded in persuading Cassie into a fresh pinafore and lured Freddie away from the stables with promises that he could take a large lump of sugar to his pony after lessons. She intensely disliked playing the martinet, but knew the children would feel more comfortable and the household would run more smoothly if a routine were immediately established. Consequently it was a well-behaved, well-scrubbed schoolroom scene that welcomed Kitty and Lady Streatham as they entered the drawing room. This model of decorum instantly disintegrated as Cassie jumped up to greet Kitty, upsetting the globe in the process. Lady Streatham, whose maternal reflexes were never far from the surface, caught and righted it dexterously while extending her other hand to Frances, saying with her infectious smile, “I am so glad to meet you. I apologize for coming uninvited, but Kitty persuaded me that it would not bother you. She was desperate that I should meet all the Cresswells. Besides, having rusticated for so long, I feel in need of support from another sensible woman if I'm to help Kitty sort out admirers. From what I hear, you're just the ally I need.”
    She couldn't have chosen a more advantageous method of attack. What Frances would not do for herself, she would do for someone else most willingly. Appealed to in this way, she could only laugh as she rose to greet her visitors, removing the somnolent Nelson from her lap as she did so. Having deposited him in an equally comfortable spot, she extended a welcoming hand to her visitor. “I shall do my best to help you, ma'am. But with my experience, or lack of it, I am more likely to scare off suitors than to introduce Kitty to them.”
    Looking into the frank hazel eyes fringed with thick lashes, the delicate features lighted now by a warm, generous smile, Lady Streatham agreed with her charge that Frances'