The Belle Dames Club by Melinda Hammond Read Free Book Online

you all. Oswald has persuaded Sir Joseph Banks to loan to us the paintings and sketches that have just arrived from the Society’s latest voyage. Sir Robert Ingleton has agreed to release them to my care for the evening and we have high hopes of finding more sponsors for the Royal Society. I depend upon you all being there to support me.’
    Clarissa looked at Lady Wyckenham to see how she reacted to the mention of Sir Robert, but the lady appeared to be deep in discussion with Mrs Nugent. She turned and smiled at Letitia.
    ‘Well, Augusta might not be able to attend, but I assure you Mama-Nell and I will be there. Julia, what about you?’
    ‘I should dearly love to be there, but Lady Norwell and Barnabus’s sister are arriving and it will not do for me to be away from the house.’
    ‘Well, I am coming, and I believe Matlock is accompanying me,’ said Lady Sarah.
    Letitia Leighton-Kettering nodded. ‘So most of the Belles Dames will be there to support me – thank you. And pray be early, my dears, for I fear it could be a dreadful crush!’
     
    ‘Ooh, miss, I don’t like the look o’ this weather, to be sure I don’t.’
    Clarissa sipped her hot chocolate and looked towards the window.
    ‘Is it raining, Becky?’
    ‘Aye, miss. The road is awash, so it is.’
    ‘Then you had best put away the apricot muslin and find my blue walking dress. And boots. I think we shall need them.’
    Becky stopped and looked at her.
    ‘We?’
    Clarissa tried not to laugh at the look of horror on the abigail’s face.
    ‘Yes, Becky. We are going shopping today. It is a pity about the rain, but it cannot be helped.’
     
    Lady Wyckenham’s carriage rolled into New Bond Street at an unfashionably early hour, Clarissa hoping to avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, although the ton was not yet abroad, the street was packed with drapers’ carts and wagons delivering goods, and the carriage was soon snarled up in the traffic. Clarissa descended to the flagway, followed by her reluctant maid, and instructed John Coachman to meet her at that spot again at half-past eleven.
    ‘Thank goodness we have an umbrella,’ she said. ‘I had hoped we might be able to take the carriage from one shop to another, but I see that will not work. We will be obliged to walk.’ She laughed as Becky pointedly stepped around a puddle. ‘Come along. The sooner we collect these trade cards the sooner we can get dry again.’
    The task proved much harder than Clarissa had imagined. Although New Bond Street had its share of milliners and modistes, jewellers and hatters, there were few silk mercers, and by the time she had walked the length of the street and back again on the other side, she had only four cards to her collection. A helpful assistant in the last shop directed her to a silk mercer in Piccadilly and Clarissa set off there on foot, ignoring Becky’s mutterings that they should not walk so far in the rain. From there it was but a step to King Street in Covent Garden, where Clarissa was relieved to find an abundance of silk merchants all eager for her business.
    ‘We should have come here first,’ she said, counting up her trade cards. ‘I knew of King’s, of course, and Hinchcliffe and Croft, but I never dreamed there were so many other silkmerchants to call upon.’
    ‘No, miss, and you shouldn’t be calling on them, neither,’ retorted her maid, trying to hold up an umbrella over both of them. ‘They should be calling on you.’
    ‘Oh, Becky, don’t show me that Friday face. Admit it, this has been amusing.’
    ‘Amusing! Getting soaked to the skin and wearing out good boot-leather, all for a silly wager.’
    Clarissa realized that her maid was seriously displeased. She resolved to make it up to her, and was trying to decide on a suitable present when she heard the church clock chiming the half-hour. She stopped.
    ‘Heavens! We should be in Bond Street to meet John Coachman by now! We shall never reach Knight’s Bridge by