“What are you talking about?”
He waved a hand in dismissal and stared at the young woman who was being gently assisted from the ducal carriage by a footman in yellow and white livery. Another footman placed the steps beneath her dainty feet. A sour-faced maid followed her from the carriage, hugging a huge jewelry box to her meager bosom.
“Lady Juliette, daughter of the Marquess of Dacre,” the footman called out.
“Do we curtsy?” Sinjun said behind her teeth. “Perhaps request a boon?”
“Be quiet,” said Douglas.
The dowager countess was fulsome in her welcome. It was soon apparent that Lady Juliette was not only immensely beautiful, she was also immensely filled with her own importance. She also looked immensely pleased to be at Northcliffe Hall, until she saw Melissande. She was staring at the unexpected and unwelcome vision as the dowager was saying, “And, my dear Juliette, our Douglas here has gotten himself wedded. Such a surprise, but you will understand that—”
Lady Juliette stared blank-faced at the dowager. “He has married? Without seeing me?”
“Yes,” said the dowager.
Lady Juliette wanted to leave immediately. She felt humiliated. The wretched earl had married, without even seeing her, Juliette, the most beautiful young lady in three counties. She was closer now to Melissande and her vision was at its sharpest. She went perfectly still. In a spate of inner honesty, Juliette had to admit that this Melissande, the earl’s new wife, was possibly the most beautiful young lady in nearly all of England. Inner honesty led instantly to hostility and bone-deep hatred. He’d found and wed a lady more beautiful than she. It wasn’t to be borne. He was a cad. He deserved to be skewered on the end of her father’s sword.
“Where did Douglas meet you?” she asked, staring Melissande straight in the eye.
“Why he met me some three years ago when he was back in England because he’d been wounded in some battle. I don’t recall now which one it was.”
“Oh, then you married because of a family agreement? There was a prior entanglement?”
Melissande tilted her lovely head to the side in question. “No, we married because we were vastly suited to each other.”
“But that is impossible!”
Douglas and Tony both stepped forward at the same time. Tony said easily, “I fear, my dear Lady Juliette, that you have come to a hasty conclusion. Melissande is my wife. Alexandra, her sister, is Douglas’s countess.”
There was another moment of heavy silence, then a babble of voices. Douglas finally said loudly, “Everyone hush! Now, Lady Juliette, allow me to introduce you to my wife, Alexandra.”
Ju
liette looked at Alexandra upon the introduction and felt a good deal better. She said with a trilling laugh, “Oh dear, how very charming, my lord. You appear to have found yourself a wife in too short a time. This must have been the result of some old family agreement. Sometimes it is wise to take one’s time. But it is still delightful to visit Northcliffe.”
“Yes,” Sinjun said in a voice loud enough for her to hear, “it is true, isn’t it, what Tony said. Juliette is pretty but indeed a distant second to Melissande.”
Douglas wanted to box his sister’s ears.
Alexandra knew with chilling certainty that this houseguest would not add to any air of festivity.
She smiled when she heard Melissande say to Tony as they were turning to walk back into the hall, “Isn’t it the oddest thing! Why, she doesn’t like me and yet she doesn’t even know me. Tony, I know well enough that I am beautiful, but you know, beautiful perhaps isn’t the most important thing . . . well, even if it is, there are other things, such as a person’s character, that should be considered, isn’t that right?”
Tony kissed his wife in the full sight of anyone who happened to be looking. “You are wonderful and your character, in the not too distant future, should come to rival your beauty.”
Sinjun said to Alexandra, “Good. Douglas didn’t hear that. Tony is careful, you know, how he doles out the praise and the spurs. He’s doing just excellently.”
“Does nothing escape you?”
Sinjun looked startled. “Certainly, but this is important, Alex, very important. Douglas must be assisted to see everyone very clearly.” She giggled, just like a little girl. “That Juliette is clearly a twit. I wonder if she is stupid as well as conceited? Douglas would like to box her ears even more than mine.”
“Don’t count on it,” Alexandra said. “He is most appreciative of beautiful women.”
Sinjun gave her a severe look. “Now it’s you who act the twit. Don’t talk such nonsense. Do you think we’ll be able to leave Juliette to my mother and Aunt Mildred and go to Branderleigh Farm?”
“I sincerely hope so.”
They weren’t able to escape. For two interminable hours, Alexandra listened to a recounting of each of Juliette’s conquests from her London Season. She turned finally to Melissande, who was examining one of Tony’s fingers. “I understand that you are beyond having a Season now, Lady Rathmore. You were fortunate to find a husband after so many unsuccessful endeavors.”