"It would be quite unacceptable!"
"Perhaps it would be easier for us to go home," Polly said, a little dispiritedly. It was bad enough to be confronted by the prospect of Lord Henry flirting all evening with some fast-looking matron, but the thought of avoiding her own brother seemed quite ridiculous. Here, however, she ran up against the Dowager Countess"s stubborn streak.
"Go home! And have everyone say that that trollop has ousted us?
Certainly not! Besides..." the Dowager looked around surrept.i.tiously ". I most particularly wish to see Agatha Calvert tonight! She has not been up in Town this age and we have so much to catch up on! " "Surely Lady Calvert can call on you tomorrow--" The Dowager Countess looked disgusted.
"Have you no pride, Polly? I a.s.sure you that the Cyprian will not drive me away!"
Polly smiled slightly. She could see her brother Peter coming into the ballroom at that very moment, threatening to put his mother"s resolution to the test. Lucille had mentioned Peter"s sudden descent into questionable company, but even she had apparently been unaware of this latest disaster.
For with Peter Sea grave was none other than Lucille"s sister, the notorious Cyprian Susanna Bolt, in a dress of the most outrageous plunging black silk and ostrich feathers.
"Peter, what can you be doing!"
"Why, I"m talk in" to my own sister!" Lord Peter Sea grave said, with pardonable indignation.
"What could be more suitable?"
"You know that is not what I meant!" Polly looked up at him with asperity, feeling her annoyance begin to melt at the limpid innocence in those dark Sea grave eyes. It was so very difficult to be angry with Peter for long.
Whilst Polly and Nicholas had inherited something of their father"s gravity, Peter had a gaiety and insouciance that was almost irresistible.
"Oh, Peter, how could you squire Susanna Bolt about and embarra.s.s Mama so?"
Peter looked affronted.
"Mama ain"t embarra.s.sed by me! Why, she"s nose to nose with Agatha Calvert and has barely noticed me!"
"Only because she has not seen Lady Calvert for an age!" Polly looked across to where the two matrons were chatting nineteen to the dozen.
"I.
a.s.sure you, she would not have allowed me to even speak with you else!
Supposing Lady Bolt approaches us? " "Lady Bolt is almost one of the family," Peter added virtuously, but unable to repress a slight twinkle, "and I am sure Mama would not slight a relative!
" "Fustian!" Polly was also trying not to smile.
"Oh, this is too bad of you, Peter! I dare swear it is not for the family connection that you have sought her company!"
"Careful, Poll!"
"Well, if you are setting Lady Bolt up as your in- amorata--" "
Polly! " "Oh, I collect that it is acceptable for a gentleman to have such a thing, but not for ladies to refer to her?" Polly frowned at her brother.
"And if you try to tell me that Lady Bolt has become respectable since her marriage I will count you a greater fool than I already do! What of Hetty, Peter?"
The amus.e.m.e.nt went out of Peter Sea grave"s face like a candle blown out.
He studied the dancers with sudden intentness.
"Miss Mark ham and I are no longer... That is, we have agreed that we would not suit."
"Oh, Peter!" Polly looked up at him, genuinely shocked. Peter swung gently back on his rout chair, feigning nonchalance.
"It was only last summer that you were bowled over by her," Polly added reproachfully.
"Miss Mark ham was a different girl last summer." Peter was looking both annoyed and upset now.
"Un spoilt, sweet-natured... It took only six weeks in Town to turn her into the type of silly simpering debutante that I detest! Besides," he added bitterly, "she is after bigger game than me now! " Polly was silent. She could hardly deny that Hetty had behaved very foolishly, flirting with any t.i.tled and personable man who had shown her attention and treating Peter in a most offhand way. She put her hand on her brother"s arm.
"It is only that her head was turned a little," she pleaded.
"Please will you reconsider--" " Peter, darling! " Peter rose to his feet, a schoolboy blush in his cheeks as Susanna Bolt put a gloved hand cares singly on his shoulder. The Cyprian gave Polly an appraising look and her feline smile.
"Lady Polly..."
"Lady Bolt," Polly said coldly. She marvelled at how different two sisters could be. There was a clear innocence about Lucille Sea grave which contrasted starkly with the predatory s.e.xuality of her twin. Lady Bolt might have achieved a fragile respectability through her recent marriage, Polly thought, but her previous activities continued much as before, encouraged, some said, by Sir Edwin Bolt himself. Susanna"s blue gaze, as hard as the diamonds she preferred, raked Polly and dismissed her as an unworthy rival.
"Peter..." this time she trailed her fingers gently down his shirtfront "you promised me you would play deep this evening. " The phrase was loaded with so much innuendo that Peter Sea grave looked acutely uncomfortable and his sister almost surprised herself by giggling.
Doubtless she should have felt shocked, but Lady Bolt was so superlatively over-dramatic that it was almost impossible to take her seriously.
"Do not let me keep you from your entertainments, Peter," she said sweetly, and watched Susanna steer her sheepish brother away towards the card room.
There was a quadrille in progress, but Polly had refused a number of requests to dance because it was so hot and she had felt disinclined to become even more heated and fl.u.s.tered. The Dowager Lady Sea- grave had moved away temporarily to chat with Lady Calvert and a number of other senior matrons, and when she had seen Peter approach his sister she had not troubled herself to disturb them despite her earlier words. The Dowager knew that Polly had so much Town bronze that she need not trouble herself to chaperon her too closely.
After all, apart from one regrettable incident five years ago, her daughter had never given her cause to worry. Nevertheless, she kept her firmly within eyesight.
Peter"s rout chair was only vacant for a moment, then a voice said ingratiatingly, "Lady Polly! Vision of loveliness! I bring succour!"
Polly stifled a sigh.
"Sir Mar ma duke. How do you do, sir?"
Sir Mar ma duke Shipley gazed languishingly at her. An ageing roue, he was a gazetted fortune-hunter who liked to think that he was dangerous.
A certain indulgent smile on the face of the Dowager Countess as she looked across at her daughter gave the lie to this. Sir Mar ma duke handed Polly a gla.s.s and took the seat beside her with an ostentatious flick of his coattails.
The room was getting more and more humid and the drink was very welcome.
Polly, who had been intending to be very chilly towards the lecherous Sir Mar ma duke, found herself smiling gratefully at him instead.
"What exquisite looks you are in tonight, my lady," Sir Mar ma duke murmured, his breath hot against Polly"s neck.
"Dare I hope that you will smile on me?"
"I doubt it, sir!" Polly said smartly, taking a mouthful of the drink.
It was certainly not lemonade, but it tasted rather pleasantly fruity and quite innocuous, light and refreshing for a summer night. She took another sip.