Chapter Four

“Oh, this is divine,” Maddy said, stroking the new pelisse Rose had pulled from her closet to show her. After a late night at the ball, Maddy had whiled away the morning with a leisurely breakfast and a chapter of a new book before calling on Rose at her home to catch up on their separation of last few months, Rose having been in London since Christmas.

But first, fashion, Rose had insisted, pulling Maddy upstairs to show her the latest acquisitions she had brought from London.

“I know, isn’t it?” Rose agreed, turning back to her closet to pull out a new dress in a pink silk, beautifully cut. “I would hope we can find something similar on Milsom Street. You need one as well. Shall we go shopping tomorrow?”

“Haven’t you had your fill of shopping while in London?” Maddy asked with a laugh.

“Never!”

Maddy grinned, and the two girls cooed and stroked the new dresses and accessories, and Maddy wondered if she would have the courage to ask Fitz for a few pounds for some new dresses of her own for the Season.

Fitz never denied her anything, but she hated to ask just the same – she had been married to Henry at three and twenty, when she was practically a spinster and her father had feared she would become an old maid, willing to marry her to anyone before ‘the rose came off the bloom’. With that marriage, she became Henry’s financial responsibility, but he left for the Campaigns shortly thereafter. Now, three years later, she was a widow, solely dependent on the generosity of her brother.

She knew one word from her and he would turn her loose on Milsom Street with a pocketful of money, but she still hated to ask.

“Maddy?” Rose asked, turning to her. “You look introspective. What is it, poppet?”

Maddy gave her a weak smile. “Nothing, just thinking about Fitz, and how good he is to me – I know he would take us shopping all day if we asked, but I do so hate to ask.”

Rose flushed slightly, and turned back to her closet quickly.

“Rose?” Now it was Maddy’s turn to raise a question. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing,” Rose said brightly, flopping onto the bed beside her friend, yet another new dress in her arms. “How… how is Fitz? We really didn’t have a chance to catch up last night.”

“He’s fine, I believe,” Maddy said. “I know that managing the estate for the last two years has taken its toll on him, but he manages tolerably well. Mostly, he grumbles about the Marriage Mart and bemoans his lot as an aging rake, totally unwilling to be foisted about for marrying purposes.”

“You think he never means to marry?” Rose asked timidly.

Maddy shrugged. “With Fitz, one never knows, but you know that!” she said with a grin. “In the meantime, it’s up to us to keep him in line, and keep the packs from circling him too closely, isn’t it?”

“Speaking of packs,” Rose said, watching her friend, “I couldn’t help but notice the swarms surrounding a certain Earl during his appearance last night.”

Maddy dropped her eyes to the quilt, not wanting Rose to see the quick flash of jealousy on her features. “Yes, he made quite an impression with his return.”

“Quite an impression on you, as well, I think,” Rose said slyly, and Maddy flushed.

“There’s no denying his attractiveness; every woman in the room saw that,” Maddy said softly.

“And yet none of those women seemed to capture his eye. He only danced with you and that Wilder chit.”

“I believe they are old friends,” Maddy said, vaguely remembering the Wilder lady, and the spark of envy she had felt when Jamie – Lord Carrington, she corrected – had danced a quadrille with her.

“And yet, he seemed to look at you a good deal, Maddy,” Rose said, and Maddy’s head shot up, so wanting to believe her friend. “He did,” she confirmed, and Maddy dared not hope it was true.

“He and Fitz are old friends as well – I’m sure he was just trying to rectify me in society with the young girl he knew from years before. He just seemed very… formal, all evening. Very correct. As though…”

“As though?” Rose prompted with a questioning glance.

“As though if he spoke too much, or danced to close, or said something wrong to me, I would shatter like glass. I felt like he was treating me as though I were a Ming vase, not a lady of his long acquaintance.” Maddy looked at her friend plaintively. “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”

Rose cocked her head to one side. “I didn’t notice anything like that. He just seemed very formal, but Maddy, he is an earl, and you...”

“I know,” Maddy said sadly. “I’m decidedly not of the same stock that he is. Not anymore.” She sighed softly. “I’m sure I’m reading too much into it. The Lord Carrington I knew never stood on formalities, and we were all so close at one time. I suppose this new, war-hardened earl will take some getting used to. He just… he just seemed to hold himself apart from everyone last night. Does that make sense?”

“I think it does,” Rose said. “I can’t imagine what he saw in the war. Do you know what his assignment was, where he was located?”

“Nothing,” Maddy said. “And when Fitz asked, he became very evasive, and it was clear he had no wish to discuss it, so it was dropped quite quickly.”

“That must be it, then,” Rose said. “He’s still adjusting to society, Maddy, to a world very different from one he knew before. We must all understand that.”

“Yes,” Maddy said softly, “I suppose we must.”

And yet, during that one dance, Maddy would have sworn that sparks of attraction were flaring from him as well, not just from her.

But she must have been wrong.

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