The Wild Duchess/The Willful Duchess (The Duchess Club Book 1) (6 page)

“No one.” Starr joined them and they all embraced in a tight triumvirate united against the world.

“
A
m I forgiven yet
?” Starr asked.

Scarlett made a half-hearted attempt to look cross and then abandoned the exercise. Since the Duke of Stafford’s call and her twin’s glorious abandonment to face the dratted man alone, it had been a whirlwind of social calls. They’d received dozens and then been compelled to make as many of their own until Scarlett was fairly certain they’d seen every drawing room in London and drank enough polite cups of tea to fill the Thames.

“You are forgiven, Tara. I forgave you four days ago. I love every cautious and considerate bone in your body.” Scarlett smiled. “Just as I rely on you loving every impetuous and foolhardy bone in mine.”

After a long afternoon of calls, the girls settled into the carriage seats with renewed cheer. Mrs. Hastings had accompanied them and the bonus was that they now had the pleasure of going to her home and visiting one of their best friends, Ivy.

They saw her as often as they could whenever they were in London. Ivy’s debut hadn’t been formally set though it was clear to the twins that Mrs. Hastings was anxious for her daughter’s happiness. Even so, Starr and Scarlett knew that for Ivy happiness was already in her possession and would never have much to do with gowns and the giddy conversation of ballrooms.

The carriage slowed to a stop in front of an attractive small factory with brick frontwork and a large open gated courtyard and entrance. A wrought iron fence with a unique filigree pattern gave the utilitarian space a fairy-tale air and the sound of machinery was interspersed with the rhythm of hammer and chisel as men also worked stone and marble.

Their Uncle Josiah had the most singular home in all of England with his luxurious home perched on the top floors of a bustling manufacturing concern that he had funded and allowed to flourish. He had hired local craftsmen but also imported artisans to create a diverse company that offered custom furnishings, wrought iron and high-end railings and interior pieces and then just to keep his friends guessing, Josiah Hastings had installed a glass-blowing furnace and added stained glass and glass fancies to the company’s products. The success of his venture had brought new life to its neighborhood and a vast sense of pride to its inhabitants and workers. Indeed, it was said that the streets around Hastings Holdings were among the prettiest in London as every tenement, house and flat boasted a visible touch of glass, iron or woodwork from the talented hands at the factory.

Ivy was very proud of her father’s generosity and rightly so in her friend’s eyes. All of their fathers shared a charitable spirit and had done little to hoard their wealth. The fortunes of the tight circle of the Jaded had only grown over time as if the more they gave away the more money inexplicably fell into their hands.

The twins alighted in a flushed happy rush that ignored the protocol of graceful landings and restrained footsteps. Through the side gated entrance they skipped past the courtyard and into the building to the staircase that led up to the upper floors and private home of their friend.

“Mind yourselves, ladies!” Eleanor called up after them, but her voice rang with resignation. Stopping the girls from running into each meeting with their dear friend as if it were a reunion after years was a lost cause. Her pace was far more sedate as she resolutely faced multiple flights of stairs before she could reach the sanctuary of her parlor. Her husband had offered more than once to have a lift installed but Eleanor was wary of such inventions and was not about to put her life or the lives of her loved ones into a box that hoisted them into the air—and could heartlessly drop them if it chose to do so. It was an endless topic for debate but so far, her opinion had held. Even if it meant Josiah teased her sometimes when she returned from shopping or errands to say how much he loved to hear her breathless and sighing though he would prefer it
not
be from a climb but rather from his kisses.

As the sound of the girls greeting Ivy floated down the stairwell, Eleanor smiled. They would all be on the uppermost floor where the studios were located and visit there.

All is right with the world when our children are together and happy.

“Shall I carry you the rest of the way, dearest?”

Eleanor laughed as she realized that her husband had come out to greet her.

“I’m…fine.” She pressed her hand against her heartbeat with a smile. “Please allow a…woman to catch her breath.”

“Never. I love it when you’re breathless,” Josiah countered wickedly.

She laughed again. “You always say that!”

“Because it is always true. Come and kiss me, woman.”

She obliged him with an eager heart, as hungry for his touch now as she’d been the first time he’d reached for her. It was a weakness she’d long ago accepted and had delighted in coming to terms with over the years. “You are worth the climb.”

“A compliment I shall never tire of hearing,” he whispered, then kissed her forehead as his fingertips grazed across her lips and swept up her cheeks. “Come and have tea with me while the girls have their fun.”

“That sounds heavenly.” She tucked up against his side to walk into their apartments, subtly shifting to guide him if needed as they made their way inside. His sight had been irrevocably lost years before but very little of their life had been altered by the change. The house was familiar ground and his reclusive reputation aided the transition. He’d been losing his sight when they had met, nearly blind when they married and so adjustments were already in place. The only casualty had been his painting and as far as Eleanor was concerned, it was a significant enough loss to make it a tragedy though Josiah had merely shifted his creative energy in other directions refusing to mourn.

“How was the afternoon? Have you seen enough of the interior of other people’s sitting rooms to last a lifetime?”

“Ten lifetimes! I confess my interest in other people’s family connections, fashions and talk of what constitutes ladylike pursuits has waned to extinction. Thank goodness that Haley will be in Town before the week’s end. Lady Winters will make a far better show of it than I ever could.”

“Nonsense. No one can outshine you, darling.” His hand covered hers as she gently held his arm. “It will be good to see Galen again. He can steady Ashe’s nerves and sort out this duke nonsense.”

“It is hardly nonsense.”

“It can be nothing else. The Peerage does not dabble without an eye to position and gain. The twins are lucky to have Caroline as a mother. She is too practical a woman to allow her daughters to lose their heads.”

Eleanor squeezed his arm. “You can have Marcus Aurelius for a father and still get your head turned by a handsome man, Mr. Hastings. Wait until Ivy comes out…”

“Plenty of time for that.” His light humor fled at the suggestion that their only daughter was ready to leave the nest and Eleanor wisely dropped the topic for now.

For now, dear husband, but we cannot hold her back forever and once she sees her friends find their way, there will be no stopping her.

“
T
ell me everything
!”

Ivy drew them over to a long padded window seat in her studio. It was separated from her father’s workspace by a wall of glass windows, some of them clear but most were various colors, samples of experiments from the glass factory on the ground floor. It gave the room a magical air as rainbows shifted across the plain wooden floors to compete with whatever color had been placed on the canvases.

Scarlett blinked as the trio settled in to talk. “That is quite a request!”

“It isn’t and don’t tease! You swore you’d tell me everything.” Ivy took off the cotton apron that protected her simple muslin day dress from paint stains. “I’m longing to hear it all and to live a bit vicariously through you.”

Scarlett smiled, her sense of humor revealing itself in a mischievous flash. “You aren’t a prisoner in a tower, you know. And you’d have been out this Season if you’d pouted and put on a show for it.”

Ivy laughed. “True! Well, perhaps, but I am in no rush for my own adventures when I can enjoy yours. All of the thrill with none of the risk, yes? Besides,” she paused, her eyes scanning over her beloved workroom, “what husband would ever put up with…this?”

Starr nodded and both girls looked at her with complete empathy. Ivy was as keen on marriage as Starr—her attachment to her independence even more firmly carved in the path she hoped to take. Even so, it was only natural to be curious and more than a little jealous of the extensive wardrobe and attention the twins were enjoying.

“It’s a blur. You can ask Starr. She has a superior way with words.”

Ivy’s eyes lost a bit of their sparkle, her lips compressing infinitesimally to betray her frustration. “We have been friends since before we could walk, Scarlett Blackwell. If you truly think my mother did not come home in a state of flushed and raw exhaustion from sitting with you and your mother through a day of social calls and somehow then failed to mention that a duke had paid his respects then I suspect that something has gone terribly wrong. So, let’s have it, Scarlett.”

“It really isn’t…much of a story, Ivy.” Scarlett bit her lower lip. “I’m still trying to sort it out myself.”

“Did a duke call on you?”

“Yes, but not—it was not the duke I danced with and he is most definitely not a suitor.”

“Wait. There are
two
dukes?” Ivy gasped.

Scarlett held up her hands in protest. “No! It isn’t like that. It’s…complicated but all I can think to say is that one duke is enough and if I can convince the Duke of Stafford to never darken our door again, it will be a triumph.”

“Truly?” It was Starr who asked the startled question. “I thought he was…civilized and very smart looking.”

“Oh, was he?” Ivy pressed, her interest instantly ignited.

Starr nodded. “I am a wretched sister and abandoned her to face him alone but he was quite overwhelmingly handsome. Like something out of a novel!”

“He was no such thing!” Scarlett said quickly, coloring as her conscience pricked her at the outright lie but she didn’t want to admit that the dratted man was prettier than any other gentleman to her friends. “He was a bit puffed up and I’m sure that all dukes learn that trick like kittens that hiss and spit and give you the illusion that there is more to them than there really is.”

Starr’s eyes widened. “He was
not
a kitten.”

“Well, no, I did not mean to imply that he was.”

Ivy leaned in. “Was he terrible then?”

Starr looked inquisitively at her sister. “Was he, dearest?”

“No! No. If he was terribly…pretty then—No! That’s not what I meant to say. He was very polite and not unattractive and not really the matter at hand. Stafford is nothing to me and merely meant to make a show of courtesy for his friend, the Duke of Chesterton.” Scarlett nervously tugged at the lace at her wrists. “It was a simple social call. Nothing more.”

Ivy and Starr exchanged knowing looks but Ivy opted to be merciful. “Tell us of Chesterton then. How did you meet?”

“It was by simple chance. We spoke first and he didn’t reveal that he was a duke right away which I thought was very kind since I was…speaking freely as I would with one of Father’s friends.”

Starr sighed. “It is a wretched challenge, isn’t it? If you speak too quickly and without censure, then it’s a disaster. If you’re shy and say little, they assume you’re a dolt. I’d rather read a conversation than attempt to compose one off the top of my head.”

“We must be ourselves,” Scarlett said firmly. “For who else could we be?”

“Do you remember the Duchess Club?” Ivy asked.

“I…yes, but I hadn’t thought of it in some time,” Scarlett said then her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh! I made a joke and said we’d marry dukes!”

“And now look at you!” Ivy laughed. “I’d say your toes are very nearly on the edge of that leap.”

Starr’s mouth fell open. “Imagine that, Lettie. You possessed the gift of prophecy and never knew it.”

Scarlett shook her head. “But we never meant it. It was nothing to do with dukes so if I’m a seer then I was a bit off my game. It was all silly. Our secret club with its secret purposes—it was only a lark.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Ivy sat up a little straighter, her demeanor changing instantly. “It was everything.”

“Was it?” Scarlett asked.

“For me it was everything. We swore to support each other’s dreams and to shake the foundations of the earth.” Ivy stood from the window seat and walked toward an easel covered with cloth. She pulled the cloth aside to reveal her latest work. “Here, see. Even if this is done only for myself and the eyes of my most trusted friends, I paint what I want. I think that more than a lark, don’t you?”

The twins followed her to take in their friend’s vision. “It’s…oh, my!”

“You don’t like it.” Ivy’s face paled.

“I do! I more than like it but it’s…oh, Ivy, it just takes a person’s breath away!” Starr whispered.

Scarlett reached for her friend’s hand, never taking her eyes off the painting. She squeezed Ivy’s fingers. “I misspoke. Ivy, I’m ashamed of myself. It is never silly to dream and if we can shape our world even a little, then it’s worth it.”

Ivy shyly covered her work back up, unable to face praise or criticism of the piece just yet. “I wrote Alicia as much just yesterday. They are coming to London, I think to rally to support your mother and father during this time. It’s exciting, your first Season!”

Scarlett blushed. “Our first Season,” she amended. “Starr may wish it otherwise but we are in this together.”

“I wish for nothing else,” Starr said quickly. “I would that we could do all things together.”

“All things except walk in gardens with a duke?” Ivy teased.

“Yes,” Starr agreed quickly with a laugh. “All things except that. Dukes are very unnerving and I am relieved to avoid their attentions so far.”

“It is a good thing there are not so many in the world.” Scarlett took her friends hands and they all returned to their perch in the sunlight by the studio windows.