To Tame A Countess (Properly Spanked Book 2) (27 page)

In the meantime, society’s families cemented betrothals, threw final balls and dinners, and made their plans for fall and winter visits. Some would attend house parties with friends, while others would retreat to their sprawling manors to hunt, drink, and play cards.

A few men sought Warren’s permission to offer for Minette, but she would have none of them, and Josephine was secretly glad, because she had come to depend on her vivacious friend’s company, especially as the great Parliament dinner loomed. The most powerful and influential members of the House of Lords closed the season every year with a private dinner party. Invitations were exclusive and hard to come by.

Of course Warren received one, the insufferable man.

The day of the dinner dawned sunny and bright. Josephine was obliged to report to her rooms in the afternoon, to dress in her most elegant ivory-and-pearl ensemble, and let the maid do all sorts of decorative curling and arranging of her hair.

Minette stayed with her as she fretted, and patted her hand. “Don’t be nervous, all right? Yes, it’s a big dinner, and yes, all of Warren’s colleagues will be there with their wives, and yes, everyone will be watching you especially, since you and Warren have recently married—”

“Minette, you’re not helping.”

“You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say that in the end it doesn’t matter, because they all think Warren is the most proper and estimable fellow, and they’ve come to think the same of you. You’ve become so much better at conversation and dancing, and you’re so graceful when you walk, and you have the prettiest figure for gowns, everybody notes it. You know all the different titles and how to address people, and how to ply your fan, and how to toss your head just the right way when you talk.” As she said this, Minette demonstrated with impish detail, perfectly imitating the
ton
’s most lofty ladies. “So you see, it shall all be fine, and you mustn’t worry about anything. My brother is so proud to have married such a highly regarded woman. He’s been in a tizzy for weeks, just waiting for this dinner to arrive.”

Josephine rested her head in her hands. She knew her sister-in-law meant to be helpful, but every word made her more anxious about the evening to come.

Self-control. You’ll only need to use self-control, and be the perfect wife.
This would be her chance to win everyone over and fix her place in society as his worthy partner. She only needed to be…perfect.

“Oh, my word,” she sighed, raising her head. “I think I need more tea.”

“No, my dear. You’ll bloat beneath your stays.”

Josephine frowned and sent the tray away with the maid. Her stays already felt tight, perhaps because of nerves, or the extra cakes she ate to forget her woes.

“There, sister, you look absolutely beautiful,” said Minette, tugging one of Josephine’s curls. “You mustn’t worry. Warren will tell you what to do and who is most important to talk to. They’ll mostly be stuffy old men and haughty ladies, but keep your conversation to homemaking and weather and none of them will take offense. Just smile a lot.” She pinched her cheeks. “Smile. Smile!”

Josephine smiled into the mirror. She looked rather ill.

“I wish you would go in my place,” she said. “Everyone loves you. You’ve such a gift at conversation.”

“Of course I can’t go,” laughed Minette. “Warren wouldn’t take his sister when he has a wife. What gossip it would cause, and Josephine, everyone loves you, too. Don’t you understand that? Everyone finds you fascinating and beautiful.”

Beautiful? Josephine touched the delicate diamond and pearl necklace Warren had given her for her birthday the week before. The pale gold filigree was worked to look like ivy, and it caught the light just so whenever she moved. It suited the dress perfectly, and it was beautiful, but she felt like a fake. She had never worn jewelry or fine gowns until she came to England. As much as Warren hoped to improve her, her uncivilized past would never go away. It would always be a secret shame inside her that no jeweled necklace or fancy gown could disguise. She was shoddy and second-rate, like her laughable, run-down “holdings” in Oxfordshire.

She rubbed her temples and shook her head. She ought not to be in such a mindset, not before this important gathering. Of all the fetes she’d attended at Warren’s behest, this evening’s would have the most direct effect on his political career and aspirations. When she went down the grand staircase to meet him, she rallied her courage and pasted on a smile. It became a genuine smile as her husband pretended to falter in a swoon.

“You’re too ravishing to be borne,” he said. “You look like a goddess. You’ll outshine the queen.”

She halted on the last step. “Will the queen be in attendance?”

“Probably not, but if she was, we’d have to drape a cloth over you or something.”

“Warren, you’re as silly as Minette sometimes.”

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her cheek. She breathed in the scent of him, masculine and crisp, with a hint of shaving soap. His ornately tied cravat was high and starched, glaringly white against his formal black coat and waistcoat. His blond curls shone in the light, so pretty on Minette, but fully masculine and handsome on him. He looked incredibly dashing.

From above, Minette clapped her hands. “The two of you are a sight. You must sit for a portrait in those clothes. Promise me! How stunning you both look.”

They said their goodbyes and climbed into the coach waiting outside the door. All too soon they arrived at the Duke of Lansing’s sprawling mansion a few streets over, where the dinner was to be held. “Every year a different fellow hosts the festivities,” said Warren. “I suppose one year it shall be our turn. No, don’t blanch, my love. It won’t be anytime soon.”

She looked up at the grand edifice of the duke’s home, and then down the street at all the majestically appointed carriages of London’s upper crust and almost choked at the idea of hosting such a gathering. She hoped it was ten years in the future. Twenty years.

“You know, the Duke of Lansing is Aurelia’s father,” he said. “She grew up in this house, if you can believe it.”

Josephine could make no reply to that, since she was occupied staring at the crowds and the lights. Even Warren looked on the grand granite facade of the duke’s city home with an air of wonderment. It was that outrageous and ornate. A fancy colonnade ran the length of the house, and great clusters of guests stood about looking haughty and important.

“I daresay Aurelia will be here tonight with Townsend. Arlington has been invited too, so you’ll have some familiar faces.”

“I don’t feel well,” Josephine said, gripping his arm.

“Now, now. You mustn’t panic. I have faith in you. Be your charming self and everything shall be fine.”

Her charming self? What of her panicking self? Or the self that required regular spankings to be tamed?

He led her into the mass of aristocrats, gentlemen and ladies with coronets and medals, and ostrich-feathered turbans, and glittering rings and jewels. Her ivy necklace, which had seemed so ostentatious in her dressing room, seemed nothing more than a trinket compared to the thick ropes of gold and gems around these ladies’ necks. A tall, thin man raised a quizzing glass to regard her. She didn’t know whether to smile or look serious as he gawked at her.

“My goodness,” she murmured in Warren’s ear. “Please don’t let go of me.”

He didn’t, not once, as he introduced her to a never-ending parade of people. Some of them she recognized, but some of the older aristocrats did not socialize as much, or at least attend the balls and parties they did. They all scrutinized her with curiosity, but most were polite. Stafford was there, looking pompous and jealous, and perhaps a bit awed by how different she looked now that she wasn’t hiding in black. “He wishes he’d married you,” Warren whispered to her. “Pitiable fool.”

Aurelia’s father, the host, seemed even more pompous than Lord Stafford. He wore a ducal coronet and robes and seemed quite puffed up with his own importance. If she and Aurelia had a moment alone, they might have had a giggle about it, but her friend was occupied on her husband’s arm. Josephine did her best to copy her regal bearing, and blank her expression to one of refined hauteur.

Self-control. It’s just an act. You can do this, for your husband’s sake.

All was well and Josephine felt relatively secure until they were called inside to be seated for dinner. This task took three quarters of an hour, since people were still talking and exchanging introductions. They milled about in the soaring ballroom, which had been outfitted with two long tables set for two hundred guests. Everyone pored over the seating cards, laughing and talking before they located their assigned seats. It was considered gauche to seat husbands and wives together, so she had expected to be separated from Warren. She just hadn’t realized they would be separated quite so far.

She was near the head of one table, across from Lady Astbury and between Lord Merryworth and some other older gentleman. From a few seats down, Lord Townsend gave her a fortifying smile. Warren was halfway to the other end of the table with the Duke of Arlington, while Aurelia was seated near her mother and the Earl of Stafford at the foot of the second table. Josephine could just catch a glimpse of her husband beyond the table settings and large candelabras. He smiled and winked at her, completely at ease. Yes, she must be at ease also. She only had to dine and make polite conversation about nothing. How difficult could it be?

For a time, it wasn’t difficult at all. Lady Astbury and Lady Burke, in her immediate vicinity, were avid conversationalists—it would be unkind to call them gossips, although that was what they were. They kept up a steady stream of banter about goings-on in Parliament, and the best parties of the season, and the most notable matches between families. Josephine recalled that Lady Burke’s son had courted Minette, and so when the lady asked after “Lord Warren’s sister” in a chilly tone, Josephine assured her she was very well, and thought her son must have been one of the men Minette refused.

From there, the conversation turned to plans for travel. Lord Merryworth, whom Josephine suspected was tired of listening to Lady Burke and Lady Astbury, fixed his gaze upon her. “I believe we have a very experienced traveler in our midst. Lady Warren, is it true you grew up on an undiscovered island in the Pacific?”

Well, that was a new one. She smiled and shook her head. “I’m afraid you’ve been misinformed. I grew up in Africa and India, among other places. It’s true I’ve traveled a lot. My parents were never inclined to stay in one place.”

“Oh, you must tell us stories of your outrageous experiences,” Lady Burke exclaimed. “Africa and India! I cannot imagine the things you’ve seen.”

“I’m sorry I have no outrageous stories to tell,” she lied. In truth, she had seen thousands of outrageous things, most of which she wished she could forget. “We lived there very much as you live here, with English customs and English ways.”

There were faint murmurs of approval. Of course, it was only well and good in their mind that one would not live as a savage among savages when one was finely bred. If they knew the truth of how she’d grown up, they would snub her to the grave.

“Do you miss the wayfaring lifestyle, now that you’ve returned to England?” another gentleman asked. He, at least, didn’t seem bent on mockery, but genuinely interested. In fact, several more faces had turned their way.

“I don’t imagine Warren is eager to take you back to those places,” another man said in a booming voice.

Josephine forced a smile. “We’re exceedingly happy here in England. I don’t miss traveling, no.”

“But where on earth did you live?” asked another lady. “In huts, or tents? Where does one live in those places?”

“They have houses there,” said Josephine. “Not as grand as this one, but they have them.”

A few of them chuckled at that. An elderly gentleman next to Lady Astbury asked if Josephine spoke any primitive languages, to which she replied, truthfully, that she did not.

“But how did you communicate with your servants?” Lady Astbury asked. Her unctuous tone set Josephine’s teeth on edge. These privileged aristocrats had no idea about the larger world or what it was like in the places she’d lived. Servants? Sometimes even food and water was not a guaranteed thing. Of course she couldn’t say such things without shocking everyone.

She had no idea what to say.

“I suppose if one wanted to order servants to do various tasks, one could make one’s wishes known without formal language,” said another man.

“With a whip,” jested the elderly gentleman. “That’s how we did it in the king’s navy, when we landed on some misbegotten shore.”

Everyone laughed at this. Josephine put down her silverware and met Lord Townsend’s gaze with a beseeching look. He tried twice to steer the table’s discussion in another direction, to no avail.

“I’ve been to Africa and India both,” said the portly gentleman with the booming voice. “You must have your husband bring you to Westmoreland, Lady Warren, where you may see my many hunting trophies.”

“What are hunting trophies?” she asked, imagining medals or plaques or some such thing. Polite laughter sounded all around her.

“Hunting trophies are deceased wild animals,” said the man next to her, “skinned and mounted on the wall.”

“Yes, animals I’ve shot,” the booming fellow said proudly. “I brought down my first wild beast in Africa many years ago. Such vistas, such beautiful, wild land. My friends and I went looking for lions and giraffes and such. Amazing creatures, when you see them in their own habitat.”

Josephine took a sip of wine as those around her exclaimed how exciting that was. Exciting, to slaughter Africa’s wild animals for sport? She’d seen giraffes on the plains, and lions. And tigers too, in India…

None of these people had hearts, she was certain they didn’t. She wished she could push back her chair and go to Warren and beg him to take her home. He could spank her, bugger her, whatever he liked, anything but this vile conversation.

“There was an elephant the third day we were there,” the man went on. “We separated it from its group and I’ll tell you, it took a dozen or more shots to bring the thing to its knees.”