Chapter Two
I am just come from Church my dear Love and at the Altar have implored for Blessings on your head therefore you must pay her attentions first.”
Maria huffed. “I don’t see that you go out of your way to court her either, Gordy.”
“I don’t have to because I am her son Peter’s closest friend. She loves me for his sake. But Frances, all on her own, has made up to her successfully, and this is the result.”
Nor was the new wardrobe Mrs. Dere’s only favor, as the Barstows soon discovered. For no sooner were they through the soup and the dishes laid upon the table than Mrs. Dere arched an eyebrow at the baron, and he hastened to clear his throat.
“My dear Barstows and Terrys and Mrs. Langworthy,” he began in his soft voice, acknowledging the rector and his wife and Sarah with additional nods, “you are very welcome to Perryfield on this festive occasion. And we wish you many happy returns, Frances, on your birthday. My niece Alice has an announcement to make, which I expect will delight not only our guest of honor, but, indeed, all Iffley.”
Gasps met this speech, even from the calm Mrs. Barstow, and Frances tried to turn without too much eagerness to regard her benefactress, golden-haired and gleaming at the foot of the table.
“The tale is soon told,” Mrs. Dere said complacently.
“My friends the Eveleighs have rented Greenwood Hall for the summer in order to host a house party. Many of you are acquainted with the Eveleighs because they have visited here several times, but for those of you who have yet to meet them, Mr. Stanton Eveleigh is the provost of Oriel and his wife Dorothy a former schoolmate of mine.”
“I—had thought Greenwood Hall was still let to Mr. Alexander Beck,” said Mrs. Barstow.
A slight tightening of Mrs. Dere’s lips met this, and she was not alone in having a long memory for the said Mr. Beck’s misdeeds.
Since his first occupation of the Hall, however, Mr. Beck now only used it on occasion, bringing down parties of friends from London for a few weeks and never associating with the villagers when he did.
“He is indeed still the primary tenant,” Mrs. Dere admitted, “but he has agreed to sublet the property.”
“How lovely,” said Mrs. Barstow. “Your friends will make a pleasant addition to our community. I hope they will find Greenwood Hall all they could ask.”
“Yes. The provost’s apartments at Oriel are not overlarge, and certainly not spacious enough to host, say, a half-dozen guests.”
“Do they intend to have so many under their new roof?” asked the rector’s wife Mrs. Terry. “What a fit of sociability! I can only surmise their daughter Miss Eveleigh must have arrived, like our own Miss Barstow, at an interesting time in her life.”
Given Mrs. Terry’s delight in all things matchmaking-related, there was no mistaking her meaning, and their hostess did not trouble to deny it.
Was it so?
Frances, whose own gaze did not leave Mrs. Dere’s face, saw the latter give an infinitesimal nod of acknowledgement.
Ah, then.
It had been four years since Mrs. Dere spoke of bringing Frances out after they attended the play at the tennis court.
Four years since she compared the prospects of a Jane Eveleigh to a Frances Barstow and declared that Frances, poor though she was, might yet set the fashion.
And though Frances had never again alluded to the conversation, she had of course not forgotten it, and now she understood that the “interesting time” was upon her as well.
She was to be brought out.
It was all part of the whole. The dresses. The house party. A friendship with Miss Eveleigh to be encouraged.
And possibly—the introduction of her potential husband!
Feeling her heart speed and her palms dampen, Frances dropped her eyes to her plate. Dear, dear. It was all well and good to talk of eligible gentlemen at a distance of four years, but now—!
Surely Mrs. Dere would take care that any young man invited to Greenwood Hall would be sifted ahead of time for his suitability.
Which meant the only matter Mrs. Eveleigh and Mrs. Dere must decide was which gentleman would be designated for each young lady, so that they did not work at cross purposes.
Or would they toss them all together and take their chances, even at the risk of one girl carrying away all the hearts?
“Do you know, madam, whom the Eveleighs intend to invite?” spoke up Sarah, and Frances could have kissed her for asking what she did not dare.
“You are acquainted with one of the guests already,” replied Mrs. Dere. “You remember George Denver, who was a pupil with Mr. Terry for some years?”
“George!” cried both Terrys in delight, Mrs. Terry clapping her hands.
“Certainly we do!” cried Maria. “It was when I was much younger, when we first came. Mrs. Terry, you had planned a children’s ball, but George—Mr. Denver, I suppose I should call him—broke his ankle or something of the sort. I was very disappointed.”
“As was I,” agreed Mrs. Terry. “And then you all went and held a children’s ball when Mr. Terry and I were away in Italy.
A sad shame. George will have to make it up to me now by dancing a great deal this summer.
But why should he have to stay under the Eveleighs’ roof, when the rectory is so close at hand?
Not to mention, George is too young to marry Miss Eveleigh. ”
“Dorothy—Mrs. Eveleigh—tells me he is a cousin of theirs, and that cousinship serves as a bridge to inviting two other cousins,” Mrs. Dere replied.
“The first is a Miss Jarvis, spinster companion to Miss Eveleigh, and the other is Dorothy’s cousin’s nephew by marriage Mr. Miles Midgecomb, now a fellow at Oxford, or a ‘Student’ as they call them at Christ Church.
Mr. Midgecomb is a grandson of the Earl Witherwood and possessor of a tidy fortune.
He has two boon companions, also dons, and all three have accepted the Eveleighs’ invitation.
With Miss Eveleigh herself, that will make six young people at Greenwood.
But I suppose you might invite young Denver to stay at the rectory, now that the connection has been made use of. ”
Mrs. Terry might appear as pleased as Punch by the coming company, but Mrs. Barstow’s brow knit. “So many gentlemen,” she murmured. “They must all be very good friends of the Eveleighs.”
“Mr. Midgecomb frequently attends Mr. Eveleigh’s lectures on the evils of strong drink,” answered Mrs. Dere briskly.
“He made a very good impression upon them, and Dean Jackson of Christ Church deems them all unexceptionable young men. As we know, one cannot be too careful in whom one introduces to one’s circle. ”
“I agree wholeheartedly, Mrs. Dere,” Mrs. Barstow rejoined, “but is it not a very odd sort of house party, where the hosts do not invite equal numbers of ladies and gentlemen? If Sarah and Frances and, I daresay, Maria do not make up some of the numbers, it will be Miss Eveleigh alone holding court. For I assume, by calling Miss Jarvis a ‘spinster companion,’ she is some years older than both Miss Eveleigh and the gentlemen.”
“She is,” conceded their hostess. “But I hope I was not remiss in promising that the young people of Iffley Cottage might be prevailed upon to take part in the Greenwood Hall amusements…? In truth, Mrs. Eveleigh asks if she may count on any or all you to consider yourselves part of the party, walking over daily to participate in the various goings-on.” Looking up the table at Sarah, she added, “Mrs. Langworthy, with your husband at sea, would he not wish you some light-hearted reprieve from too much concern?”
Sarah colored, all too aware how much time she spent fretting quietly over her husband’s safety.
As if in league with Mrs. Dere, in his most recent letter her Horace had bid her “have some fun, for heaven’s sake, and write to me of it.
It would do me good to imagine you dancing.
You might even flirt a little, that I might be eaten with jealousy and occupy myself with plotting revenge upon the rogue, when next I am on shore. ”
“I am happy to do whatever my family asks of me,” she answered in her mild way.