CHAPTER 23
THE SOCIAL SEASON
The season traditionally began when Her Majesty returned to London to reside from the end of March to July. I became embroiled in an uncomfortable amount of socializing, receiving invitations to balls and dinners, where I was forced to endure small-talk with ladies and gentlemen whom I found completely tedious company.
Leopold returned to London as planned and much to Blake’s ire, his father, Baron Maximillian, a rather jolly, rotund German arrived with an entourage of attendants to ensure the young man remained on a virtuous path. It was quite a spanner in the works for the pup and it amused me greatly that Leopold could not lose himself to the infernal vices of London’s dark underbelly as he had done before. And so, Blake and Cavendish were forced to refrain from elicit meetings with the boy, and instead changed their plans to include Baron Maximillian in all evening entertainments. The Baron was close to their ages and it would have appeared peculiar for them to snub the older aristocratic gentleman and yet fawn over his youthful, foppish son.
Spending time with Sebastian and Nissa became the highlight of my day. They would collect me at my business premises each lunchtime and we would go to a tea room and then take a walk in one of London’s many gardens. I took it upon myself to educate Nissa in art and antiques. Like her father, she had an eye for quality and was a quick study. When at parties, Nissa and Leo made quite the spectacle. They’d become fast friends and found much common ground as both enjoyed dancing and together, gave a visually striking performance, with the long-haired blond pretty Baron in silks, and Rajkumari Nissa in the traditional Indian dress known as Lehenga Choli. The garment, which scandalously displayed the taut tanned skin of her midriff turned heads and ensured the rumour mill worked overtime. And while there were clutched pearls, gasps of displeasure and fluttering fans from the older ladies, the men of the ton appeared intrigued by the exotic pea-hen display as much as debutantes. It surprises me to say that I found the entire debacle rather entertaining. Nissa was not seeking validation from the stuffy Dames and Duchesses and they were not happy, not one bit. And so London society did not have a pigeon hole in which she would fit.
Nissa also proved to be an excellent spy. She was made party to conversations between Cavendish, Blake, and Leo, and found out the location of the Cavendish house, outside of London, where we would assemble at Easter. She also learned that afterward Lawrence Blake was planning a tour of English cities to speak on spiritualism and share his mystical insights of beyond the veil. I deduced that, no matter what occurred at the final ritual, Blake planned to grow his support for his quackery, and bolster his finances through yet more lies and deceit. Sadly, from all I’d witnessed at the talks on spiritualism, the idiom was true, a fool and his money are soon parted!
The outcome of this daily socializing was that within a week not only was Baron Maximillian convinced that his son had found a good match. He decided it was appropriate to return to Germany and leave his son to enjoy London until the couple could be married. The event, that I knew would never occur, was set for a year hence.
And not a moment too soon, because Lawrence Blake’s patience had run thin. His private time with the boy was curtailed by his father’s presence, and so, as soon as Maximillian and his party were gone, Blake whisked Leo away to Cavendish’s country house, the very house we would all congregate at to complete his great work at Easter.
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