Chapter 26 #2
The room fell comfortably silent, and Alix glanced down at her fallen book wondering if she should reach down and pick it up. The trouble was she didn’t feel like reading.
Madeleine started another conversation. “So,” she said, snipping off a thread. “What do you think of the earl’s sister?”
“Elizabeth?” Alix answered absently. “I think she’s lively and fun.”
“Hmm,” Madeleine said, as she threaded a new color into her needle. “Lady Melbourne says she’s getting a bit of a reputation. Been dashing around the park with James Dinsmore. Just imagine if they were to marry, you’d have Anne Dinsmore as a sort of sister-in-law. How uncomfortable.”
“I don’t think Elizabeth is serious about James,” Alix said. “I think she’s just curious.”
“Some ladies think that just because they are young, nothing can harm them; their mistakes can just be chalked up to youthful high jinx.” She shook her head knowingly.
“A breath, a whisper of scandal can do irreparable harm. I’m glad you and the earl have been so discreet.
Perhaps after you’re married, you might speak with Elizabeth. ”
Alix nodded, as her mother continued on with some cautionary tale of a young girl at Versailles who’d dallied with a notorious rake.
She couldn’t focus her mind on Elizabeth, not when it was so full of Rafe.
It occurred to her that she was tired of being discreet, tired of waiting for him to return.
Madeleine’s story reached its shocking crescendo.
“And so they caught the girl dressed in a footman’s livery climbing out the window to meet her lover! ”
Alix made the appropriate noises to reassure her mother that she was listening to the story and understood its intent.
Madeleine finished with a flourish. “And she died an old woman locked away in a convent.” She sighed dramatically. “But we should not be speaking of such sad subjects. We should be talking of happier things, such as your wedding. Have you thought about what you might like to wear?”
Alix hadn’t. Wedding dresses had been among the furthest thoughts from her mind.
“I won’t do it, mademoiselle,” Ginny blustered later that afternoon when she’d finished setting up Alix’s tea and the two of them were alone. “That’s scandalous behavior and I could lose my job if you were caught and anyone found out I’d helped you.”
“And sure as anything you would be caught,” she added indignantly. “
“Oh Ginny, it’s not scandalous, he’s my husband. And besides, I traveled halfway across France without getting caught. I can certainly make a few blocks across town.”
Ginny dug her meaty hands into her hips and glared obstinately.
“Oh come now, Ginny. You’ve snuck Jervis in and out the back stairs dozens of times and no one’s been the wiser.”
“That’s different, no one cares what a maid servant does, so long as she’s quiet about it and doesn’t get herself in a family way.”
“Well, that’s my point, who’s going to notice what a maid and a footman accompanying her are about?”
Ginny frowned. “I still don’t like it.”
“It’ll be a quick trip. I’ll be back before anyone even notices I’ve been gone,” Alix cajoled. “You do still have the footman’s livery you borrowed for Jervis?”
Ginny nodded reluctantly.
Alix laughed. “It won’t be the first time I’ve borrowed Jervis’s things. Besides, I have a notion those britches will fit me far better.”
Ginny gave a scandalized gasp. “I don’t like it, mademoiselle, and if I were a betting woman I’d wager his lordship won’t either.”
A mischievous look came over Alix’s face and her eyes glinted like polished silver. “You let me worry about his lordship, Ginny. I’ve a fair idea how to change his mind.”
The next day Alix refused to let her curtains be opened, bemoaning the effects of a murderous headache.
When her mother came to sit with her, she complained that the slightest light or sound in the room sent spasms through her head, and begged to be left alone.
Madeleine wondered aloud whether a doctor should be sent for, but Alix assured her she’d often suffered through such migraines and that when it passed, probably by the next day, she’d be right as rain again.
All she needed, she said in a weak voice, was a bit of tea, a dose of laudanum, and to be left undisturbed.
As Alix had hoped, Madeleine instructed Ginny to fetch some laudanum and to make sure that Mademoiselle was left in peace. As soon as her mother had left the room, Alix was up and out of the bed.
“Very good, Ginny, let me see what you’ve got,” she said eagerly, pulling her chemise over her head.
“It’s disgraceful, that’s what it is,” Ginny muttered, as she began pulling clothes out of a pillowcase she’d tucked under Alix’s bed. “Lying to Lady Melbourne and your poor mother like that. I’ll be sacked for sure.”
“You won’t, Ginny,” Alix declared as she pulled on a pair of men’s drawers, stockings, and white wool britches.
“That’s what you say,” her maid responded. “Here, let me tie your stock for you, it looks all crooked.”
Alix buttoned up her white waistcoat and then raised her head so Ginny could arrange her stock properly.
“And your hair, mademoiselle. How are we going to hide all that hair?”
“We’ll twist it into one long plait, tuck it down the back of this great oversized coat and then put the wig on top.”
Ginny cast her a dubious look, then turned her around and began braiding, pulling the hair tight to communicate her disapproval.
“If anything shows, I can toss a muffler around my neck to cover it. It is getting a bit cold out these days anyway.”
Ginny was still wondering how her mistress had talked her into such a mad scheme when she left the house a short time later, accompanied by a slight footman in a too-large jacket and a muffler.