What had come over her? These were such strange, alien feelings.
But she could never say they were unpleasant. In spite of her embarrassment over her lack of skill, she was enjoying every moment. She was even looking forward to going to the Upper Assembly Rooms that night—just to prolong her time with her two new friends.
Once Lord Appleton deemed her skilled enough to dance with him that evening, her father and Fur Blossom departed, and she went upstairs to try on one of Miss Appleton’s gowns.
“I love your bedchamber,” she said. The room looked like something Miss Appleton would have selected for it reminded Dot of the lady. The papered walls featured pale yellow flowers and soft greenery on a cream background. The chamber’s two tall casements were framed with the lichen-coloured draperies in silk, the same silk that enclosed the full tester bed.
Miss Appleton’s maid soon brought down a pair of dresses. One was snow white, the other rose. “With your luxuriously dark hair and honeyed skin,” Miss Appleton said, “I think the white will be stunning on you.”
Honeyed skin sounded much better than saddle leather! How kindly Miss Appleton was.
Dot did not see how anything could be stunning on someone as unfashionably dark as she. How she longed to be as fair as Miss Appleton! But she respected this lady’s opinion on matters of taste.
She tried on the white dress and stood before the cheval glass to look at herself. The woman in the looking glass looked nothing like her! Were her hair arranged with any degree of competence—something Dot lacked—that woman might look . . . well, attractive.
Her gaze lowered to her breasts. So much of her breasts had never shown before. She wondered if Miss Appleton’s were as large as hers, for Dot’s looked far fuller than most young women’s. Colour rose to her cheeks.
Of course, she could not be seen like this.
“Oh, Miss Pankhurst, I was right! You are stunning. My brother’s apt to be rapturously captivated by you!”
Dot’s face grew even hotter. The notion of Lord Appleton noticing that part of her body mortified her. And she could never captivate a fine man like him! “You are a very great prevaricator, Miss Appleton.”
The lady shook her head adamantly. “You are most lovely. You positively must wear this tonight!”
“But look at . . .” Dot could not bring herself to mention that part of her anatomy. “At the immodesty!”
Miss Appleton tossed her head back and laughed. “All the women will be displaying themselves in such a manner tonight. It’s just that Nature has most kindly endowed you. Never be embarrassed by that. Men admire women with bounteous chests.”
“But my Papa!”
“Your father will swell a hundredfold with pride that his daughter is so singularly admired.” Miss Appleton came closer and lifted the back of Dot’s hair. “You must have your maid fashion your hair in the Grecian style.”
Dot felt embarrassed once again. “But I have no maid.” Papa had been insisting that she needed a maid now that she was in Bath, and she kept insisting that she didn’t.
“Then you must use mine. Just for tonight. Please say you’ll stay here. My maid can dress your hair. You’ll be astonishingly beautiful.”
“I have already been such an imposition on you.”
“Not at all. It’s fun having you here since my sisters are visiting our cousins in Weymouth. I didn’t like to leave Timothy alone. He still feels dreadful about inheriting after the death of our eldest brother, whom we lost just this past year. He took lung fever and died at the age of two-and-thirty.”
Dot’s face collapsed sympathetically. “My mother died of lung fever at four-and-twenty. Papa took it hard. He’s never remarried.”
“How old were you?”
“I was almost three.”
“I don’t suppose you even remember her?”
Dot shook her head. “Not at all. It’s always been just me and Papa. And my cats.”
Miss Appleton then settled her hand upon Dot’s. “Now you’re going to have new friends.”
Miss Appleton and her brother were the most genuinely welcoming people she could ever imagine. How fortunate she was to have met them.
“If you’re certain you don’t object,” Dot said, “I’ll go down and send Papa and Fur Blossom home, and I’ll stay here to dress for tonight’s fete.”
* * *
While Becca was dressing Miss Pankhurst’s hair, Appleton requested a word with his sister, and then closed the door to his library behind them. She looked queerly at him. “What’s all the secrecy about?”
“I beg a private word with you. That’s all. Please.” He waved her toward the emerald sofa. “Sit before the fire. It’s been beastly cold today.”
“Unless one is dancing.”
He smiled as he came to sit beside her. “You have an admirer who’s persuaded me to introduce you to him tonight.”
“And?”
“And he will request a dance.”
She nodded.
“You may dance with him once, and once only. Without going into particulars, allow me to say the man is unworthy of you.”
“What is the man’s name?”
His lips compressed, a distasteful look on his face. “Henry Wolf.”
“From where is it you know him?”
“Eton.”
“Was he a friend to you and Sir Elvin and Lord Sedgewick and the others?”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t say any of us were friends with him. Acquaintances.”
“How does he know me?”
Appleton shrugged. “I believe he once admired you at Almack’s.”
Annie had much to recommend her. Many, many men had been attracted to her loveliness. And her attributes did not stop with the physical. She came from a high-born family, was possessed of a sweet nature, and displayed uncommon good sense. She also demonstrated persistently excellent taste in all she did, but especially in her selection of
