Clapping her hands together, Lady Cassandra rocked back with a delighted chortle. “Oh, this is excellent! You are being forced into this absurdity just like me.” She straightened and looked directly into Fiona’s eyes. “Now we don’t have to do it alone.” Her gaze shot to Prudence, who stood to Fiona’s right. “But I suppose you weren’t anyway. You have a supportive young companion—a friend.” She sounded…envious.
“And now I have another friend. You must call me Fiona.”
“Then you must call me Cassandra. We will make the best of the time we have left. Hopefully we can delay having to accept a proposal until the very end of the Season.”
“That would be lovely. I, er, haven’t told Lord Overton that I don’t wish to wed. I don’t think he’d understand.” Then again, Fiona hadn’t been sure Cassandra would either.
“Probably not. Men like him have a duty to marry, and women like us are expected to fulfill that duty.” Cassandra lip curled ever so slightly. “And why don’t you want to marry?”
“It’s so…final. And limiting? I’ve been stuck in a very small town with very few options for so very long.”
“That’s a great many verys.”
“It’s so very lovely to be somewhere else. With other people.”
“You want to experience some freedom,” Cassandra said with an understanding smile. “As much freedom as we’re allowed anyway.” She looked toward Prudence. “What are you doing to help Fiona?”
“We walked to Hyde Park yesterday morning since she hadn’t been there.”
“An excellent start.” Cassandra turned her gaze back to Fiona. “Monday we must go to Gunter’s.”
“Lord Overton is taking me to the British Museum on Monday. I can hardly wait.”
“Tuesday then. We must also visit Hatchards, Fortnum and Mason, and it would be ever so wonderful to take you shopping in Cheapside.” She frowned. “I’m not allowed to do that, but my aunt has secretly taken me twice.”
Fiona grinned, so glad she’d met Cassandra. “That all sounds splendid. I want to see everything.”
“And the Phoenix Club!” Cassandra exclaimed. “That’s the best part of finally having a Season. Now I can see for myself what takes up so much of my brother’s time.”
“What is the Phoenix Club?” Fiona asked.
“For us, it’s like Almack’s but so much better.” Cassandra paused, riveting her gaze to Fiona. “Are you familiar with Almack’s?”
“Only that there are weekly balls later in the Season, and one of the patronesses must invite you or something.”
“That’s about right. It’s very exclusive and is the premier location of the Marriage Mart. It’s also dreadfully boring, and the food and drink are atrocious.” Cassandra made a face. “Not that I’ve been yet, of course, but that’s what my brother says.”
Fiona tried to follow everything Cassandra said. There were so many places and people to remember. “Aldington goes to Almack’s but spends most of his time at the Phoenix Club?”
“My apologies, I have two brothers,” Cassandra said with a smile. “Aldington thinks Almack’s is pleasant—that’s what he says about most things, which renders his opinion almost moot—and he’s never been to the Phoenix Club because he isn’t a member. My other brother, Lucien, owns the Phoenix Club, and he finds Almack’s dreadful. I suppose that’s one of the reasons he founded his club.”
Her mind swimming, Fiona wanted to know more about this club that Cassandra was so keen to visit. “What’s so exceptional about the Phoenix Club? And why wouldn’t Aldington be a member if your other brother is the owner?”
“The club is very exclusive, perhaps even more so than Almack’s, though not at all in the same way. Members of the Phoenix Club are more likely to be found on the periphery, or even on the outside, of a ballroom. People like my eldest brother—staid, respectable heirs with every possible privilege—are not generally invited to join.”
“How fascinating. Do people like Aldington want to be members?”
“Some do. Others pretend they’re above it, that its membership is lacking.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial volume. “I suspect those people are envious and would enthusiastically accept an invitation if it were offered.”
“I wonder what prompted your brother to establish such a place.” Fiona rather liked the sound of it.
“He and Con are complete opposites. Where Con is solemn and restrained, Lu is gregarious and…indecorous.” Cassandra grinned. “On occasion. Lucien found the typical gentlemen’s clubs a bit too stiff. The Phoenix Club is his answer. The best part is that the club has a ladies’ side. A women’s version of White’s, if you will.”
“Indeed? How marvelous. You said you were glad to finally be able to see it now that you’re having a Season. Does that mean I can go too?” Fiona hoped so.
Cassandra’s mouth compressed into a brief pout. “No. And neither can I, unless it’s to attend one of their assemblies, which they host every Friday starting in March.”
“Then we’ll do that,” Fiona said eagerly, despite hearing the edge of pessimism in Cassandra’s voice. “Unless there’s some reason we can’t?”
“Our sponsors must be members of the club for us to attend an assembly. Unfortunately, my aunt is not a member, and I don’t think Lady Pickering is either.”
“My goodness, the Phoenix Club does sound exclusive,” Fiona said. “And wonderfully progressive. I’m astounded that women have their own side of the club.”
“And they are allowed to enter the men’s side on Tuesdays.”
“We can’t be members?” Fiona was certain the answer was no but wanted to be sure she’d understood everything correctly.
Cassandra shook her head. “We must be married or widowed.” She pursed her lips a moment. “Or perhaps we can be spinsters. I can’t recall. In any case, an assembly is the only time we can see the interior, and we’ll be kept to the ladies’ half of the building and the ballroom, which is shared with the men’s side. We are not allowed to visit any
