Free Lady Sarah's Redemption by Beverley Eikli

know
how to dance.”
    Sarah cocked her eyebrow. “But not to waltz. I don’t believe I’ve
ever heard of a debutante who doesn’t waltz in this day and age. Excuses like that
are the preserve of dried-out spinsters, like me.” Sarah held out her hand to
Caro. “Come, Lady Charlotte has brought her three nieces to visit. They’re in
the drawing room and anxious to meet you.”
    Reluctantly, Caro followed Sarah downstairs.
    Sarah entered the room with a smile. “Lady Charlotte, this is just
what Caro needs: company, and a spur to learning her dance steps. We are short
of gentlemen, however my Mama used to employ a broomstick on occasion when
teaching us, and I’m sure there is very little difference.”
    Lady Charlotte waved an imperious hand from her seat by the fire.
“This is young Georgiana and her older sister Philly who will be coming out
with Caro next year. I have the dubious pleasure of playing duenna to the young
ladies while their mother is indisposed. It hasn’t taken me long to discover
that young ladies need a great deal of amusement.” She looked as if she were
already fatigued by her duties.
    “My, and don’t I know it,” exclaimed Cecily, catching her last words
as she entered the room. “Certainly, useful recreation is to be recommended,
and dancing, while some might reckon it distinctly un-useful, is an
indispensible accomplishment.” She directed a pointed look at Caro as she
seated herself upon the piano stool. “I shall accompany but first we must find
Cosmo. Yes! And Mr Hawthorne too for it is intolerable to have no gentlemen
with whom to practice when there are two perfectly able-bodied ones in this
very house. Mabel,” she said to the parlour maid who had just answered her summons,
“fetch Master Cosmo and Mr Hawthorne. Tell them to present themselves in the
drawing room at their earliest convenience. Also, find Dorrington to arrange
for their dancing shoes to be brought down.”
    Mention of Mr Hawthorne made Sarah’s heartbeat do a little dance
while heat rose in her cheeks. She pushed Caro into the centre of the room.
    “What a treat to have an impromptu dancing lesson, Miss Hawthorne,”
said Philly, dimpling as she smoothed her sprigged muslin skirts over her ample
hips. Her round, ruddy face was flushed with pleasure. “Aunt Charlotte is
sponsoring me for the season, you know. She says you’re not fond of dancing,
but surely it is an accomplishment a girl cannot do without.”
    “That and never revealing when she feels at a disadvantage,” came
Lady Charlotte’s stentorian tones.
    Well, no one was going to know the extent to which the governess
felt at a disadvantage, thought Sarah, as the door opened and Mr Hawthorne
strode into the room.
    It was immediately clear that Mabel had not elaborated on the nature
of the summons for it was Mr Hawthorne who looked at a complete disadvantage,
greeted as he was by a room full of expectant ladies and his sister-in-law
jumping up from the piano stool saying, “How very good of you to come so
quickly, Mr Hawthorne. The young ladies are eager to be put through their
paces. We are having a dancing lesson, don’t you know.”
    Sarah felt a wave of sympathy as his dancing shoes were thrust in
front of him.
    “I fear, Cecily,” he said, looking pained and studiously ignoring
Sarah, “that I am not going to satisfy your demands for excellence. Surely the
young ladies have been doing country dances since they could walk?”
    “Oh, not country dances, Roland. No, we mean to perfect the waltz.”
    His eyes widened, but Sarah was able to say, soothingly, “Here comes
Cosmo. Perhaps he would prefer to take a turn with one of the young ladies.”
    “A waltz.” Cosmo beamed at the unexpected but obviously welcome
sight of such a large female contingent. “Why, I should love to render my
assistance. Who shall go first? I should hate to set the cat amongst the
pigeons by favouring one pretty girl above the other.”
    Clearly gratified by