Free Sally James by Otherwise Engaged

heavy-eyed and listless, Prudence came downstairs, although she refused to drive out with her aunt or to discuss Lord Mottesford's offer, saying it was all at an end and she had no wish ever to hear his name or his offer mentioned again.
    When Charlotte came to see how she was, however, exclaiming at her wan looks, she did her utmost to hide her lack of spirits from her friend, explaining she had suffered from a cold.
    'But you will be well enough to come to our masquerade, won't you? Charlotte asked urgently. 'I wouldn't dare to wear the toga if you were not there, to give me support by wearing your own.'
    'Of course I will come,' Prudence said, although with a heavy heart. Lord Mottesford was bound to be there, and she dreaded meeting him again. If he spoke to her she could not snub him as she would like to do, for that would cause comment and odious speculation. But she determined that neither would she dance with him, nor permit him to speak privately with her.
    'Not that he is likely to wish to,' she said under her breath.
    'I beg your pardon?' Charlotte asked.
    'I'm sorry, I was not attending. Your toga, you asked? I have finished mine.'
    'Good. So have I. I finished the hem after I smuggled it into my room. Emma is practising all day in her hoops,' she confided with a giggle. 'She prances about in her room in front of a mirror, and rehearses going sideways through the dining room door, because it isn't wide enough for her to pass otherwise.'
    'Is your mama going to wear a gown like that?' Prudence asked suddenly, unable to visualise the sight the plump and short Lady Mottesford would present if she donned the wide skirts of her youth.
    'No, she has ordered a costume as a shepherdess,' Charlotte revealed. 'It is so short her ankles show! And she intends to carry a crook, but the problem is that the only one she could find is over six feet high, and it is rather difficult to manage, especially going through doorways.'
    Confronted with the image of Lady Mottesford practising carrying her crook through doors where Emma was edging through sideways, Prudence suddenly dissolved into helpless giggles. She must attend the masquerade if only to see this. And she had promised Charlotte, so there was no going back.
    She would have to meet Lord Mottesford again some day, unless she wished to spend all her life hidden behind doors, she told herself firmly. It was, after all, his fault in the first place they were at odds, so if anyone were to be ashamed of the affair it ought to be he.
    When the day of the masquerade arrived, however, not even the spectacle afforded by Lady Mottesford, arrayed in sprigged muslin, and coyly displaying her thickening ankles, while clinging as if for support to her crook, and Emma in full sail across the ballroom in a striped pink and yellow damask gown as wide as it was long, could distract Prudence from her nervous anticipation of how Lord Mottesford would behave.
    'I do like your toga,' a rather pale Charlotte said, looking at the straight white garment edged with gold braid which Prudence wore so splendidly. 'Mama was furious when she saw mine,' she confided to Prudence as soon as she could detach her friend from the rest of the Frome party. 'She almost sent me back to my room, forbidding me to attend the masquerade, until it occurred to her it would look decidedly odd if I were not at my own ball.'
    'Was she horrid?' Prudence asked sympathetically. 'Did you tell her it was my fault, as I suggested.'
    'Of course not. I do not intend to blame you for my actions. I just hate it when she shouts,' Charlotte said with a shudder. 'She used to shout at Papa after they were married. I think it started when Emily – Emma came to live at Trelawn Manor, for I know Papa was angry he had not been told anything about her. But at least I am not wearing that ghastly dress. I don't care what she does to me afterwards!'
    'What can she do?' Prudence said bracingly. 'She will no doubt have forgotten all about it by