Free Sally James by At the Earls Command

cried, rushing towards the booth. 'Mama, what's amiss?'
    Mr Shore turned round, an anxious look on his face. 'Your mama swooned, my dear. I shall have to take her home.'
    'Oh, Mama!' Chloe sank down on her knees to take her mother's limp hand in hers.
    Mrs Shore tried to smile. 'I feel better now,' she whispered. 'Thanks to this kind lady. I am sorry, I haven't your name,' she added as she looked towards the stranger.
    'That's no matter. But you ought to go home at once, Ma'am, you're in no state for jollifications,' the woman said robustly, in a slight Cockney accent.
    'I shall be quite all right now,' Mrs Shore insisted, but was greeted with a chorus of protest from her family.
    'You are going home, my love.'
    'Mama, you're much worse than you pretended.'
    'I'll go and find the carriage, shall I, Father?'
    'Yes, Martin, if you'll be so kind, and when your mother is feeling better we'll follow you.'
    'No! Chloe was so looking forward to this, and I cannot spoil it for her and Kate,' Mrs Shore protested, but weakly.
    Luke, who had remained in the background while her husband and children fussed round Mrs Shore, now spoke.
    'Would you entrust the girls to us, Ma'am? Then you could go home quietly with Mr Shore. You could send the carriage back for us and we will escort them home immediately after the firework display.'
    Mr Shore looked dubious, but his wife bit her lip and breathed a sigh of relief.
    'Of course, Luke. You and Martin will take good care of them, I know.'
    It was agreed, and the girls sat in the booth with Luke while Martin helped his father take Mrs Shore to the carriage. After a while the novelty of the scene, and Luke's continued reassurances that Mrs Shore would be better once she was at home, restored their spirits, and they spent the time watching the fashionable people strolling past the booths, trying to guess who they were, and laughing at some of the more extreme examples of fashion.
    'Just look at those shirt points!' Chloe giggled. 'He can't turn his head, he has to turn right round to speak to anyone! And isn't that purple and yellow waistcoat dreadful? I wonder who they are?'
    'They're taking the booth opposite. And those ladies are with them. Oh!' Kate breathed, her eyes wide with astonishment as one of the females in the group removed her cloak to reveal an indecently low cut gown.
    Chloe gasped. 'Do you suppose they are females of the muslin company?' she asked in a whisper. 'Shall I ask Luke?'
    'I don't think you should talk about such things to a man,' Kate replied with mock severity. 'I've never seen a gown cut so low,' she added. 'I wonder that it stays up!'
    'Some of the ladies in other booths are wearing gowns almost as low,' Chloe said thoughtfully, 'and they can't all be that sort of female.'
    'What would people say if one of us wore a gown like it?' Kate said, her eyes beginning to dance.
    Chloe turned to stare at her. 'You wouldn't!'
    Kate shrugged. 'It might be fun, but only if we were masked, of course!'
    Before Chloe could reply Martin came back. He reported that his mother had felt much better by the time they had reached the carriage. She'd said they were not to worry about her, but were to enjoy the rest of the evening.
    'So shall we order supper now, or go and dance first?' he concluded.
    They all wanted to dance, and although out of politeness Luke once asked Kate to dance with him, Martin partnered her for the rest of the time. She had only had a couple of lessons which Mrs Rhydd had insisted on, but she proved an apt pupil. To her annoyance she found that Martin, unlike Luke, was a relatively unskilled dancer, stumbling his way through the sets.  When they waltzed he preferred to hover on the outskirts of the throng rather than, as Kate would have liked, swirl elegantly in the midst of the dancers.
    To her relief Adam and his mistress were nowhere to be seen. It was only on their way back to the supper booth that she saw them. Adam and a party of other people were eating in