Letters to a Lady by Joan Smith Page A

Selena replied. Her tone was apologetic.
    Harrup clapped his hands and tried another tack. “So we are off to Drury Lane. I always enjoy Sheridan. Such a wit the man has.”
    “Do you like Sheridan, Lady Selena?” Diana asked.”I—I don’t think I have seen him act before,” Selena replied.
    “Sheridan is the playwright, Selena, not the actor,” Harrup told her.
    “Oh.”
    “ The School for Scandal is one of his best. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it,” Diana said.
    Another quiet yes hung on the air.
    Harrup, not a patient man, gave up and turned his talk to Diana. “We should have asked Peabody to join us. Why didn’t you remind me?”
    “Peabody doesn’t like going out. The fates can find her better at home.”
    “She is still the target for all malign forces, is she?” he asked, smiling.
    “Certainly. The day before we left home the postman purposely ripped the cover from her favorite periodical. It was only my vigilance that kept Jennie from destroying her blue muslin with bleach.” Diana turned to try to include Lady Selena in the conversation. “Peabody was Harrup’s nursemaid and mine. She is now my chaperon,” she explained.
    Lady Selena smiled and nodded.
    “You might as well learn her oddities,” Diana added. “Very likely she will end up running your nursery.
    Lady Selena squirmed uncomfortably. She didn’t honor this effort with a smile. Diana thought perhaps her remark was in bad taste and quickly changed the topic. “Do you have any brothers and sisters?” she asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Selena has two brothers and three sisters,” Harrup added, and filled the next few blocks with an enumeration of them and their position.
    “I have just one brother, Ronald,” Diana said, and took her turn at talking till the carriage reached Drury Lane.
    “Oh, there is Ronald now, waiting for us,” she exclaimed.
    Selena glanced out the window with moderate interest. She was surprised Miss Beecham should have such a nice-looking brother. She was afraid he would be big and old and brusque like Harrup, but he looked very sensitive and not of an overwhelming size. They alighted and Harrup made the introductions. Lady Selena cranked her courage up to curtsy and say, “I am pleased to meet you, Mr. Beecham.”
    Diana waited on thorns for Ronald to trip or step on Lady Selena’s gown or knock her evening bag from her hand. He did none of these things as he stood motionless as a stone, staring at the vision of loveliness before him. The only little embarrassment was that he fell utterly speechless. He stared, with his lower lip fallen, and didn’t say a word. He had never seen or imagined such exquisite perfection existed in the real world. She was the embodiment of Mr. Scott’s heroine, the gentle Rose Bradwardine.
    Diana took his arm, Harrup placed his hand on Lady Selena’s elbow, and the four entered the theater. Harrup had a box on the grand tier. Diana was so thrilled with the glamour of the occasion that she forgot Lady Selena. She looked around at the crowd of bejeweled ladies and elegant gentlemen and smiled happily. How wonderful it was to be in London, rubbing elbows with the tip of the ton.
    “You must be very successful, Ronald,” she said. “I want you to hire a grand house and let me be your hostess. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live here?”
    “Did you mention the position to Harrup?” Ronald asked in a low voice.
    “Not yet. He’s still considerably worried about the missing letters.”
    “That’s odd,” he said. “Cuthbert made me go out to dinner with him this evening. I hardly got a chapter read, for he chattered like a magpie all through dinner. He got an increase in his allowance from his papa and hired one of the top floor flats on Glasshouse Street—Markwell’s place, you know. I told you he had been looking at it. The strange thing is, he told me a very beautiful lady had just taken the other flat. A lady of a certain age with black hair. He didn’t mention her name,