The Spider's Touch by Patricia Wynn Page A

gratification his comment gave her, but she felt a smile digging mercilessly into her cheeks.
    Fortunately, Harrowby and Colonel Potter chose that moment to stroll up, and since they were in the middle of a discussion about the horse Harrowby planned to enter in the horse matches next week, Lord Lovett joined in before she had to form a response. His final look at her was so provoking, however, that Hester’s heart quickened its pace.
    With the gentlemen next to her, she could finally listen to Colonel Potter’s conversation. He seemed amazingly well-informed about Lord Hawkhurst’s business. The questions he asked had the air of being rehearsed. Clearly, he was doing his best to impress Harrowby with the talents he could bring to the post of secretary.
    Lord Lovett had introduced him into their house, however, and the things he had said today made Hester wonder where his own loyalties lay. In the past two weeks, he had grown much freer with his jokes about the King, but so had many others as the ridicule in the streets had spread into the houses. Even Harrowby had been known to giggle at the King’s expense.
    Was Lord Lovett, with his clever tongue, simply indulging himself and his friends with a bit of harmless truth? Or was there something more serious behind his jests?
    She did not know anything of his circumstances, merely that he held a barony in Scotland, which was hardly likely to support him very well in town. He often dined at his friends’ expense, as gentlemen with minor fortunes frequently did. With his clever mind, she would rather have seen him in more worthy employment, but the sound of Isabella’s unrestrained laughter reminded her that very few peers or their wives ever turned their attention from pleasure to endeavour. There would always be people so wrapped up in their own entertainment as to be impervious even to the tensions that could erupt around them and ruin their lives.
    Isabella was certainly one of these. And Sir Humphrey appeared to be, too, as he joined them with his fluttery gestures and his customary breathless excitement.
    He knew everyone, of course, and greeted them with affection. He seemed not to notice the frown with which Colonel Potter acknowledged him.
    He had not been with them a minute before a tall, elegant lady came up behind him and touched him on the sleeve. In a heavy French accent, she said, “Ah, Sir Humphrey, here you are, my dear. How charming to see you! Will you present me to your friends?”
    A French accent was not entirely surprising at Court, with so many foreigners about. Sir Humphrey greeted her cheerfully, declaring that he had been meaning to seek her out, but she refused to let him forget the introduction she had requested.
    He presented Lady Oglethorpe, first to Harrowby and Isabella, then to Mrs. Mayfield and Hester. “You already know Lovett and Potter, of course.”
    The two gentlemen made their bows. There was a stiffness in Colonel Potter’s bow, however, which Hester was at pains to comprehend. In the very carelessness of his introduction Sir Humphrey had implied that they knew Lady Oglethorpe well, that in fact they were friends and not merely acquaintainces. Yet her proximity seemed to make Colonel Potter nervous, as if he would rather have had the power of denying her. Hester might have questioned her instinct or taken herself to task for a fanciful imagination, if the Colonel, who had stuck stubbornly close to Harrowby all evening, had not soon excused himself.
    He took Lord Lovett with him, and they disappeared into the crowd.
    If Lady Oglethorpe was in any way offended by their departure, she did not let on as she latched on to Isabella. “I was fortunate to find Sir Humphrey with you, for I have been wishing very much to meet the enchanting Lady Hawkhurst I have heard so much about. And now that we have met, you must promise to visit me. My house is in the Palace-Yard. You must come to take tea with me and my daughters—or better—come in