Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 04] by Dangerous Lady Page A

think them too pale.”
    “You should use a bit of rouge perhaps.”
    “I don’t like rouge, nor do I have time for more primping. I ought to go.”
    “Your shoes, Miss Letty!”
    Letty chuckled, slipping out of the black slippers she had worn with her challis gown and into the green silk ones that Jenifry held ready for her. “Now?”
    Solemnly, Jenifry nodded.
    Letty turned to Miss Dibble. “Will you wait for me here, Elvira, or do you prefer to return to Jervaulx House?”
    “I shall await your return here, of course.”
    “Well, I don’t know why you say of course. In your place, I’m sure I should prefer the warmth and comfort of Jervaulx House, and if you think for a minute that I shan’t be able to get home without you, you are much mistaken. I’ll be on duty only until dinner unless she invites me to join the party dining with her. Even in that event, I can manage to send word to you when and where to send the carriage to fetch me. Indeed, perhaps I can arrange for a palace carriage to take me home when my duties here are done.”
    “I will wait, Letitia. Moreover, Lucas, Jonathan, and Jenifry also will wait.”
    “Very well, ma’am, I won’t debate the matter with you. Indeed, I daresay I shall be most grateful to see all your friendly faces by the end of this day.”
    Letty found the duchess’s footman standing silently outside her door with Lucas. She expected the palace footman to take her directly to the queen, rather daunting though that prospect was. Still, it was with mixed emotions that she discovered he was returning her to the Duchess of Sutherland’s sitting room.
    Rising, the duchess greeted her, then looked her over critically.
    Letty stood calmly, awaiting her verdict.
    “Quite suitable,” the duchess said at last, adding as she held out an object mounted on a white-ribbon bow, “You must wear your badge of office.”
    The badge proved to be a miniature of the queen surrounded by diamonds. The duchess helped Letty pin it to her bodice, saying, “You have style, Letitia. I believe Her Majesty will be pleased to approve of you.”
    A half hour later, however, when the duchess presented her to the queen, who sat amidst her ladies in a vast, elegantly appointed drawing room, Victoria frowned. “You have our permission to rise, Lady Letitia. We remember you well, as it happens. Your papa has kept his family in France for many years, has he not?”
    “Yes, Your Majesty,” Letty replied as she arose from her curtsy. “Having faithfully served the Crown at our Paris embassy, he returns home next month only because my grandfather’s death nine months ago makes it both inconvenient and unwise for him to delay any longer in taking up his duties at Jervaulx Abbey.”
    “That gown is French, is it not,” Victoria said abruptly, adding before Letty could reply, “We insist that our ladies wear only English-made clothing. Perhaps no one informed you of that fact.”
    “One naturally hesitates to contradict Your Majesty, but this gown is entirely English, ma’am. An English dressmaker fashioned it from fine English silk.”
    “Indeed?” Victoria looked at the gown more narrowly. “It is well made, certainly, but have you not just recently arrived in England?”
    “Yes, ma’am. However, you will doubtless recall that last year you asked all the ladies attending your coronation to wear only English-made gowns. Thus, knowing then that I would be in London for the Season this year—even before you so graciously invited me to serve you here at court—my mother and I ordered a number of gowns to be made according to this year’s English fashions.”
    “Indeed. You must have found a most wonderful woman for her to have made them fit you so well, what with you in France and she here in England.”
    “Sarah Glass is very skilled, to be sure, ma’am, but she did not fit me sight unseen. Once we knew I was to serve at court, my father sent for her, and she very kindly traveled all the way