Daughter of Trade Read online

  CHAPTER ONE

  "Who can those gentlemen be?" Miss Dinah Driffield asked her younger sister. Her curiosity piqued, she studied the two new arrivals to the well-appointed, elegant ballroom of the Dragon Hotel.

  "Which gentlemen?" Miss Adelaide echoed, while gazing about the overheated, busy chamber. More than five and seventy of the most fashionable visitors to Upper and Lower Harrowgate were crowded into the ballroom. The day had been hot and airless, and it had waned into evening with little diminution of the heat.

  "The gentlemen whom the host is scurrying to welcome." Miss Driffield was discreet about her inquisitive stare. She had thought she knew every resident in the town, by sight at least, and had a familiarity with the identities of the regular summer visitors. After all, she had been attending at the Dragon's public balls for three years, having spent every summer of the past ten years in Low Harrowgate. But she had never seen these young men. "Good gracious! They are very fine but they look as out of place as two South Downs among a flock of Swaledales."

  Her sister--her junior by a year--was a little taller, a little more fair of colouring, and rather more conventionally pretty than Dinah. She turned away and flicked open her fan. "Whoever they are I shall not stare. And you cannot mean to compare them to sheep! Don't be common," Adelaide said from behind the painted silk.

  "The wool of sheep indirectly provided the very lovely gown you wear; it is surely not vulgar to speak with respect of the author of our prosperity." She chuckled. "Those sheep are very handsome and so too are these gentlemen. You may turn again to look without detection. Everyone in the room is staring at them."

  Indeed a brief, breathless hush had enveloped the busy assemblage. The air, heavy with perfumes and pomades, was very still, though the sash windows were open to admit whatever breeze might arise. A vivid sunset could be glimpsed by anyone inattentive to the shifting currents of the ballroom.

  Adelaide lowered her fan enough that she could survey the two gentlemen. "Oh, my!"

  The newcomers were attending with every appearance of interest to the functionary of the hotel who acted as host to the Monday balls. They were incidentally standing directly below a chandelier which illuminated their every feature with precision.

  "Exactly my thoughts." Dinah plied her daintily painted fan with vigour against the heat.

  The gentlemen were dressed in the first stare of fashion with dark tailcoats, figure-molding pantaloons extending to silk stockings at the ankle, and black pumps. While the taller gentleman had elected to don simple linen and a white shagreen waistcoat, the other man, though he tended to plumpness, had chosen a shirt with a deep frill and a dazzling waistcoat patterned in blue and green.

  The activity in the chamber resumed with a sighing of silk skirts and a shuffle of soft dancing shoes, though the orchestra had not yet struck up the next dance. Dinah took a deep, steadying breath as she gazed still across the room. She was not an impressionable miss and she prided herself on her level head and commonsense. Despite both, she felt that in the taller gentleman she was beholding one of the most beautiful young men she had ever seen.

  He was above medium height and slender and moved with fluid grace as he bent slightly to speak with the very short host. His auburn hair curled luxuriantly and his clear hazel eyes were wide set. His firm mouth had a willful but humorous curve. A strong jaw and an uncompromising nose saved his face from effeminacy but rendered it no less beautiful.

  He laughed unaffectedly at a comment made by his companion, and gazed about the chamber with a lively curiosity.

  Dinah was brought back to earth as her sister discreetly elbowed her in the ribs.

  "Stop staring. Who do you suppose they are?" Adelaide said.

  "I cannot imagine. But my first thought was accurate. They look out of place."

  "They are very welcome," said the young lady who had approached the Driffield sisters unnoticed. "There are few enough young gentlemen here."

  Miss Driffield and Miss Adelaide greeted Miss Juliana Hesler with pleasure and the ease of long acquaintance. She had been since infancy their particular friend, and was enjoying a summer sojourn at Harrowgate in the company of her parents.

  "I saw you arrive with Dr. and Mrs. Hesler, just before the gentlemen. Did you meet them?" Dinah said, with a semblance of disinterest.

  "The host hurried us out of the way and did not introduce us." Miss Hesler made a moue of displeasure.

  "Ah well, there is always Mr. Humberstone," Adelaide said, upon seeing that worthy approach.

  "But he has eyes only for Dinah," Juliana retorted, with a teasing chuckle.

  Dinah, watching her tiresome partner for the next dance shamble up, said, "Hush you both." She winked at her companions.

  The musicians scraped the opening bars of a country dance as Bernard Humberstone bowed before her. She could not but note that his brown satin knee-breeches, brown velvet coat, ruby cravat pin and buckled dancing pumps were cast in the shade by the newcomer's simple, elegant evening dress. Then she set thoughts of the strangers firmly aside, and smiled kindly at Mr. Humberstone as he led her into the set forming.

  Humberstone was no more than an adequate dancer, and Dinah had always to be on her guard against accident while acting as his partner. She applied herself to the dance with attention, striving by her actions to aid Humberstone's steps. They never spoke when they danced; Mr. Humberstone could not manage with both activities at the one time.

  Only minutes later, the breath was punched from Dinah by the impact of her body's contact with that of an onlooker at the edge of the dancing floor. She gasped, "Great heavens sir, I do beg your pardon." She cast a look up at the gentleman with whom she had collided. With dismay she beheld the glorious young man she had previously beheld.

  "Not at all, ma'am. I think your, er, flight, was not of your doing."

  His voice was as charming as his appearance. Elegantly baritone, unhurried and quite without northern accent. Dinah thought it soothed the ear.

  Dinah's partner, whose overly enthusiastic swing had sent her reeling, hurried up. "Miss Driffield, my humblest apologies...you are so very light on your feet...my feelings carried me away. We might have been flying--are you hurt?--if my enthusiasm should have injured..."

  "Mr. Humberstone, I am fine, really," she said. Dinah turned her attention from her erstwhile partner back to the gentleman into whom she had cannoned. "We owe this gentleman our apologies I think." She stepped out of the country dance with a curtsey and a smile of apology to her dancing neighbours, and another couple hurriedly took their place. She withdrew to the edge of the dancing floor with Humberstone at her side.

  Mr. Humberstone had transferred his explanations to the unknown gentleman. "Miss Driffield is so exquisite a dancer, sir. I was carried into ecstasies and mistook my own strength. It is no thanks to me she is uninjured...and you, sir, are you at all hurt? Humberstone's my name, Bernard Humberstone, and I meant to offer no insult. I think I do not know you... You are a newcomer to Harrowgate, and your introduction to our little assemblies is become violent. I do apologize--"

  The stranger raised a slim, graceful hand to stem the flood of Mr. Humberstone's eloquence. "Sir, be assured I have suffered no injury, and I take no offense. This is very fine dancing indeed, and such enthusiasm can only be commended. But perhaps Miss--ah, Driffield--would be glad of a glass of negus to calm her nerves. Do you procure it, and I shall walk with her a little to help her regain her equanimity."

  Humberstone, relieved of responsibility, hurried off smiling. He was still uttering thanks and assurances as he edged through the crowd.

  The gentleman offered Dinah his arm.

  After a moment's hesitation she laid her gloved hand upon it. "My nerves and my equan
imity have suffered no imbalance, sir," she said, with a laugh and a warm smile.

  "I was certain of it, but Humberstone badly needed activity and I could not do less than provide it him."

  "But we have no acquaintance sir."

  "Of course you are correct, but I think the host will rectify that omission," he nodded in the direction of the small, busy man. "He will introduce me, and the proprieties will be appeased."

  Dinah, brimming with amusement, and wishing her curiosity regarding the gentleman satisfied, acquiesced without delay.

  A slight gesture from the gentleman brought the Dragon's ballroom host scurrying over.

  "An accident has thrown us together, sir, and we have no introduction. Can you repair this difficulty?"

  Dinah had known the host several years, and wondered now at his obsequiousness as he bowed deeply.

  "Indeed, I saw that Mr. Humberstone's enthusiasm had occasioned an accident. It is not the first time," he said. "I am so very sorry you have suffered at his hands. Miss Driffield may I present the Viscount Holly? He is come from London with Mrs. Matherton's grandnephew. My lord, may I present Miss Driffield?"

  The viscount's bow was elegant in the extreme, his smile was friendly, and his bright gaze held nothing but genuine pleasure at the introduction.

  Dinah could not return his gratification. She ensured that her curtsey was beyond reproach even as she concealed her disappointment.

  He was a nobleman, a titled gentleman. They accounted for all and for nothing in her world. Many people of the moneyed middle class scrambled for acquaintance with the aristocracy, boasted of the smallest conversance. Her family did not. They were content in their own sphere, disinterested in rank or privilege, and Dinah was unwilling to be impressed by the viscount's title. He was by his very heritage beyond her sphere of interest.

  As she rose from her curtsey she noticed with vexation and something of relief that the draped flounce of her peach-coloured mousselaine de soie gown was torn. And this on its first wearing! An unfortunate circumstance but it did give her opportunity to leave Lord Holly's company.

  The host, with his acute eye, had noted the tear. "Would you be so kind as to escort to Miss Driffield to her mother, my lord? I believe she requires some maintenance."

  The viscount offered his arm again, with every appearance of alacrity.

  Dinah was constrained, at the risk of rudeness, to accept it. "My mother and my grandmama are opposite the orchestra, my lord, but I need not trouble you so far. My sister is here--in the blue lutestring--she will aid me." Adelaide stood nearby and Dinah indicated her with a gesture of her fan.

  "It would be my pleasure to escort you wherever you wish, Miss Driffield. I could desire that your sister was across the chamber as well." He delivered the statement with every appearance of sincerity.

  Dinah regarded him with suspicion. She tilted her head in consideration and a curl slid down her neck as she surveyed the viscount thoughtfully.

  "Truly!" he said with an appealing laugh. "I would happily converse with you longer."

  "That cannot be done for I must mend this hem, or I shall catapult myself into some other gentleman's arms...of my own volition this time."

  "I understand, and I would not have you in another gentleman's arms," he said as he delivered her to her sister.

  The viscount's remark brought quick colour to Dinah's cheeks, but she could make no sense of it. He was flirting with her, as he might with a peeress in a London ballroom.

  Adelaide apparently overheard the last of his remark and turned, staring at them both with wide brown eyes.

  Dinah covered her confusion with an introduction. "Viscount Holly, Adelaide. My lord, my sister Miss Adelaide Driffield. Thank you my lord, for your assistance." She dismissed him summarily.

  He could only smile ruefully before turning away.

  "Dinah, you were rude," Adelaide hissed. "And of what were you speaking? Whose impropriety was it to speak of you in a gentleman's arms?"

  Dinah seized her sister's gloved elbow. "Mine...no, his," she said with clenched teeth and some confusion. "I believe he was flirting, in an odious, aristocratic way."

  Juliana joined them as they made their way around the dancing floor and they all withdrew to the chamber set aside for such emergencies. A young maid there with a ready needle and thread repaired Dinah's flounce, as her friend and her sister plied her with questions.

  "Why is he here?" Juliana said. "Who is his friend?"

  "Why was he speaking of you being in a gentleman's arms?" Adelaide said again. "It sounded as though he expected you should be in his arms only!" She blushed at the words.

  "Lower your voices," Dinah directed. The withdrawing room was crowded and high-pitched conversation abounded. "I have no knowledge of the viscount, his friend, or his business. Or his arms--excepting that they were strong."

  Juliana and Adelaide exchanged a knowing glance.

  Dinah knew she coloured fierily. She covered her confusion by giving the maid who attended her a smile, warm thanks and an appropriate pourboire from the tiny reticule that hung on her wrist. "Do let's return to the ballroom," she said, unwilling to discuss the interlude further.

  There they discovered another set had already formed, this time for the quadrille. Adelaide made her way to her mother but Dinah and Juliana remained near a large potted palm to converse. The London gentlemen were taking part in the dance with every appearance of enjoyment.

  "You cannot avoid it. Tell me all," Juliana demanded before snapping open her fan and retiring behind it. "They are remarkably fine gentlemen. So the taller is the Viscount Holly. Who is his companion?"

  Dinah, recalled from her fixed contemplation of the refreshment table carefully laid out in the supper alcove, looked in the direction of her friend's surreptitious gaze. Her usually immovable heart fluttered annoyingly. Lord Holly was really very appealing. She redirected her attention for she could not, would not cultivate the attraction.

  "Old Mrs. Matherton's grand-nephew. I know nothing more. Why came they here to Harrowgate, do you think? They are three hundred miles north of Almack's and a world away from their precious ton."

  "They must be come direct from London," Juliana breathed, flicking another glance over her fan at Mr. Matherton's lavish tailoring.

  The quadrille came to its graceful conclusion.

  Dinah directed her gaze around the gilt-trimmed chamber, carefully avoiding Lord Holly and Mr. Matherton. "Mama is beckoning me, Juliana. I must go. Oh, great heavens, now the host is taking the gentlemen over to Mama and Grandmama."

  "Then I shall come with you," her friend said with a quick smile.

  They arrived before the two Mrs. Driffields at the same moment as the ballroom host and his elegant companions.

  As the introductions were conducted, Dinah was dismayed to see Juliana's grateful receipt of the acquaintance. She remembered that Juliana's mother was wont to be impressed by social standing and it appeared that Juliana had taken her example. She could see that her own practical, acute mother and her sometimes acerbic grandmother were unmoved by the viscount's rank and Matherton's vividly stylish waistcoat. Not for the first time did Dinah thank heavens that her parents had no social aspirations, being content with their own friends of their own community.

  The viscount was speaking to her and she had perforce to attend.

  "Will you dance the next set with me, Miss Driffield?"

  She saw that Mr. Matherton was similarly engaging her friend for the country dance forming. She acquiesced quietly, and as the dancers assembled she took her place. Conversation was snatched in the movement of the dance, but the viscount, unlike Mr. Humberstone, took every opportunity to converse.

  After responding to several of his innocuous comments, Dinah decided to satisfy her own curiosity. "How came you to Harrowgate, my lord?"

  "We are on our way to Peebles, Miss Driffield, for the Glorious 12th, the grouse shooting." The viscount nodded his auburn head at his friend going dow
n the line. "My friend Matherton determined he should break his journey here and visit his great aunt."

  In need of funds? Dinah wondered with an uncharacteristic lack of charity as they were separated by the pattern of the dance.

  "As I had never seen this town--these towns should I say?--I was interested in his plan to spend a few days, and indeed it is a pleasant place."

  "We think so."

  "You are resident here?"

  "No, but my grandmama, whom you just met, resides here in Robin Hood Lane. We stay with her frequently in the summer; our home is in Leeds." Her tone challenged him to comment on her home's location.

  The viscount appeared unconscious of it. "Leeds. Now there is another town of which I have not the acquaintance. It is my error in always staying on the Great North Road for my journeys into Scotland."

  "Gentlemen, at least those not infirm or aged, do not generally find Harrowgate a congenial watering place," Dinah said before the figures separated them again.

  She vowed to talk no more and gave herself over to enjoyment of the music. The viscount was a skilled dancer, unlike Mr. Humberstone, and Dinah appreciated the ease of his participation.

  "I believe there is interest to be found everywhere, if one cares to look for it," he said, when next they met in the dance. "And there are always pleasant people to meet." His gaze complimented her on being one of those people.

  Dinah could not decide if she was flattered by his condescension or insulted by his flattery. She still had not decided when the music flourished to a conclusion. She had perforce to subside into a curtsey.

  The viscount bowed elegantly over her hand. As he straightened he said, "Do you receive callers in Robin Hood Lane, Miss Driffield?"

  Taken completely by surprise, Dinah stammered, thereby annoying herself with her lack of composure. "I...I...y...yes," was all that she could manage.

  "Perhaps Burlie and I might call to discover how you go on after this evening of dissipation, possibly tomorrow, or the day after."

  "As you like, my lord; someone is always at home." Dinah had recovered enough to drop another slight curtsey. "Ah, there is my sister; if you will excuse me?" Without waiting for his response, she seized her sister's arm and walked away.