Charlotte House Affair 01 - My Particular Friend

offer your name to the servant who answered the door.’
    At this she fluffed up like a pigeon taking a chill. ‘I am Lady Dalrymple, as you should know, child.’ #
    ‘Indubitably,’ I replied, although I think I may have mangled the word slightly. Lady Dalrymple wouldn’t have noticed, however, for she had already swirled round to collect her niece and was making for the door.
    I sat, feeling that I did not need to attend her on her way out, and tried to collect my thoughts.
Whatever does all this mean? In what … business, for I cannot call it anything else … is Miss House engaged?
    But I no longer had apprehension, just curiosity. I eagerly awaited the next visitor, but no one else arrived. Nevertheless, I delayed my departure for my date with Miss House until the last moment and in consequence was in a considerable hurry.
    I arrived at the Lower Rooms flushed by the cold and my exertions and found my hostess already waiting for me.
    ‘Goodness, you look very excited, Miss Woodsen,’ my friend said, after we had called for tea and buns. #
    ‘Yes, I am sorry to keep you waiting, but we had such a number of visitors and I waited until the last possible minute to leave.’
    She gave me a quick smile, so fast I would have missed it during a blink.
    ‘Good, tell me then of our visitors.’
    ‘First came a gentlemen about eleven o’clock. He said little, but left this card.’ I handed her the card, at which she glanced for but a moment.
    ‘Can you recall exactly what he said?’
    I closed my eyes to recollect and quoted him, ‘Tell Miss House I have no opinion on the matter. Here is my card, good day.’
    ‘And that is all he said?’
    I opened my eyes and looked at her. ‘Well, he might have said, “
Please
tell Miss House I have no opinion on the matter.”’
    ‘Good, excellent. And do you have a parcel for me?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said, producing the parcel, and passing it to her, added, ‘although I did not receive it myself. A boy delivered it to the servants’ entrance.’
    She looked up at me and shook her head slightly. ‘My erstwhile housekeeper Mrs Hutton needs to be chided again. The boy had instructions to deliver it personally to me, or my agent.’ She returned her attention to the parcel, unwrapped it and produced several letters tied as a bundle. ‘No matter. I have what I wanted.’
    ‘And a rather disagreeable old woman named Dalrymple came.’ Miss House’s raised eyebrow reminded me I was wrong not to give my visitor’s title its due; that I did not was a testimony to my dislike.
    ‘Ah, now we come to the heart of the matter. What did she say?’
    ‘Lady Dalrymple considers the matter to be at an end … excuse me … she said precisely that she is “done with the matter” and considers “this contretemps at an end.”’
    Miss House absorbed all this and then smiled broadly. ‘Thank you, Miss Woodsen, I knew that you would serve me well.’
    ‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ I cried. ‘A strange woman with a cat arrived and insisted on tea for both herself and her cat.’
    ‘Odd, I had expected no woman with a cat. No matter. I’m sure you were all politeness. Now, we are done with our tea and I must leave you again for a short time. However, I should consider it a great pleasure if you would join me again at eight, in the Upper Rooms, and you will see the outcome of all your efforts to-day.’ #
    I looked down at the table. ‘I would like to join you, but … I have nothing suitable for … I left my home …’
    ‘I understand, Miss Woodsen. Please do not think it presumptuous of me, or of my servants, but I know that you arrived with comparatively little and I have arranged to have something suitable available. Mary has been busy all day and I hope that using your other clothing as a guide, she has found something for you to wear. If it does not fit or you find it not to your liking, then don’t come. You must not feel any obligation.’
    ‘You are too kind, Miss House, and I should decline.’
    ‘But you won’t?’
    ‘I hope that it will fit,’ I said.

There is Dancing
    It fit; and I thought it more beautiful than anything I had ever worn, and I thanked Mary for her efforts. ‘It is a lovely colour, Mary.’
    ‘The green matches your eyes, miss. I couldn’t help but notice.’
    ‘Green! You call this green? It is emerald; it is the sea; it is the forest primaeval. But how could you find this?’
    ‘Oh, that was easy. Miss House told me to go to her