“Since Bernadette told Ada Mae that I’m a leader within New York society, it stands to reason that every lady possessed of social ambition is going to want to become my new best friend.” She smiled. “And given that Ada Mae is certain to tell a few ladies, who will then tell a few additional ladies, that I’m all but engaged to Owen, I can guarantee that everyone will be clamoring to invite the Chesterfield family to all their events.”
“I doubt my name will be on any of those invitations,” Luella argued.
“And you would be wrong about that. You mark my words, within the next few weeks, those friends of yours who’ve been only too eager to join in with making you persona non grata will most assuredly reach out to make amends. That means by the time that ball rolls around in June, you’ll already be firmly established as a lady in high demand and my task here will have been accomplished.”
Luella tilted her head. “You think I’ll become in high demand simply because of my association with you—my supposed soon-to-be sister-in-law?”
“I do.”
Satisfaction flickered through Luella’s eyes. “Excellent, since that means I won’t need to concern myself with wasting my time becoming refined, something I wasn’t looking forward to doing anyways, as I have other more important and pressing matters to attend to.”
“I’m afraid those pressing matters will need to take a back seat for a while, since there’s no question you’ll still need to put a great deal of effort into learning how to become refined,” Camilla said.
The smile slid from Luella’s face. “Why?”
“Because everyone is going to expect me, your soon-to-be sister-in-law and a member of the New York Four Hundred, to take you in hand.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll assume I have certain expectations when it comes to presenting myself, and, by association, soon-to-be family members, to the world. That means a Luella transformation is definitely in order.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Luella muttered.
“Which is unfortunate since my plan is nonnegotiable, but if it makes you feel any better...” Camilla turned to Owen. “As I just mentioned, everyone will expect me to take your entire family in hand, although I’m not ridiculous enough to even suggest that to Beulah. You, on the other hand, are a different story, which means you’ll need to prepare yourself for a bit of a transformation as well—and no, that’s not negotiable either.”
Fourteen
Camilla shifted on the hard seat of Beulah’s wagon, drawing her attention. “Since we now find ourselves quite alone as Lottie, Mr. Timken, and Bernadette are off with Edward to Stone and Thomas to pick up a few essentials, and Owen was called into the factory to deal with an unexpected machinery issue, now would be the perfect time to delve into the events of last evening.”
“Except we’re not truly alone since Luella’s following directly behind us and that girl has ears like an elephant,” Beulah argued.
“I don’t think Luella would appreciate having you compare her ears to elephant ears.”
“I wasn’t saying she has large ears, only that she has remarkable hearing.”
“Maybe you should stick to simply saying in the future that Luella has remarkable hearing because the image of Luella sporting elephant ears is exactly what sprang to my mind the second you mentioned elephants,” Camilla suggested. “However, even if Luella hears extraordinarily well, since she’s assumed the role of my guard today, she’s much too busy at the moment keeping an eye out for possible threats to eavesdrop on our conversation.”
“Luella’s capable of doing multiple things at once,” Beulah said, turning the wagon off National Road and onto a gravel drive that meandered up a steep hill as far as the eye could see, the two draft horses pulling the wagon not slowing their pace in the least, even though Esmerelda was snoozing in the back of the wagon bed—all three hundred pounds of her.
“If that’s your way of avoiding talking about last night, it was a fairly halfhearted attempt.”
Beulah grinned. “I suppose it was, so fine, let’s discuss last night. I’ll start off by saying that it was a most delightful evening. I particularly enjoyed that parlor game you taught us—the Key of the King’s Garden.”
“You didn’t seem to be enjoying it when you lost.”
“I must admit I’m not fond of losing, and I do think the next time we play that game, that some allowances should be made for me, the poor, elderly woman whose memory isn’t what it used to be. That right there was directly responsible for me having to forfeit my spot in the game after I got all those sentences turned around when it was my turn.”
“You know there’s nothing wrong with your memory, just as I know you’re deliberately avoiding the event I want to discuss.”
“My memory is obviously faulty because I have no idea what event you’re talking about.”
Camilla refused a snort. “You don’t recall stealing into my room after everyone said good night with the express purpose of sneaking that apple pie recipe under my pillow?”
“Oh ...thatevent.” Beulah cocked her head to the side. “I suppose I do recall it, but only because my ears are still suffering from all that shrieking you did. Why, my poor old heart will probably never recover after I found myself on the wrong end of your derringer, and then on the wrong end of Owen’s Colt Dragoons after he raced to your rescue, which, you must know, was some mighty fine chivalrous behavior on his part.”
It hadn’t escaped Camilla’s notice that Owen had shown up inher room, weapons at the ready, mere seconds after she’d begun shrieking.
Unwilling to dwell on his obvious chivalrous nature while sitting beside a woman who’d decided it was now her sole mission in life to convince Camilla that she and Owen were well-suited, Camilla lifted her chin.