Jem shrugged, shaking his head. ‘That will take a great many more lessons, my lord.’
Wick’s friend was at least a head shorter and two stones lighter than him. Sunny had been taller than him at one time, but Wick had more than caught up. Wick laughed and went to change his clothes.
In a loose smock and breeches, he was able to land punches on his friend’s stomach, shoulder, and even his chin.
Sunny touched his red jaw. ‘Keep the punches lower, Wick. I’ve got to catch an heiress with this face.’
‘You’reparticipating in the season?’
‘My mother insists upon it,’ his friend said in a funerary tone. ‘She says it’s high time I found myself a wife and secured the family line by fathering sons. If only she had been kind enough to provide me with a brother, like yours did. Another heir...’
Sunny’s father had died when he was only three years old, making him the Duke of Sunderland. Wick had only ever known him by his title. Now, at the age of six-and-twenty, Sunny was contemplating marriage and heirs. Wick would also inherit a dukedom—buthewas in no hurry to produce offspring.
Chapter Sixteen
Louisa put on the dress of emerald velvet and wondered if it might be too elaborate. The style was not unlike her mother’s own court gown, over twenty years before.
Mantheria assured her that it was how all court dresses looked, and that the Queen insisted on young women wearing the old-fashioned style. Their necks and shoulders had to be bare unless they had a doctor’s certificate. Which she didn’t. Even the corset was different. Instead of pushing up her breasts, it flattened them most uncomfortably.
Chandler, her new lady’s maid, added another large white plume to her already enormous coiffure. Her head appeared to be twice its normal size because of all the ostrich feathers that were attached to lappets which hung below her shoulders.
Louisa made a face at herself in the mirror and thought perhaps her dress was too spectacular. ‘I look like a prancing peacock showing off its fine feathers.’
‘Peahen,’ Becca corrected from behind her. ‘Peacocks are the males of the breed. Peahens are the females, and their plumage aren’t nearly as impressive.’
‘But they’re all fowl,’ Helen said with a wink.
The sisters all laughed, but it took Louisa a moment or two to understand the play on words. ‘Ifeelfoul,’ she said.
Frederica touched her shoulder. ‘You look stunning.’
‘And only a decade out of fashion,’ Helen said.
‘Don’t be rude!’ Mantheria scolded.
Her own dress was just as wide. The silk was a rather stunning shade of pink that set off her pale complexion. Even the ostrich feathers in her hair were dyed pink. The sleeves and underskirt were turquoise, and everything was trimmed in wide gold braid. She had tassels artistically draped around her artificially large hips.
‘Now,yourdress, Mantheria,’ Helen said, ‘looks two decades out of fashion. I daresay Mama had one just like it when she was first married.’
Mantheria dived for her sister. ‘You little snake.’
Helen dodged out of her way. ‘I take that as a compliment.’
‘I think we’ve had enough compliments this evening,’ Frederica said, handing Louisa a pair of lace gloves. ‘Wick is already waiting for you two, and you know the Queen of England waits for no one.’
‘Even those who wear flamingo-pink dresses,’ Helen added, but wisely was already at the door, ready for her escape.
‘Don’t listen to her,’ Becca said, touching her sister’s puffed sleeve. ‘It’s more the soft pink of a newly born piglet.’
Louisa couldn’t help but laugh. ‘And my green dress?’
‘The colour of an alligator or a crocodile,’ Becca said, taking the question seriously. ‘I can never remember the difference between the two creatures.’
‘They both have sharp teeth—like Helen,’ Mantheria said, offering her arm to Louisa, who took it. ‘We shall have a marvellous time.’
Louisa’s stomach roiled. ‘What if I have to use the privy? I couldn’t possibly, whilst wearing this gown.’
Mantheria wrinkled her nose. ‘There are no privies at St James’s court. If you need to relieve yourself, your maid will give you a sort of dish called abourdaloueto put underneath your dress.’