Carlisle is in the country, constrained by a severe chill. He sends his deepest regrets.”

Faith glanced at John and he gave a curt nod. “This is the son of the man I met as a boy?”

“Yes my lord.”

“Very well.” Faith had memorised the names of the servants. “I will address the servants by name. I want to know if any leave, and why.” She disliked the habit of using the same name for a servant, the way some of the aristocracy did, the position rather than the person. She put up her chin, trying to act the countess. Inside, her stomach had turned to jelly. Just as well she had not had time for more than a bite of toast and a cup of tea this morning. John had kept her too busy for anything else.

At the reminder, she turned to him to hide her incipient blush, should she have any. She felt no heat, but from his compliments yesterday she rather thought she didn’t detect every occasion she flushed. She’d have to resort to rice powder at this rate.

“If you would come this way my lord, my lady, we have held breakfast for you, in case you care to dine.” No doubt about it, the butler’s tones held more respect.

She let him lead the way to the breakfast room on the ground floor. The family in the persons of Lady Graywood and her two daughters waited for them with every appearance of patience.

Charlotte and Louisa wore day gowns of the most shocking green colour—shocking because it managed to suit neither. They wore black armbands. Lady Graywood had already gone into deep black.

Flamboyant at home, Faith thought, but perhaps she planned to go out.

Her ladyship confirmed Faith’s worst fears when, after greeting them with every appearance of cordiality announced, “I have made an appointment with my dressmaker this morning. You will need mourning gowns.”

Faith had not worn black today, but that did not mean she owned none. She had always refused to allow the dowager to run rough-shod over her, and she wouldn’t let it happen now. “I have a mourning gown. Only a couple of years out of date, in fact. I appreciate you making the effort, but I’ll see my own seamstress, I thank you.”

Her ladyship’s face stiffened. “Indeed, and who do you patronise?”

“Cerisot,” she said recklessly, naming the most popular dressmaker in London. “That is, as you know, I have no modiste of fashion at the moment, but I will see her later. I will need few gowns of deep mourning, but I will order half mourning too.” Her complexion tended to the sallow, and black did few people favours, unless they happened to have pale pink colouring and iron-grey hair.

Her ladyship shook her head. “It will not do.”

“I disagree.” Faith had thought of acting the innocent and letting the dowager have her way. The easier path, especially since her time here would be relatively short. But the manner in which her ladyship had loftily informed her, as if doing her a favour, that she would take her to the same dressmaker her daughters used, annoyed Faith. “We owe the late earl our deepest respect, but they were only second cousins to my husband, and a more pronounced mourning might be considered ostentatious.” She hadn’t read the society papers and stayed watching on the outskirts of society for two years for nothing. After a refreshing night’s sleep, more than she deserved, she’d decided that if she gave the dowager an inch she’d power her way through to dictate everything. While John had become the new Lord Graywood, his relationship to the previous earl was second cousin, which wasn’t close enough to merit a long period of deep mourning. Just the next few weeks, until the season started, then they could legitimately go into half mourning and muted colours.

The countess raised both brows and reached for a piece of bread-and-butter. Faith examined her own plate that John had filled for her while she’d been speaking with the dowager. Bacon, scrambled eggs, kidneys. Very good. The fragrance reminded her that she hadn’t eaten properly for some time. Why her appetite should return when nothing was settled, she didn’t know. She still wasn’t sure if she should marry him, but had decided to give it a week. After all, if she fooled the countess too, he would have something to hold against the lady when Faith was revealed as a fraud. In the meantime, she wouldn’t let John down. She owed him that much.

If she made up her mind to disappear, he wouldn’t find her. She had friends from the army who’d help and not tell anyone. And she’d learned tricks a vicar’s daughter had no right knowing, but which might prove useful in an emergency.

“Tea or coffee?” he murmured.

“Shouldn’t I do that?”

“I have the coffee pot within reach. You do not.”

“Then thank you. Coffee would be lovely.”

So domestic, so deceptive! The undercurrents around this table could be sliced. She exchanged a glance with her erstwhile companion, who gave her a tentative smile. “Would you like one, Amelia?”

“No, I mean, I am perfectly fine, thank you.” Flustered and uncomfortable, Amelia flicked a tremulous smile and the dowager bestowed a kind one on her. Faith lifted the delicate cup, decorated with sprigs of spring flowers, and inhaled the delicious aroma of fresh coffee.

“I will send for Cerisot to attend you,” the dowager pronounced.

As if the dressmaker would come when summoned. She would only do that for existing clients, and she had so many, she needed no more. “I will visit her establishment. I need to make a few calls on my own account this morning.” If Cerisot chose to reject her, she would not do it by refusing to visit this house. Since Cerisot turned away as many people as she accepted, Faith could bear the rejection, knowing it would not reflect on John.

The dowager countess sniffed and Faith could have sworn on oath that she heard a phantom giggle emanating from Louisa’s place.

A footman entered, bearing refills for the dishes and it struck Faith that a great deal of waste occurred in the house, if they encouraged such practices. A countess she might be, for the time being at least, but wasteful she need not be. She added supervision of the kitchens to her list of tasks. It appeared she would have plenty to keep her busy.

After breakfast she declared she would get about her duties immediately. John accompanied her into the hall. “Would you prefer me to go with you?”

“What, and get a reputation for hanging on my skirts?” She smiled at him, enjoying his presence and his concern for her, however illusory it might be. “No, I’ll be fine. I’ll take a footman and the carriage.”

He leaned closer. “I have other business to attend to if you recall.

I will call in at Doctor’s Commons.” Only one reason for that. She cast him a glance of bewilderment, because a special licence would mean marriage for real, something he said he did not want. His eyes gleamed. “The possibility is always there and I like to be prepared.”

She quailed, as she had not at the thought of facing the most formidable Cerisot. It meant they could marry without waiting three weeks or without calling banns, that he was taking the prospect seriously.

He turned to face her, blocking out the others. “If you carry my heir, he will not be born out of wedlock.”

So that was it. She could relax, because the likelihood of that happening was remote indeed. So why did a pang of sorrow pierce her down to her womb? Her barren womb?

Meantime she would continue as if she intended to fulfil the position of Countess of Graywood as well as she could. She could do that, at least, for him.

* * *

Having left John to his errand Faith took a footman and set out for the opposite end of Oxford Street to that which she usually patronised. The fashionable part. She wore her pelisse again, that being the most respectable one she owned. Holding her head high, she strode across the wide pavements towards the select establishment run by the best dressmaker in London. Not a mantua-maker, those places concentrated on court dress, and were in general more old-fashioned, Cerisot scorned the title and chose

‘dressmaker’ instead.

A footman in a flamboyant costume stood by the door. Faith suspected he only allowed her in the front way because of the man in the distinctive maroon and gold of the Graywood livery, rather than her own appearance.

She didn’t expect the lady herself to meet her. But Faith spied her at the far end of the shop, attending a lady wearing a bonnet with a monstrous ostrich feather sticking straight up. After Faith had stood there for a good five minutes, she glanced over, and her gaze stilled, as if surprised to see her standing there. Too late, Faith realised she probably looked more like a lady’s maid than a lady, and should not in that case have used the front door.

But something in her appearance or maybe her stubbornness in standing inside the front entrance where everyone would see her eventually drew the proprietress over.

Gathering her courage together and reminding herself, as she had so many times before that she wasn’t facing a firing squad, Faith maintained her position and gave the dressmaker a frosty smile. Cerisot had a figure much like Faith’s own, full breasts and hips with a small waist, a shape men admired but exceedingly difficult to dress elegantly. Her blonde hair was caught back in a loose style that Faith would wager her grandfather’s silver watch she’d pinned ruthlessly into place and her smile fixed and professional. Closer up, she revealed her true age in the fine lines on her face and the silver strands at her temples. Either that, or she chose to present herself thus to make her clients appear better.

“May I help you?” Cerisot glanced outside to where the crested carriage waited by the kerb, the two chestnuts stamping their hooves and snorting in the cool sunshine. Her expression relaxed an infinitesimal amount.

“You may. Thank you for asking.”

Ah, Cerisot had not expected that. Her lips twitched. Faith carried on. “I’m the Countess of Graywood. My husband is John, the sixth earl.” That would save her counting. She wondered how far the news of the previous earl’s death had travelled, but apart from a couple of raised brows the other occupants of the shop didn’t appear surprised. Two women sat together studying sketches, mother and daughter she guessed from their respective ages and their resemblance to each other. Another woman of equally high fashion accompanied the lady with the bonnet. The two maids standing by the end wall had gasped. That told Faith how to continue. Cerisot merely waited, her countenance one of patience and fortitude. “My husband came unexpectedly into the title. I was living quietly so I had no need for fashionable garb, but I shall require a new wardrobe.” Remembering what John had told her about putting on a show, she plunged in recklessly. “A set of mourning and half mourning clothes immediately and for the first part of the season. Later I will want to go back into colours.”

Cerisot’s eyes narrowed, but not with suspicion or dislike.

Rather, speculation filled the robin’s egg blue. She took in Faith’s appearance in one comprehensive glance. “I am extremely busy.”

Faith continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “We’re planning a reception as soon as decently possible. My husband is a distant connection to the late earl. While we wish to demonstrate the respect he is due, full mourning for a long time would not be entirely appropriate.” A nod from the lady in the bonnet. Faith had gauged the reaction appropriately. To go into deepest black for six months would show a vulgar and inappropriate display.

The people in the shop were unashamedly listening, their previous occupations totally abandoned. The complete realisation of what she had done hit Faith with the force of a rifleman’s bullet and she barely stopped herself sucking in a breath of horror. “There will be other events. The unfortunate demise of their brothers will curtail the activities of Lady Louisa and Lady Charlotte, so they’ll require completely new wardrobes later in the season, or maybe next year. That depends on their mother.”

More interest from Cerisot. “I believe they frequent another seamstress.” Not a dressmaker or mantua-maker, Faith noticed.

“However they are attractive young ladies under the unbecoming yellow and pea-green.”

“If you decide you have the time to spare,” Faith said, without curling her lip, “I may endeavour to persuade their mother to allow them to change their minds. Lady Louisa has been receiving a great deal of attention from a certain young man,” she continued recklessly, “It would be a pity if she allowed this family tragedy to affect her prospects.” She had no idea who she was talking about, she just hoped Louisa had at least one suitor. It would give Cerisot the prospect of dressing a society bride, something that could enhance a dressmaker’s reputation. “Lady Graywood thinks your styles too modern and forward for her children, but I consider your designs delightful. I would trust you to help me choose what is most appropriate.” If this woman didn’t know, nobody did.