The Barefoot Baroness

Chapter Nine

The Season continued its hectic pace. Lord Hyatt ran nearly as tame as Mr. Meadows at the mansion on Charles Street. When the recliner was required, he was as likely as Meadows to fetch it and knew to a millimeter how to adjust it to Mrs. Traemore's satisfaction.

Laura could not feel the outings the baroness arranged were at all pleasant to him. He must have seen the horses at Astley's Circus any number of times, and when he took Livvie to see the wild animals at Exeter Exchange, he hardly glanced at the famous hippopotamus. On both these outings, Laura noticed his eyes were more often trained on the baroness than the show they had paid to see. He gazed at her as if he were infatuated, smiling when she squealed at the performance of the bareback riders at the circus. At the Exeter Exchange, he even drew out a sketch pad and did a quick drawing of the baroness. He behaved like a man infatuated; yet when the outings were over, his conversation was more often directed to Laura.

"I fear we are distracting you from your work," she said.

"I am always working. Today I chose the expression for the baroness's portrait."

"Is that what you were drawing? What sort of expression did you choose?"

"A look of pure delight. It is reassuring to see that not all young ladies are blase. Mind you, when folks look at the picture they will not suspect the rapture was caused by a monkey grabbing a lady's bonnet and tramping on it. It is the glories of nature that will take credit."

He waited for some flirtatious mention of the monkey in Lady Devereau's painting and was relieved when it did not come. "Olivia is still quite innocent, despite your fears that I and my racy friends would ruin her," she said.

He made a bow. "I did you an injustice, Miss Harwood, and I apologize. The girl is overly indulged by her aunt, but that is not your fault. Since being with you and your cousin, I see your role is quite different from what I assumed. You and Mr. Meadows are in loco parentis." He had often noticed it. They watched the baroness with all the concern of worried parents. They struck him, at times, as a married couple, for they seemed to communicate without words. Laura had denied any romantic entanglement with Meadows, but he began to wonder if this was mere discretion, since she had not received an offer.

"Actually, I was flattered that you thought me so dashing," she replied, with a pert smile.

At that moment, he chose Miss Harwood's pose. He still wanted to paint her. It was that impish look that attracted him, that unsuspected dash of daring in a quiet, sedate lady. Discretion would always come first, but there was enough of the hussy to keep him interested. "But not dashing enough to be painted by Hyatt, eh?"

"It is the lady's fate when the painting is finished that deters me," she replied. The name Lady Devereau did not arise, but he understood her meaning, and was angry.

The mornings were taken up with the paintings in Hyde Park. It soon became necessary to remove the sittings from the park to Lord Hyatt's studio. Mr. Yarrow could not keep his great secret to himself. First he brought a couple of chums to the park; soon his chums had each invited a group of friends. The ladies in the party considered the outing an early morning picnic and brought along hampers of food. Olivia wanted to join the youngsters and was unhappy standing still, holding up her skirt hem. The uninvited ladies were more interested in scraping an acquaintance with Lord Hyatt. They hung in a flock at his shoulder, twittering and complimenting and hinting that they should like to be painted by him.

"We shall move the sitting to my studio tomorrow," he said, as he packed up to leave that day. The session had lasted only forty-five minutes. Very little had been accomplished. "It won't be necessary to come so early. Nine o'clock will be fine, if that suits the ladies?"

Laura heard it with relief. "That will be fine," she replied. She sensed a withdrawal in Lord Hyatt, a certain stiffness, and wondered at its cause. It must surely be due to the uninvited crowd, she surmised. He could not have taken a pet because she refused to sit for him, could he? No matter if he had. What she said was perfectly true. It would cause rumors, and she had no wish to be classed with the Lady Devereaus of the world.

Olivia, instead of apologizing for having brought the unwanted crowd down on Hyatt's head, was off consorting with the enemy. Yarrow had got her off to one side and was flirting his head off. Mr. Meadows and Laura exchanged one of their silent looks, and he went after the baroness to herd her into his carriage.

Having finished early, they returned to Charles Street before nine o'clock. "If I had my mount, I could ride in Rotten Row this morning," Olivia said. "Have you found one for me yet, Mr. Meadows?"

"We have been so busy…"

"I shan't trouble you with yet another job on my behalf,” she said, with a bold toss of her curls. "Mr. Yarrow is bringing a mount around to Charles Street at ten o'clock."

"It is no trouble!" Mr. Meadows exclaimed. "A great pleasure, Baroness. I shouldn't buy anything Yarrow recommends. It will be a flashy piece of mischief. Bolt and leave you in the dust, if I know anything."

"Oh, but I do not want a sluggard. I particularly told him I want a goer. I am not buying it, however. Mr. Yarrow is borrowing it from a friend."

"Do you plan to ride with Mr. Yarrow this morning, Livvie?" Laura asked, casting a worried look to Meadows.

"Yes, with Mr. Yarrow and a group of his young friends. A lady does like to be with people her own age from time to time," she added saucily.

Mr. Meadows, who was nudging thirty, felt the full odium of her thoughtless words. He was also worried to see the baroness fall in with such fast company. "I had best go along," he said.

"Why, you sound as if you do not trust me, Mr. Meadows," Olivia said boldly.

"Not at all. It is Yarrow and his set I cannot trust."

The baroness went upstairs to change into her riding habit as soon as they reached home. It was for Laura to tell Mrs. Traemore of Olivia's plan. She had little hope that the chaperone would scotch it.

"Livvie will be happy to get on a mount again," she smiled. "She has complained of missing it. She is a bruising rider, you must know."

"I cannot feel Mr. Yarrow is a proper escort for her," Laura said.

"That nice young fellow who got me a glass of ratafia at Lady Morgan's ball? Why, what is amiss with him?"

Laura looked to Mr. Meadows for assistance. She could not like to blacken the young man's character. No real harm was known of him, save for his gambling. His behavior was rackety, but no polite doors had actually been closed to him as yet.

"Bit of a rackety fellow," Meadows said.

"Then perhaps you will go along to play propriety," Mrs. Traemore suggested.

"That is bound to turn her against me," Meadows said. It was a telling speech. Until this point, he had not expressed his intentions openly, although Laura was in little doubt that they were serious. "She is just beginning to taste society. She won't thank me for following after her, like the ghost at the feast."

"A ghost?" Mrs. Traemore said, staring at his bulk and wondering if she had heard aright. "I cannot imagine what you mean, Mr. Meadows. Livvie is very fond of you. Whenever she wants anything, she always says, 'I shall ask Mr. Meadows.’ “

"I daresay I must go," he agreed reluctantly. Then he brightened and said to Laura, "Perhaps you will come with me? My aunt will be happy to lend you her mount."

"I should like it, of all things!" Laura said. In fact, she had no desire to go, but wanted to lessen Mr. Meadows's burden.

He sent off at once for his and his aunt's mounts while Laura went upstairs to change. It was a good hour before Mr. Yarrow appeared at the door, leading a sly-looking bay mare with white stockings on her forelegs. Laura and Mr. Meadows rode behind, to ensure a good view of their charge. It was for Laura to express the family's gratitude to Mr. Meadows, for no one else had thought of doing it.

"I think you know why I am always eager to be of help to the baroness," he said.

"You plan to offer for her?"

"I would have done it before now, if she were not so far above my touch. Her fortune is considerably greater than my own, to say nothing of her having a title in her own right."

A formal alliance with Meadows seemed an excellent thing, and Laura encouraged him. "Your situation is not inferior to Mr. Yarrow's," she pointed out, wondering if it was Hyatt he meant.

"That boy will be in debt before the Season is out. The baroness could not choose more poorly if she tried. Though of course he is handsome. And young. Odd she did not fall for Hyatt, if it is a charmer she wants. At least she spared us that."

"Yes, it is odd. I fear he succumbed to her charms too easily."

"Or perhaps he is too old. Same age as myself," he added with a frown. "But of course he flies much higher.”

"Is his reputation very bad?" she asked.

"I don't mean to denigrate him. He is considered excellent ton, but he is a man of vast experience with the ladies, you know. One would have no hope of competing with him. Yarrow is an unlicked cub. I hope the baroness will soon tire of his eternal bragging and braying."

At the park, however, Olivia continued to be enamored of Mr. Yarrow. When he broke into a gallop, disturbing the polite pace of the other riders, Olivia was right behind him.

"I told her she must not gallop!" Laura said.

"Do I gallop after her and read her a lecture, or wait till she returns?" Meadows asked.

"They are coming back now. I'll read the lecture," Laura said, to keep Meadows free of the shadow of propriety.

She delivered her scathing attack to Mr. Yarrow. "If you cannot behave like a gentleman, Mr. Yarrow, you are not fit company for a lady," she said. "You know perfectly well that galloping is not permitted here."

"Jezebel is such a goer she got away on me," he said, without even blushing for his lie. "It won't happen again."

He resumed the proper pace. When he was beyond earshot of the others, he said to Olivia, "What is the point of a track if you can't ride? That is just like these people. You cannot stand up with the lady you want to for more than one set. You cannot stay for more than a short visit when you call on her, and you can never be alone with her for a minute, without some dashed Nosey Parker sticking his nose into your business."

"You never have called on me," Olivia said.

"Not much point, is there? There would be a raft of chaperones. Now if we were to go to the Pantheon masquerade, we would have some privacy. What about tonight?"

"We are having the Morgans to dinner and going to the play with them after."

Yarrow gave a commiserating nod. "I have managed to get hold of a lady's domino and mask anyhow. You just give me the nod when you feel you can get away."

"I don't think I should.”

"All the girls do it. Why, Angie Carstairs goes twice a week, at least."

"How does she get away?"

"Claims a sick headache. Tells her chaperone she is going home for a bit of a lie-down, then nips off with us."

"If I said that, my cousin and Mr. Meadows would accompany me home."

"Of course they would. So does Angie's chaperone. What she does, she goes to bed in her gown and nips down the servants' stairs and out the back door. We have the rig waiting at the corner. Nothing to it, if you have a bit of pluck." He looked a challenge at her.

The baroness prided herself on her pluck. "Perhaps next week."

"We ain't going tonight, in any case. Cowan has managed to get us into Mrs. Hyde's gaming hell. No limit on the betting," he boasted. "A fellow may plunge as deep as he likes. I shan't invite you along, for even Angie won't go there. Not the place for ladies."

This concern for her reputation assured Olivia that Mr. Yarrow was a model of propriety. They continued their ride, with Olivia's mount "getting away from her" next time to share the blame. Mr. Yarrow was not tardy to give chase. Laura and Meadows were waiting for them when they returned, and they immediately took Olivia home.

"Very kind of you to escort the baroness, Mr. Yarrow, but I am buying her own mount for her this afternoon and shall accompany her when she wishes to ride," Mr. Meadows said.

Olivia was consoled with the notion of having her own mount at last. Mr. Yarrow, she thought, would not have hesitated so long to procure it. She dutifully reminded herself that Mr. Meadows had been very kind to her, but really he was a bit of a slow top.

The next week proceeded without undue incident. A staid mount who never "got away from her" was procured for Olivia and given a few outings in Rotten Row. Olivia's presentation was the main concern, and there was little danger of encountering Mr. Yarrow at that staid do. The baroness also made her bows at Almack's and was convinced at last by the strict formality of this select club, by the eagle-eyed patronesses, the orgeat and the Scottish reels, that established society do's were a dead bore. Next week, she would try the Pantheon with Mr. Yarrow and his friends.