As always, the Duchess of Buccleuch was most elegantly attired in a ball gown of silver and grey silk with a scalloped hemline, trimmed with silver lace. Her daughter, Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott, wore a gown of apple-green satin with an overdress of cream crêpe trimmed with green ribbons, in stark contrast to the demure hues that marked her first, truncated Season. Despite assurances that she is fully restored to health after her prolonged sojourn in Scotland, the Duke of Buccleuch’s formerly exuberant second daughter’s temperament is notably subdued this Season. Indeed, she now more closely resembles her more restrained and circumspect elder sister, Lady Victoria Kerr. A lasting legacy of the illness which brought her previous Season to a premature end, perhaps?

Lady Margaret’s return to society initially received a muted response, but her dance card was much sought after at the Buccleuch ball. A certain Scottish earl, who has been observed paying close attention to the lady for the second year running, was rewarded with a march. Could it be that the announcement we were deprived of last July has merely been postponed, and not cancelled? Will the earl’s persistence bear fruit? (And is that fruit ready to be plucked?)

We eagerly await developments in what is turning into a riveting saga.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

May 1866

THE HACKNEY JOLTED ITS WAY onto the bridge and Margaret, as always, felt as if she was crossing the border between one world and another. Since the Easter break, her time in Lambeth had been constrained by the daily influx of invitations arriving at Montagu House, to picnics and garden parties, dinners, balls, and soirées. Derby Day and Ascot Week were now looming. Rushing from one engagement to the next in a flutter of silk and lace and ribbons, she had become adept at smiling and making small talk while her mind and her heart were on the other side of the Thames.

She had not seen Louise since their tea at Marlborough House, and her friend’s letters since then had been sporadic, little more than brief notes containing nothing of a personal nature. Louise could be fickle, making a person feel as if they were the centre of her world before snubbing them completely for no apparent reason, but Margaret knew better than to imagine she was the latest victim. Louise was preoccupied by something. Or someone.

As you are yourself, M., and not only by one person but two. In truth, she was happy to leave Louise to fend for herself for the time being. Margaret had pressing issues of her own to deal with.