Intolerable Civility

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Tenth Woman

After her argument with David, the appeal of the dinner party had somewhat lost its shine, but nevertheless Cate was very careful that night about her dress and hair. She wanted to look pretty and virtuous, and it was tricky to balance the two. In the end, she settled for a rather prim dark blue gown (new-made by the local dressmaker) and a seductively careless entanglement of curls around her face with black ribbons in her fair hair. Perhaps the dress would impress her father. Perhaps the hair would entice David.

More likely no one would notice her efforts at all.

Initially, those invited to the dinner had been Sarah, Sir William and Lady Balley, Laurie and Mrs Demery, Paul and Annabelle, and Annabelle's brother and sister, a Mr and Miss Maddox. That had weighted it heavily towards women, so Cate, after much deliberation, had extended invitations to Mr Baxter and the local vicar also. It was the biggest crowd that had been in the drawing room since Cate had come to Plas Bryn. She circled the room nervously, making sure that everyone had sherry in their glasses, and trying not to catch Mrs Demery's eye or her father's notice. Before dinner was announced, a maid brought Luke down to the drawing room to be passed around and admired.

"This is the man of the hour," David said, holding Luke in one arm and raising a glass of sherry with his free hand. "This dinner is honour of Luke's first birthday, and of his taking my name. From this day, he is to be known to the world as Luke Demery and, to my friends and family, as my son."

Not everyone clapped. Mrs Demery kept her hands tight around the stem of her sherry glass. Annabelle tapped two fingers against her palm then blew her nose loudly into Paul's handkerchief. Lady Balley raised her upper lip contemptuously. But Sir William patted his hands thrice together and Laurie kept clapping until Cate distracted her with another glass of sherry.

"But now it's time for him to go to bed," David said, kissing Luke on the cheek. "So we will dine in his honour and his absence."

The maid took Luke back and passed him around the room once more for goodbyes. He was very confused and pleased by the whole event, because he liked people and noise and there was lots of both tonight. Cate gave him one last kiss before the maid took him away and wished she could go with him.

Instead, she led them all into the dining room. The table was laden with the very best crockery and steaming dishes of lamb and fish and vegetables and baked goods. It was a lot of responsibility for Cate, and she took her position at the far end of the table opposite David with shaking fingers. In the interests of keeping the peace, her parents were seated near David while the vicar and Mr Maddox were near Cate. The vicar was easy to talk to, because he could speak on end about food, if not about the dish he was eating, then a dish he recalled eating once a long time ago that reminded him of this dish, except in different circumstances, with different company, and different spices, and different ingredients. Mr Maddox was a little harder. He was about Cate's age, somewhat pushy and arrogant, and he did not seem to understand anything.

"I don't understand why women care so much about babies," he said as he speared a lump of baked mullet on his fork. "From the way Annabelle goes on about it, you would think it is some personal purgatory that she has not got one."

"It must be hard on her. She wants one very much and she has had no such fortune yet."

"Well, yes, but I want a string of hunting dogs very much, and you don't see me sobbing my eyes out because I can't afford one. Though you're not much better, Mrs Demery, if you'll excuse the observation. Nine women out of ten would leave the baby behind in your situation. I can't understand why you brought him with you when you married David."

"Because I'm the tenth woman, I suppose." Cate reminded herself that Mr Maddox was probably just trying to make conversation and tried to steer it in another direction. "What do you think of the mullet?"