The Duchess and the Diamonds
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Rhianon Jameson
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The Duchess and the Diamonds
by Rhianon Jameson
July 2008
I was late to the ball, and the music had already started when the coachman let me
out at the marbled steps in front of the Duchess’s residence.
Gathering my skirts and...
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The Duchess and the Diamonds
by Rhianon Jameson
July 2008
I was late to the ball, and the music had already started when the coachman let me
out at the marbled steps in front of the Duchess’s residence.
Gathering my skirts and
summoning my courage, I walked past the stone lions, chipped and weathered with age,
up the steps, and to the doorway, where Bartholomew, the butler, waited to greet me.
My late arrival was not because of habitual tardiness on my part.
Rather, I was
new to Caledonian society – or, here, Society – and spent far too long ensuring my hair
and makeup were just right before slipping into the ball gown I could scarcely afford and
leaving my cottage for the waiting coach.
I had no lady’s maid of my own, being a
humble scrivener, so I had to apply the powders and unguents myself, then act as my own
critic.
Knowing I was running very late for the ball, my first important social invitation,
made my hand unsteady, lengthening the process still further.
“What can you tell me about Her Grace, the Duchess of Loch Wright?” I asked
Willig, the driver of the phaeton.
Although I could have hired one of the new horseless
carriages and reached my destination sooner, I had wanted to keep my gown as free as
possible from coal dust, which the steam-powered vehicles produced in abundance.
Furthermore, pulling up in a phaeton seemed so much more elegant and befitting the
occasion.
Willig and I knew one another slightly, as he was one of my sources of
information both for activities of the wealthy, whom he chauffeured, and the poor in
Cheapside, where he and his wife lived.
Willig clearly disapproved of me, firmly
believing that women, regardless of class, had no business in a profession.
A grown
woman should marry, raise children, and, if wealthy, set an example for the nation
through Good Deeds.
I had explained to him this would never be my lot in life.
He would
grumble, take my money, and provide me with information.
Despite his complaints, he
was a good-hearted man who wanted a better life for his wife and children, and assumed
one day I would come around to his point of view.
“Well, Miss, ’er Grace comes from an old Caledonian family.
They’ve owned that
slab of rock on Loch Wright ever since it rose from the sea, or so it’s been said.
” He took
off his cap with one hand, scratched his head, and replaced the cap, all the while keeping
a steady hand on the reins with the other hand.
“ ’Er ’usband, rest ’is soul, perished
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