“Yes, I was!” she said instantly. “Well … not bad.”
“You were terrible!” He looked her up and down. “There is no need to ask how you are, you are obviously very well indeed. How is Emily … and your mother?”
“In excellent health, thank you. Mama has married again.” This was perhaps not the moment to mention that it was to a man seventeen years her junior, an actor, and a Jew.
“I am glad, it sounds wonderful.” He was obviously envisioning someone older than Caroline, probably a widower, solid and respectable—in fact, as unlike Joshua Fielding as possible.
Charlotte’s resolve vanished. “He’s an actor.” She blushed. “He’s a great deal younger than Mama, and extremely attractive.” She was very satisfied with the amazement on his face.
“What?”
“Joshua Fielding,” she elaborated, watching him with pleasure. “He’s one of the best actors on the London stage at the moment.”
He relaxed, his shoulders easing, the familiar smile curving his lips. “For a moment I believed you.”
“So you should,” she approved. “It is the precise truth, except that I omitted that Grandmama has never forgiven her, because he is Jewish and because she will not live under the same roof with them. She made such a fuss refusing to, that when Mama ignored her she had no choice but to leave. She lives with Emily and Jack now, and she doesn’t like it much because she has hardly anything to complain about, other than that she has no one to talk to. Actually, Emily and Jack are on holiday in Italy at the moment.”
“Jack?” he asked, looking at her with curiosity in his eyes, and something that for an instant was close to amusement.
“After George’s death, Emily married again, too. He is a member of Parliament,” she explained. “He wasn’t when she married him, but he is now.”
“Is it really so long since we last met?” His voice rose in surprise, but there was pleasure in his face and a happiness to see her. “You make it sound as if it were decades. Are you still the same?”
“Oh, definitely. But you are not!” She looked pointedly at the white collar.
He touched it a trifle self-consciously. “No. No, a lot has happened to me since then.” He did not elaborate, and for a minute there was a sudden uncomfortable silence, before the door opened and a most striking woman came in. She had very large, wide-set eyes and unusual features combining humor and strength. She was quite small in build, and extremely elegant. She wore dark colors, very plain, as if intending to create a sober effect, and yet the bodice was so beautifully cut it was anything but sober. Far from appearing like mourning, the gown enhanced the clarity of her skin and accentuated the grace of her figure.
Dominic turned as he heard her.
“Mrs. Parmenter, may I present my sister-in-law, Mrs. Pitt. Charlotte, Mrs. Parmenter.”
“How do you do, Mrs. Pitt,” Vita said politely, her eyes going quickly to Charlotte’s dark brown skirt, assessing neither her income nor her social rank, as other women might, but her skin, her eyes and lips, her very handsome shoulders and bosom. Her smile was cool.
“How do you do, Mrs. Parmenter,” Charlotte replied with a smile, as if she had not noticed. “I came to congratulate Dominic on his vocation. It is most excellent news. I know my mother and sister will be happy for him, too.”
“You must have lost touch for some time,” Vita observed, not quite critically but with a very slight arch of her perfect eyebrows.
“I am afraid we had. I am delighted for the opportunity to meet again, although I offer my sympathies on the news which has made it possible. I am deeply sorry.”
“I am amazed you know of it already,” Vita said with surprise. The very slightest smile curved her generous mouth. “You must read the very earliest editions of the newspapers.”
Charlotte put on an air of surprise. “Is it in the newspapers already? I did not know that. But then I have not seen them.” She left the suggestion unspoken that she did not do such things.
Vita was temporarily thrown off balance. “Then how did you know of our tragedy? It is hardly common discussion.”
“Superintendent Pitt told me because of the family connection. He is my husband.”
“Oh!” For a moment it seemed as if Vita were going to laugh. Her voice strayed dangerously near hysteria. “Oh … I see. That explains everything.” She did not expand on what