Henrietta looked mournfully down at her swollen ankles, the result of dancing all night and then accepting an engagement to ride in the Row first thing in the morning. Her return to Town from the Abbey had been marked with outstanding social success. That arbiter of fashion, Mr. George Brummell, had been warned by Lady Belding to avoid Henrietta. “The girl is quite mad, you know,” she had informed him. “And no person of the ton should be seen in her company.” Mr. Brummell cordially despised Lady Belding and had made a great effort to be seen constantly in Henrietta’s company. He even went so far as to label Miss Scattersworth as “a truly charming English eccentric.” Poor Miss Mattie found that all her most ordinary remarks were treated as brilliant witticisms and all the attention went immediately to the spinster’s head. Henrietta rarely saw her and often had to rely on Lord Reckford’s sister, Lady Ann Courtney, to act as chaperone. Most of her social engagements were blessed with the presence of Lord Reckford but there never seemed a moment to talk to him alone.
