Rake's Progress by MC Beaton

Duke of Pelham’s agent about you.’
    â€˜Thank you, my lord,’ said Joseph, scuttling off.
    Lord Guy turned to the butler. ‘Now, Rainbird,’ he began. He broke off. Rainbird’s face was twitching, and his eyes glistened with tears.
    â€˜Oh, laugh, if you want to,’ sighed Lord Guy.
    Rainbird began to laugh. It started off as a restrained titter and ended up as a guffaw. He laughed helplessly, holding his sides, the tears streaming down his cheeks.
    Lord Guy began to laugh as well. He was laughing because Rainbird’s laughter was infectious, and the world was suddenly a glittering and wonderful place because of the very existence of one stern goddess of Berkeley Square.
    The servants had a brief account of what had happened from Joseph – although Joseph did not say the present had really been for Lizzie. The presence of Manuel, who slid round the door andjoined them, put a damper on the conversation. They were wondering how to get rid of him when Rainbird joined them and said to Manuel, ‘Have you been mucking about with the newspaper?’
    â€˜Please. I do not understand,’ said Manuel.
    â€˜It’s like this. The Morning Post and the News are delivered daily. When his lordship has finished with them, he gives them to me to take down to the servants. Angus said that an article had been cut out of one of the papers with scissors.’
    Manuel shrugged. ‘His lordship, he want it for something.’
    â€˜It was not his lordship. I asked him. It wasn’t one of us, so that leaves you.’
    â€˜I go,’ said Manuel, and vanished out the door.
    â€˜Odd,’ said Rainbird. ‘But that’s got rid of him. Wait till you hear this!’
    The servants roared with laughter over the insult to Lady Debenham and her governess – with the exception of Lizzie, who was still hurt. Rainbird thought Joseph should tell Lizzie himself that he had really bought the rose for her and so left out that part of it.
    Then he told them about his interview with Miss Jones.
    They laughed and gossiped and plotted. Joseph got out his mandolin and began to strum a lively song.
    Lord Guy and Mr Roger, stepping out, paused to listen to the sounds of merriment drifting up from the basement.
    â€˜I tell you, Tommy,’ said Lord Guy, ‘there’s a whole other life goes on down there.’
    Esther had told her business managers, the gentlemen who ‘fronted’ for her in the buying and selling of stocks and shares, that she would do no further work until the Season was over.
    Up until recently, money had been security. The very sight of her father throwing it away on frivolous trifles had eaten into her soul. But now, for Peter’s and Amy’s sake, she reminded herself sternly, it was time to loosen the purse strings.
    For the first time in her life, she felt the need of a female companion badly. Her father’s scandalous mode of living had set her apart from the young ladies of the neighbourhood when she was growing up. Now she wished she had someone to help her choose clothes.
    But she gritted her teeth and summoned London’s leading dressmaker to Berkeley Square and ordered a new wardrobe. She applied for, and got, a box at the opera, not knowing that, had it not been for Rainbird’s timely gossip, she would have been turned down by the stern committee who kept the Italian Opera as exclusive as Almack’s Assembly Rooms.
    Although she had reached the great age of twenty-six, put on caps, and resigned herself to a life as a spinster, Esther knew that she would be damned as eccentric if she made her appearance at the opera unescorted. In despair, she sent forRainbird, the only person she knew who might be able to solve her problem.
    As far as the children’s party was concerned, at least, all seemed set for success. The invitations had gone out, and had all been accepted.
    While Esther worried about making her social début, Lord