"Have you heard the news?"
It was the typical greeting the gossipy ladies of London high society liked to give each other, a prelude to a flurry of silk rustling and urgent whispers exchanged at the edges of the room, each morsel of gossip devoured before another, juicier tidbit arrived.
Married noble ladies usually did not make their appearances at social functions without their husbands at their sides, unless of course these ladies already blossomed into ambitious mamas who had to play chaperone for their maiden daughters.
And here they had Lady Marguerite Delaney Antoine Locksworth, née Blanchard, attending the ongoing season by herself, while her husband the Marquess of Canterbury was nowhere to be seen.
"Maaaaybe His Grace is busy," a lady reasoned behind a spread peacock fan, during Winchester Castle's evening ball that day. "You know men and their business in London."
