Wife Errant Read Free

breakfast the next morning. “I especially wanted to talk to you. I was feeling so very blue about Mama and Papa, I cried myself to sleep,”she said, casting an accusing look at Tess.
    “When you flounced out of the saloon, I took the idea you did not wish to speak to me,”Tess replied blandly.
    “It was Mama I was angry with.”
    “Then you ought not to have taken it out on me.”
    A small lecture from Tess was nothing new. Dulcie paid it little heed. They were soon joined by their mama, whose pale cheeks and smudged eyes rendered her less lovely than the night before. She had not yet had a session at her toilette with the formidable Henshaw. She said good morning to her daughters and looked about the table for her mail.
    “Have you handled the correspondence already, Tess?”she asked. “You might at least have left the invitations for me to read.”
    “I have not done the correspondence, Mama. I slept in this morning,”Tess replied.
    “There is no hurry. You can do it after breakfast.”
    “Mama!”Dulcie objected. “Tess is taking me to Milsom Street this morning.”
    “Bother! As you are going out, pick me up some headache powders and my shoes—they are at the cobbler’s. I wrenched the heel loose. You can do the correspondence this afternoon.”
    “Actually, I plan to go out this afternoon as well,”Tess said. “To visit Lady Revel”
    “I suppose we ought to pay our respects, not that she will return the call.”
    “Then you will be coming with me?”Tess asked innocently.
    “You know perfectly well I have the coiffeur coming,”Mrs. Marchant snipped. “You ought to do something about your own looks, Tess. You never spend a penny in that direction, and it shows, my dear.”Tess looked interested in this idea. She had decided she required a gentleman for optimum misbehavior, and obviously a new hairdo would be required.
    When her mother saw her hesitation, she rushed on. “You must pay my respects to Lady Revel. You will know what to say, and don’t tell her why I am staying at home. Keep your ears open for any mention of Lord James. I fear he is seeing another lady. He scarcely threw me a word all evening, and brought me home very early. His friends are all such rattles they have no idea of flirtation.”
    “I did not hear you come home, Mama,”Tess said, “and I was awake till midnight, reading.”
    “Midnight is early, goose. I don’t doubt he went on somewhere else after. The man is an eel. The masquerade was a dead bore. All the ladies were dressed in Oriental garb, thanks to Lord Byron. I was the only lady there without a black wig.”
    Tess soon excused herself from the table.
    Her mother said, “Don’t forget to look at the mail. There is bound to be something from Northbay needing a reply.”
    “I shall have Crimshaw bring the mail to you.”
    “Only the invitations. You can handle the housekeeper’s correspondence.”
    “I am so busy today, Mama, I fear you will have to do it yourself,”Tess said.
    “You call gadding about Milsom Street busy?”
    “Shall I stay home and do the correspondence then?”
    Dulcie set up a wail, and Mrs. Marchant decided the correspondence could wait till the evening.
    The morning on busy Milsom Street with Dulcie was uneventful. With a thought to the new role she was about to undertake, Tess bought a few additions to her toilette, the most noteworthy of which was a new bonnet with an arched rim to frame her face and a clutch of ostrich feathers dyed pink. She “forgot”the slippers at the cobbler’s, but bought the headache powders, as Mama would have ample need for them.
    Mrs. Marchant was quite taken with the bonnet when she clamped her eyes on it. “How exceedingly stylish!”she exclaimed. “Not in your usual mode, Tess. I must have one like it. But you will not want to appear in a bonnet like your mama’s.”She laughed gaily. “You can buy one similar, with a different color of feather.”As she spoke, she took the bonnet to the