As Lady Henriettareadied herself for bed, her mother knocked once, then entered her daughter’s room without waiting for an invitation to enter. She subjected her daughter to a dissecting, imperious gaze.
“Did you honestly believe your little ploy with the bracelet today would work, daughter?”
Henrietta scoffed, twirling the end of the braid the lady’s maid had done for her around her finger.
“It would have, if Lord Seabury’s butler had not come back when he did. Lord Seabury was already moving toward the parlour to help me, and we would have been alone together, if the butler and the housekeeper had not appeared at that very moment.”
Lady Middlebrook clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“Your plan was foolish and sloppy at best, Henrietta. You did not think it through. You would have needed someone not on his staff to catch you in a compromising position, someone with a vested interest in keeping your honour intact, like your father, or me. If a member of his staff had caught the two of you alone together, they would be far more inclined to protect Lord Seabury’s interests than yours.”
Lady Henrietta whirled away from the mirror she had been examining her appearance in, and glared at her mother.
“Are you simply enjoying criticising me, Mother, or might you actually have something helpful to say?”
“Watch your tongue, Henrietta.”
Lady Middlebrook planted her hands on her hips and stared her daughter down until Henrietta dropped her gaze and looked away.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I just don’t understand what I might have done differently today.”
“If you are going to succeed in trapping Lord Seabury, my dear, you are going to have to be more creative and more careful.”
Henrietta stamped her foot like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
“But nothing I’ve tried so far has worked! What am I supposed to do?”
“What do you want from me, darling? The young lady’s step-by-step guide to trapping an Earl?”
Lady Henrietta threw the covers on her bed back, and flung herself down with a pointed glare in her mother’s direction.
“I know you are being sarcastic, but it would be helpful if such a guide existed.”
Lady Middlebrook flounced over to her daughter’s bed and sat down beside her with a sigh.
“It is really quite simple when you think about it, dearest. You must be caught alone with him, preferably by me or by someone who is a notorious gossip, and your position must look compromising, even if that is not really the case. If I were to catch you in his arms while the two of you are alone together, I would — of course — be scandalised, and demand that he do the right thing after robbing you of your innocence. It is all about the look of the situation, and applying pressure appropriately in reaction to that.”
Henrietta stared at her mother and shook her head.
“Why do I feel like I have no hope of trapping Lord Seabury without your help, Mother?”
Her mother gave a sly smile and seemed to preen for a moment, like a peacock displaying its colours.
“Because it’s true, darling, but do not worry. I will do everything I can to help you, and I’m sure I needn’t tell you this, but you are not to breathe a word of this to your father. Do we understand one another?”