Lady Odelia was, quite simply, one of the duchess’s set, despite Odelia’s sometimes rather shocking lack of manners. The dowager duchess had come because, while she had never really liked her late husband’s older sister, Lady Pencully was one of the few people left of their generation-though, the duchess was careful to point out, Lady Pencully was a number of years older than she-and was, moreover, one of the even fewer number of women whom the duchess considered of equal standing. Besides, there was business he needed to attend to in London. He was, after all, her great-nephew, and he was a man who believed in carrying out his family responsibilities. The duke, one of the rare few who would have dared to refuse Lady Odelia, had been disinclined to do so. Neither snow nor cold nor the difficulties of opening up a town house for a brief visit could hold back the ladies of the ton, who comforted themselves with the fact that at least it would not be true, as it usually was in January, that no one would be in town, since everyone who mattered would be coming to Lady Odelia’s party.Īmong those who drove into London from their country estates was the Duke of Rochford, along with his sister, Lady Calandra, and their grandmother, the dowager Duchess of Rochford. So this year, when she announced that she would celebrate her eighty-fifth year of life with a grand ball, it immediately became the one event that no one of any social standing or pretenses thereof could risk missing, even if it was in London in January, the most unfashionable and difficult time of the year. A prodigious correspondent, she kept up to date with the latest scandals and news, and was never averse to dashing off a note to anyone whom she felt needed the benefit of her advice.

During her heyday, she had ruled over the ton as she did her family, with an acid tongue and an iron will, and even though she had, with age, remained more and more at her country estate, rarely coming to London even for the Season, she was still a force to be reckoned with.

The daughter of a duke and a countess by marriage, she was a pillar of Society, and it was rare that anyone dared cross her. To have been invited and not attend was unthinkable.Įither by blood or by birth, Lady Pencully was related to half the most powerful and wealthy families in England. Not to have been invited was a cause for deep social embarrassment. LADY ODELIA PENCULLY’S BIRTHDAY BALL was the event of the Season-even though the Season had not yet begun.

The wedding challenge by candace camp