Liveblog: chapter 2

One of the Gentlemen notices that Valessa is hungry. She can’t imagine how ‘unless he was clairvoyant or else particularly observant.’ Huh? I’ve never known a clairvoyant offering to tell clients whether or not they are hungry. Anyway, he gives her a sandwich and some brandy. Then he persuades her to go with him to Ridgeley Towers where she is going to be entertainment for the guests. This is not going to end well. Still, she’s going to get £200 out of it which will save her from having to drown herself. I guess that’s good for her. Not us, though. We’re going to have to keep reading.

On the way to Ridgeley Towers, Lady Barton explains that she is holding a special party for the Marquis of Wyndonbury. I assume this is the same person referred to elsewhere as the Marquis of Wyndonberry and the Marquess of Wyndonberry, though who knows? Lady Barton doesn’t tell Valessa that her father was called Fred Wicket and that he ‘realised the only way he could be accepted socially was to beat the sportsmen at their own game.’ Presumably that game was cricket.

Fred Wicket’s father was ‘an unimportant Solicitor, who had provided him with a good education. He had won a Scholarship to University and gained a Degree with an iron determination that he would become a millionaire. He fought his way into the Shipping Industry.’ You know, Barbara Cartland would have been right at home on the internet, with that attitude to capitalisation. Anyway, Fred Wicket’s daughter married a man who ‘concentrated fanatically on making himself an Emperor of Finance and a King of Sport at the same time.’ Unfortunately, he contracted a wasting disease and died. Well, unfortunately for him. It was very fortunate for Lady Barton.

Lady Barton sneaks into the Marquis of Windowbox’s bed and thus becomes his mistress. The next step is the house party, wholly geared to getting a proposal of marriage out of him.

So, you may have noticed that basically nothing happens in this chapter except backstory. This is just one reason why the book is so difficult to read. Cartland jumps from past to present all over the place. It makes my head hurt. I think that by the end of this chapter the refusal of marriage which was mentioned in the first chapter hasn’t actually happened yet, but I wouldn’t swear to it.