"Off you go, Jonathan," Lady Gwendolyn said, trying not to smile. "Please do hurry."
The footman ran off, with an expression of extreme ill-humor. Lady Gwendolyn listened with half-an-ear to the other woman until the mention of nurses and a third husband. What? This... child, married three times already? She couldn't be more than eighteen. She glanced down at her, almost chilled by the lifeless look in the girl's eyes. Lady Gwendolyn had seen bad, unhappy, and outright damaging marriages in her time, but it always disturbed her when the women couldn't cope with it. "Well I- oh, forgive me. I have yet to introduce myself! I am Lady Gwendolyn Linley. And you are?"