I really love False Colours, albeit the plot does mean that one has to stretch ones imagination a little. However it is plausible that if only one of the twins is in London, and their social circle do not expect to see both of them, that the deception could work for a short time.
Kit feels uneasy about engaging in this deception, but his brother's valet and groom both assure him that he can pull it off and that they will help... and that it would be highly unkind to Cressida Staveley to let her be embarrassed by her suitor not turning up at the party. He decides to go ahead with it. He is still unsure if Evelyn is making the right choice in deciding to make an "old fashioned" marriage, to a girl he does not know that well.. but he knows that his twin is very stubborn. He believes that as Cressy is 20 years old and her father is also a ladies' man, she will be able to accept some philandering on her husband's part. Lady Denville tells him that it is most important that he wins over old Lady Staveley, Cressy's grandmother who is the dominant one in the family. Cressy lives with her father who is a rather weak man, and her new stepmother, Albinia who is not that much older than herself... so it is understandable that she should wish to get married...
Kit goes to the dinner party and is a little concerned that Cressy's uncle Charles knows Evelyn slightly but he manages to pull of his impression of his twin. However Cressy worries him by asking if they can meet the following day to discuss something and he wonders if she has rumbled him.
When he talks to his mother, later, Lady Denville tells him that probably all that Cressy wants to discuss is Evelyn's plan to have her live with him and his bride, which she does not want to do. Kit resolves to get out of London as soon as he can, after the dinner, to avoid any further interaction with Cressida. He and Lady Denville plan to go to Brighton or to the family estate which is near to the seaside resort. But things dont work out as planned. He meets with Cressy, and she tells him that she would like to get to know him better, before committing herself to marriage. Kit hopes that his twin will return to London soon but he and Lady Denville continue to make plans to get out of the city as it is approaching high summer when the upper classes usually left London for their family estates or a visit to the seaside. He is getting worried that Evelyn has not turned up but hopes that if he does so soon, he will realise what has happened and they will be able to conceal their deception.
Kit makes the journey to Ravenhurst Park, the family estate and begins looking into the estate business there, to keep up the fiction that he is Evelyn. He is able to confide in Mrs Pinner, his old nurse who is retired and living in a cottage on the estate. However within a couple of days, Lady Denville arrives, and brings bad news. Old Lady Staveley has been to visit her and wants to make sure that her favourite granddaughter will have some time to get to know her intended.. before they get formally engaged. This was the very thing that Kit had wanted to avoid. But Lady Stavely has invited herself to the country house, and he cannot avoid her. Lady Denville has thought of this and has invited a few other people to make up a house party, so that Kit will be able to keep his distance from Cressy, when there are other guests. Lady Denville invites her brother Cosmo, and his wife and son. Cosmo is very unlike his beautiful, charming and extravagant sister. He is grouchy and a penny pincher.. so he is glad to get an invitation to someone elses' place while he has let his own small estate to a distant relative for the summer.
Lady Denville also invites Sir Bonamy Ripple.. who is her most faithful platonic admirer, and who has allegedly been in love with her for all her life and remained a bachelor for her sake. She is fond of him and enjoys his company, but he is a very fat man who lives for pleasure. Kit hopes that this ill assorted party will mean that he can avoid being in company too much with Cressy.
