by Hannah West
“But so have you,” Emma argued.
“And so others were kind to me as well. I am just glad we are together again.”
Cassie gave her a hug and pulled her along to walk more down the street lined with fancy shops on both sides.
“I must buy something for John then to thank him,” Emma said wiping away the rest of her tears.
No one had cared for her since her sister had left and she had almost forgotten what it was like to have someone care for her.
“You are so humble, Emma. It breaks my heart to see how much you have changed from being a young spirited girl. You are so accepting now and quiet, but please do not feel like you have to be anymore.” Cassie urged her forward into the door of a modest shop and smiled. “You deserve to be happy and get what you want after having all that taken away from you.
The shop they entered had a few rows set up with designs and cloth and a small sitting area separated to the front.
“Now time for your next lesson as a lady. Wearing the proper dress to the right event. You my dear are going to be the belle of the ball this Season. You will be the one everyone wants, I shall see to it and we shall both have some fun."
"When you have a daughter you will be the very best of mamas,” Emma said with a grin.
But she watched as her sister’s wide smile turned brittle. It left her wishing she had not said a thing about it.
“I meant no harm,” she apologized to Cassie.
Cassie nodded. “I know. I would love a child, John would to but it’s not meant to be. His love is enough.”
Just for her sister Emma would make this Season the best her sister would very attend. It would seem her sister needed her as much as Emma had needed her. Well just maybe they could save each other.
Chapter Nine
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Nine: A lady most wear the proper dress to the right event.
The next two week flew by with Cassie teaching Emma the things that every lady ‘needed’ to know to survive. To Emma it was a bunch of rubbish but each thing had its own use or so her sister said.
She had learned a new way to walk and manners needed for sparring with other nobles. It was nothing more than playing with insults and deflections. But she also had to learn four dances that they dance at every ball.
Emma however drew the line about getting her hair cut and piled atop her head. It may not be fashionable but she loved her long hair and wore it down in honor of their mother. Her sister insisted she at least curl her hair into ringlets and she had laughed at the idea because she would have ended up looking like a sheep.
Cassie had laughed at that.
“Well it will make you stand out and set you part from the other ladies. Another thing is that since you are passed the come out age no one will expect you to wear all the washed out colors of the Season for innocent misses. The bold colors you chose will make you shine.”
Emma had agreed that she loved the colors but she was not sold on the idea of being a belle. She had gained a little weight back and she was feeling better. The food was not her favorite but there were these tasty little morsels they called sweet tarts that she sneaked any chance she got.
“Pay attention,” Cassie chided as she snapped her fingers in front of Emma’s face.
Emma blinked. “I was thinking on the Season and my dresses.”
She sighed and Emma grinned. “At least you were thinking on something important. Now as I was saying the goal is to have a few lords courting you before the first set of balls for the Season are over. That means you must use charm and bring them to you. But toss the bad ones back into the pond.”
“They are not fish,” Emma said with a giggle.
“They will act like it once you are out in society. Our first ball will be here soon and you must be ready, but it shall be great practice.”
“Can I not take a break? All of this is tiring Cassie. I never had to learn so many small things for something that seems so easy to do. Can I not be myself?”
Cassie raised a brow. “Only if you want to be punished by the ton for trying.”
Emma needed to take a break from the world her sister seemed to thrive in and went for a walk after her sister left. She was thankful that the townhouse was a goodly distance to Hyde Park so she could take her time.
While the carriages had been great fun at first, she missed walking every day. It was something she had done for years and enjoyed the simple pleasure of stretching her legs.
Everything had been too much too soon and she found herself over whelmed. Emma knew she was not talented enough to be a true lady, but she tried anyway. Her sister was the perfect lady, delicate, well-mannered and graceful. Cassie was flawless at playing the role of perfect lady. The only thing Emma seemed to be halfway good at was dancing.
She loved the smooth, flowing moves of each one she learned and she had become a quick study.
Emma was unsure if she truly wished to marry now, since it was no longer necessary for her survival. Be as it were, before she would have married the first man that offered for her, she now had time.
Truth be told she had nothing but time now. Without needing to work to make a living she had time to enjoy more than her walks.
As she looked around at the neat spacious townhomes with sidewalks, paved roads beyond them, and the green manicured lawns of inner London she saw nothing of what people had told her about the horrors of the place. She had been told of cramped, dirty streets that smelled of refuse with its nasty beggars. While she was sure it existed, she had not seen any of it yet.
The dresses lent to her by her sister were pretty but constricting making it hard to move and breathe. Much to the protest of her sister, Emma had refused to wear a corset.
So her new dresses had been made to support her comfortably while still looking decent and proper.
Cassie insisted that it would be scandalous, but Emma won that argument saying what was the point in having to wear one when she wouldn’t go out wearing one anyway.
“You are stubborn, do you know that?” Cassie huffed.
Emma had just laughed at her.
Emma’s thoughts were abruptly ended as she walked bodily into a wall and promptly fell to the ground sideways in a cloud of dust.
“Are you quiet alright?” asked a deep voice before the person said, “I did not see you coming down the path.”
Still slightly dazed from her fall she did not realized at first she was being picked up by a pair of strong hands.
But the face that came into view made her start in surprise. When she was upright once more and on her feet the man dusted off her skirts then straightened to look at her with a surprised but concerned expression.
Emma took a step away from him in surprise at whom she had run into and who had just dusted off her skirts.
“Are you quiet alright, Lady Emmaline?” asked the Duke of Montrose.
“I-I am fine,” Emma said with a slight stammer. “I did not mean to run into you.”
A black horse whickered behind him, over his shoulder.
“Or your horse,” she said with and internal wince. “I was wool gathering, I suppose.”
The Duke of Montrose cocked his head and gave a small smile at her choice of words. “Wool gathering?”
Emma sighed. “I like to think upon things too much or so my sister used to tell me.” She dusted at her skirts, and then looked back at him.
“It is not nice to make fun of people,” Emma said irritated by his growing smile.
That surprised him. He must not have been used to people talking to him as such. No matter his title he could at least have common decency.
Her last words made him frown slightly.
“I meant no offence,” he offered politely.
“Good, then I forgive you for hitting me with your horse,” Emma said graciously.
“You forgive me? I thought you had apologized for running into us,” the man countered.
Emma glared at the man. “I recan
t my words.”
She knew he had been about to say that was not how it worked and raised an eyebrow at him. “As a gentleman you should accept the guilt with grace and then you should tell me it will not happen again,” she instructed.
Her sister told her this was how things were supposed to go and a real gentleman would accept the blame even if it was not of his doing.
He raised his own brows at this. “So I see,” he said faintly. “Then I beg your pardon, my lady.”
Emma nodded and gave him a brilliant smile. “Then good day to you, your grace.”
She looked him over one more time and then gave him one more smile. “See you around.”
With that she walked pass him, gave his horse a pat on the neck and then carried on as if nothing had happened.
Chapter Ten
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Ten: A lady must never dismiss a noble of higher rank.
Derek watched as the sassy little minx walked away from him yet again.
There was no other way he could think of her of now. Oh she had used proper words to address him, but she had done so in a way that could be called coquettish.
She knew he was a duke and seemed not to care for the dictates of high society. While she bent the rules she didn’t break them.
And she was a distraction, he decided.
He could not help the smile that formed on his lips.
She had even gotten him to take the blame of their encounter upon himself, clever little minx.
Lady Emmaline was going to add great amusement to this Season. She and his sister would get along famously. Derek would make sure they met at his sister’s ball.
He returned to his horse and remounted in one smooth move. He stared after her retreating form one more time then realized she had walked away alone, no maid or escort following her.
She needed an escort with her, for what could she do if something happened?
His deeply ingrained gentlemanly manners demanded he see her home safety and he couldn’t help to agree.
Derek liked the idea of being her escort and taking a little time to talk to her, to know her a little more. He had never done so before as it was simply something dukes did not do.
He hesitated for a moment at that thought then waved the footman he had brought along over.
Derek dismounted and handed the reins of his horse to the man’s waiting hands.
“Return to the house,” he instructed, “I shall return home shortly.”
His footman gaped at him as if he were mad and needed to check himself into Bedlam.
He wondered if he was as well, for he had never gone to this length for a lady. He just might be.
Derek looked for her retreating form and watched as she got farther away. The he did something else that dukes never did.
He quickened his pace and hurried to catch the lady.
…
Emma had a sense that someone was following her, but she did not turn around.
Her body tensed when the gravel crunched under boot heels getting closer to her.
“Lady Emmaline?” a deep male’s voice behind her called out.
She turned to see the duke on foot less than twenty paces away, coming toward her. She could not hide the surprise on her face the closer he got.
His chestnut brown hair which had been perfectly arranged but a few moments ago was in disarray and his cheeks were now pinkened from the effort to catch up to her.
“Did you forget something,” she asked then added, “your grace.”
He nodded, then shook his head. “Not I , my lady, but I think you might have.” He looked around them pointedly, “I do not see your maid.”
Emma smiled sheepishly at him. She did not want to tell him she did not have one, that she never had.
A duke like him must have hundreds of servants at his beck and call. While her father could not have afforded a maid let alone a cook.
Emma had worked so they could afford food to eat. Not that her father had ever noticed her being gone to do so. He had always been away gambling or when he had been home he had always been at the bottom of a bottle, drunk.
So instead of having this duke pity her she told a half truth.
“I snuck out of the house to go on a walk alone,” Emma admitted.
“You should have taken a maid or an escort with you, Lady Emmaline. Think of your safety, what would become of your sister if you were hurt?”
Truth be told Emma had not taught of her safety. Compared to where she previously lived this could not be safer. It was true Cassie might be distraught over her being injured or she might be furious over the trouble caused by a public accident.
Cassie had instructed Emma to avoid at all costs any scandal or anything that could ruin her.
Emma looked at the duke curiously and wondered if he had ever done anything to make people speculate. He seemed to be just another stuffed shirt to her. In fact she could bet that he had never come after a lady before to tell her to worry about her safety.
“Can I ask you a question,” she asked him suddenly.
The abrupt change in subject seemed to catch him off his guard.
“You may,” he said with a faint smile.
“Why did you come after me? To speak frankly I do not know a lot about the rules of society, nor do I really care for the ones I do know. But you seem quiet, pardon me, stuffy and proper. So why come after me?”
Chapter Eleven
How to Become a Lady ~ Rule Eleven: A lady have a proper sense of humor.
Had the minx just called him stuffy and proper?
She raised a questioning brow at him when he didn’t answer.
By God, she had called him so! Well if the truth were told he had simply wanted to come to her, but he was not willing to admit as much.
So instead he said, “A true gentleman would not let young lady walk alone. Allow me to return you home.”
Stuffy he might be but he was nothing if not a proper gentleman. But each time he was with her the less proper he felt like one.
Derek offered the minx his arm, but she did not accept it.
“I am not sure your offer will stand when I tell you where home is,” she admitted looking slightly worried. “Also you are a duke, would not being seen with a mere baron’s daughter not be in your favor?’
Derek felt like sighing in frustration, instead he took her hand and placed it upon his arm.
“Worry not for me, my lady,” he told her, “Now tell me where I shall take you?”
She looked away from him and muttered so softly he could hear what she said.
“Where,” Derek asked again.
“Hanover Square,” she said again with a slight shrug.
Getting the location from her was like pulling teeth. Then the location registered with him.
“Hanover Square,” he intoned with surprise, “but that is over three miles from here!”
At his tone she grinned, she could not help herself. “Bet you wished you had not sent your horse home,” she said under her breath.
He gave her an incredulous look.
She gave him a look of mock surprise. “My lord, did you just raise your voice? Tsk, how improper.”
He cleared his throat and rearranged his expression at the reminder. He wanted to join in at her fun, but scowled at her in mock disapproval.
“I did no such thing, my lady. It would have been unpardonable of me,” Derek denied.
“Well you are the duke, so you must be right,” she said with a touch of sarcasm.
He nodded his head. “Exactly, Lady Emmaline.” He ignored her tone, taking her words a face value.
“Now let us get you home before Lady Cassandra notices and calls the watch.”
She looked up at him in surprise, “You made a jest,” she said in approval.
Derek could not stop himself from grinning. “I did,” he agreed.
…
After walking the young lady home and leaving her in the care of the house keepe
r, Derek walked himself home a mile away. Upon entering his home he was swooped upon by his younger sister.
“Where have you been,” she cried, coming toward him, “I was worried. Henry returned with your horse saying you had gone off on foot. That’s not like you, Derek.”
He smiled at her and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “I am well as you can see. I simply wanted to walk for a while.”
Anna gazed at him with a studious eye but then shook her head. “I am just glad you are home, Mother is here and she wants to have a talk with you. I was hoping to warning you before-”
“Derek,” his mother said loudly as she entered the front hall, “where have you been? We have been here for over an hour waiting.”
He smiled at his mother and kissed her cheek too. She playfully swatted at him.
“Playing the loving son will not excuse you from what I have to ask,” she intoned, but smiled back.
“I would not dream of it, Mother dear. Now let us go to the parlor and talk about it over a cup of tea,” Derek suggested as he guided them down the hall.
Once they were seated a tea rang for his mother started in on her lot.
“I have made a list of ladies who would make a great duchess for you. As you know it is time you did your duty to this family and produce an heir,” she started off, “also since it is your sister’s coming out ball, you will need to attend any event she does.”
“Of course,” Derek agreed. However just because he agreed did not mean he wished to go.
He used to go only to select balls and parties and while he liked the fun it became tiring after so many. He liked being a duke but sometime he was not too fond of strings that came with it. But he would gladly do this for Anna. She had wanted nothing more than to marry and start a family of her own after the last few years.
