by Ayles, Abby
A lady shouldn’t have to always be so uncomfortable, she thought. A bit of shapeliness is all I really need. She admired her reflection as she now stood before her mirror, dressed in a white gown with little cranberries in its pattern.
A cranberry-colored ribbon was tied into a bow at the back, nicely outlining her empire waist.
Noelle frankly found the idea of day dresses and evening dresses rather silly. She didn’t see the point in having to change what one was wearing simply because of the time of day, or even because of the activities therein.
As soon as she was properly dressed, she left her bedchamber and walked down the stairs in her slippers, barely making any sound at all. Still, her mother and sisters looked at her as soon as she entered the dining room as if they’d heard her every step. “I hope that I haven’t kept you waiting,” she said to them, taking a seat at the table beside her mother.
The duchess smiled at her daughter. “Oh, we haven’t been waiting long, dear. Did you have a nice sleep?”
“I bet you did,” Kitty cut in, grinning rather impishly at her. “After dancing the night away with your handsome and mysterious partner.”
Their mother raised her eyebrows curiously. “Oh? Did Lord Drake arrive without my knowing it? You know, I waited all night for him to be announced at the door…”
Alas, Noelle had to shake her head. “No, Mother. He never appeared.”
“Oh, but you danced with someone much better!” Catherine went on. She turned her face to look at their mother, undeterred by the duchess’s displeased expression. “Did you know that the Viscount of Easton came to the ball – and he had the most handsome cousin at his side for Noelle?”
Lady Noelle blanched a bit at that. Really, she makes it sound as if I’d been given table scraps. Must she phrase it like that?
Their mother was giving her such a queer look now. She’d set aside her fork, which Noelle knew meant a lecture was about to begin. “Did your father and I not instruct you to keep your dance card clear in favor of the Marquess of Fairfax?” she demanded.
“Yes, Mother,” Noelle replied. “But I thought it would be rude if I were to refuse Mr. Edwards.”
“Mister Edwards,” her mother said. “That’s exactly the point. The eldest daughter of a duke does not marry a gentleman with no title.”
Noelle looked down at her plate of food. She’d predicted this conversation, which was why she hadn’t wanted to dance with him at first… “I thought that it might look badly for me – for the family – if I was sitting there without a single dance partner all night.”
It was perfectly acceptable for someone like Emily, who’d partnered herself with her book all night, but for someone like Lady Noelle, it was unseemly. Even if her mother preferred for her to save her dance card for marquesses and viscounts.
Her mother looked at her thoughtfully but she still didn’t look thrilled or appear to be in agreement with her.
“Oh, but I danced with a viscount,” Catherine said.
Noelle wished that her sister wouldn’t gloat so much.
“Lord Edwards, the Viscount of Easton,” Catherine went on with stars in her eyes. “He was so sweet and charming. I think that he liked me very much.”
“Don’t they all?” Emily interjected.
Noelle let a laugh escape her, careful not to choke on her greens.
Kitty glowered at the pair of them. “Anyway, it was better than you did, Emily. You know she was reading all night long.”
Emily gasped. Noelle slowly shook her head at Catherine.
Their mother clattered her silverware against her plate. “Emily!” she admonished. “You know the rules!”
Emily looked down at her hands in her lap. “Yes, ma’am,” she said in a guilty voice.
Noelle glared at Kitty. They of course all knew about it, but none of them were going to get Emily into trouble for something so inconsequential. Not every girl liked to dance, and Emily was one such girl.
“I think you ought to go upstairs to your room,” their mother said to Emily. “You’re done with your breakfast.”
The girl gasped a little but didn’t argue. She slowly got up from her chair, tossing her white napkin onto the table beside her plate. Noelle watched her remorsefully as she left the room.
“Mother, she wasn’t trying to do anything wrong. I made sure that she was sociable. She spoke some with the Viscount of Easton and his cousin.”
Noelle knew that there would be no use in campaigning for Emily. All she could do was hope that her foolish sister wouldn’t do something like that again. For her part, she had to concern herself with securing a meeting with the Marquess of Fairfax… And forget any thoughts of Mr. Edwards.
After breakfast, she left the table and went back up to her bedroom. She knew that it wouldn’t do to stay sequestered in there all day as if she’d done something wrong, so she took up her drawing pad and her pencil. She carried these things back downstairs and into the sitting room.
“Noelle?” Catherine called for her before she could even touch her pencil to the paper. Her sister came walking towards her from the dining area, a big smile on her face. “Really, you’re not planning to just draw at home all day, are you?”
Rolling her eyes, Noelle set her pencil down on the table. “I was planning on it, yes. I suppose you have a better idea of what I should do?”
Kitty nodded her head. “I was thinking that we could go dress shopping with Mother,” she said, biting her lip in her anticipation.
Of course you were, Noelle thought, but she smiled at her sister. She supposed that some fresh air would do them both some good after how stuffy things had been in their full house last night.
“Does Mother know about this?” she asked her. “Or are you volunteering her without her knowledge?”
Kitty giggled. “Noelle, you’re silly. Of course I’ve already asked her. And she said we should bring the others along.” She stuck her tongue out at this.
“Well, I don’t see why we should get new dresses and they should be left out of it,” Noelle said. “You and I both know that Emily could use some new clothing.”
Crinkling up her nose a little, Kitty nodded her head. “Just so!” she agreed. “I think it will be so much fun, don’t you?”
Noelle set aside her drawing pad in a corner of the room. “I think so,” she replied. “And it will also be helpful, since new styles are always coming into fashion.”
She didn’t honestly think that so vapid of an excursion would be very amusing for her, but it was true that some new frocks would do her good. She had a feeling that her mother was going to insist that they attend another ball before too many days went by, and she wished to be prepared for that eventuality.
Particularly if her intended beau finally graced her with his presence.
Or if Mr. Edwards should reappear, she thought with a blush. She knew that she shouldn’t entertain more thoughts about him, but she couldn’t help herself. Noelle wished that she was free to spend time with him the way she spent time with other eligible young men.
She didn’t know anything about the handsome Mr. Rodrick Edwards, other than the fact that he was the nephew of an earl and he had a good humor about him. He’d gone so far as to compliment her sister Emily, and he hadn’t really needed to do that.
The Fletcher ladies went to three dress boutiques in the city. One thing was for sure: they certainly never shied away from spending the Duke of Salisbury’s money. Their mother had taught them that one of their chief duties as noblewomen was to spend what was necessary to dress well for society.
Anna and Beth were deeply pleased to be included in this outing. As the younger sisters, they normally took the gowns that their elder sisters outgrew or lost interest in. On this afternoon, their mother was in good humor and it was to their good fortune.
I wonder what sort of gown the marquess would like, Noelle thought absently as she wandered around the boutiques. It was nigh impossible to try to dress for someone who
m she’d never met or even laid eyes on before.
All she knew was that Lord Drake was more than likely just like all of the rest. He wouldn’t really even care what she was wearing. He would care only for how much money her parents boasted.
It was a comfort to her to know that she had the reputation for being a pretty young lady. She just wished that she could be regarded as interesting more often than not…
Noelle couldn’t help but notice as she regarded her lovely new emerald green gown, upon its purchase, that it resembled the color of a certain gentleman’s eyes… It may have been a coincidence, of course. After all, green had always been her favorite color.
Chapter 8
Alphonse was not an easy man to track down, but he paid a call to Rodrick a few days after the Salisbury ball. “How are you doing, Rodrick, my good man?” he asked him, gently patting him between the shoulder blades in a manner that wasn’t entirely all that gentle.
Rodrick felt a bit annoyed at the man for smiling so much and not seeming the least bit remorseful that he’d missed the party where he was – apparently – meant to be a main guest. Lady Noelle did seem so upset.
“You missed a cracker of a party the other night, Fairfax,” he replied, keeping things jovial in spite of feeling the opposite.
“Oh, really?” Alphonse asked him casually, pouring himself a glass of brandy. “Did the lady seem in good spirits?”
“As a matter of fact, she did,” Rodrick answered. “She was rather disappointed that you did not make an appearance, though.”
The marquess waved a dismissive hand. He sat down languidly on the sofa in Rodrick’s sitting room and appeared to be more interested in making himself at home than in discussing disappointed debutantes.
Rodrick poured himself another drink and sat in a chair beside the couch. It had been some time since Alphonse had last visited Wildhill; he usually seemed to favor James’s Westwood estate house instead.
It was no real surprise why. Though the two were friends since they were boys, Alphonse prized companionship with Rodrick’s titled cousin over him.
Lady Noelle, too, seemed to be preoccupied with status and nobility over the full enjoyment of the party. But still she had charmed Rodrick and he so hoped to see more of her.
He would do well to influence Alphonse into attending the next ball, if only to please the lady. He doesn’t have to spend all of his time with her; in fact I’d prefer if he did not.
“One pretty face at a ball is the same as another,” the marquess said, holding his glass before him as he tasted the brandy. “I’m sure I shall have the occasion to meet her soon enough.”
Rodrick felt uneasy. “I didn’t like to see the poor girl’s disappointment in her eyes,” he said.
“Man, you are growing soft,” Alphonse said with a grin to his friend. “And not just about the stomach!”
He reached over and patted Rodrick’s belly with the back of his hand.
Rodrick laughed a little in spite of himself. “You’re looking well-fed yourself, Marquess.”
Alphonse patted his own stomach then, proudly. “It is one of the curses of engaging with the ton night after night.”
Suddenly, he looked around the room. “Speaking of engaging with the ton,” he said, “where is your delightful mother?”
Rodrick didn’t have the slightest idea and he told his friend such. His mother was fond of going off into the house and doing her own thing in order to entertain herself.
Mrs. Eleanor Edwards came down the staircase as soon as she was called forth by her son. “Oh, Lord Drake! This is a surprise indeed!”
She came down quickly as soon as she realized that Rodrick’s friend was there. She greeted him with a curtsy and a friendly kiss on his cheek.
Alphonse gladly leaned down towards her so he could receive this kiss from the woman. He was amused and charmed by Mrs. Edwards, perhaps partially because he knew how much it agitated Rodrick.
“You missed a wonderful party the other night,” she said to Fairfax. “Of course, I only watched from the edges of the room. Rodrick, who was that lovely young lady you were dancing with?”
Rodrick’s face reddened considerably in his embarrassment. He didn’t wish for his best companion to know that he’d spent most of the evening dancing and getting acquainted with Lady Noelle himself.
“Oh, one of the duke’s daughters,” he said modestly, attempting to brush the question away as if it were a housefly. “I didn’t wish to be rude and not dance with her.”
“She seemed a charming young lady,” his mother went on. “And the lady on his cousin’s arm – oh!” She grinned a bit as if she had mischievous thoughts in mind.
She’s imagining us all married off, Rodrick thought. Nothing gives her more entertainment than living vicariously through all of us.
He almost felt sad for her; she’d been without her husband for all these many months. She used to have her own dashing husband on her arm at these parties and now she was forced to try and show off her son in his place.
Rodrick really didn’t understand why there was such rush and worry over who married whom and when. He was one and thirty, he wasn’t old. There was quite a bit more joie de vivre in him yet.
Alphonse, for his part, kept on grinning at him with seemingly unending amusement. “You cad. You weren’t supposed to run off and meet a girl for yourself.”
“Now I wish I’d gone instead of sitting in all evening with work, work, work!”
Indeed, you probably do, Rodrick said with some disdain for his friend’s faux regret. He knew perfectly well what he was sacrificing by not going to the ball, and he wasn’t truly sorry in the least!
“Oh, well, it shan’t be long before there is another one. Don’t you think so, Rodrick?”
He looked at his mother and sighed a little, taking another long sip of his brandy. “I’m not sure that Grosvenor Square can handle another ball so soon after the last one.”
“Don’t be silly,” his mother countered with a tisk. “Grosvenor Square was simply made for balls!”
Rodrick smirked a little at her. “I wonder, Alfie, if my being put off by women and their follies is due to my mother’s silly blathering.”
Alphonse chuckled. “Indeed, sir. It really does boggle one’s mind.”
Instead of being offended, Eleanor laughed at them, a gay sort of giggly laugh that was usually only performed by younger women. Further proof to him that his mother was having some sort of midlife crisis of the spirit.
“You boys are so cruel to me,” she said in a voice that said she thought they were actually anything but cruel.
Alphonse took one last swig of his brandy. “Well, alas, I must depart. I am urgently needed back in London.”
“Oh, I say, Lord Drake,” Eleanor said. “You really do work so hard.”
“Tis the life of the son of an ailing old man,” he replied with great humility.
Rodrick narrowed his eyes slightly at his friend and thought he detected a barely perceptible smirk on Alphonse’s roguish face. “Indeed, sir.”
He escorted his friend back to the door and then clapped him on the back in farewell. “Stay out of trouble,” Rodrick bade him.
“Come now, Edwards,” Alphonse replied. “What fun would that be?”
As soon as his friend the marquess was gone back out to his carriage and onward to London, Rodrick returned to his dear mother in the drawing room and sat beside her on the couch, taking up his glass of brandy again. “He seemed almost gleeful that he didn’t go to the ball.”
His mother raised an eyebrow at him. “It sounds to me like you should be glad that he didn’t.”
Rodrick smirked a bit, swilling the rest of his drink and then placing the empty glass onto the table. He reached for the bottle but then thought better of it.
“Who was that pretty young lady who had so much of your attention?” his mother asked him. “Was she really only some sister of some duke’s daughter?”
He hadn�
�t realized that she had been paying that much attention to him, either at the ball or during the conversation that had just transpired. He didn’t quite know how he could best answer that question because he didn’t want his mother to suddenly get her hopes up about him marrying ‘some duke’s daughter.’
“She was the duke’s daughter,” Rodrick said to his mother honestly. “She was Lady Noelle Fletcher, daughter of the Duke of Salisbury.”
His mother’s jaw fell open. “The same girl that you were chiding Lord Drake for not dancing with?”
“The same,” he confirmed, nodding. “Were you listening in on our entire conversation?”
Eleanor smiled at her son. “You ought to know by now that I do that nearly every time you two are alone together.”
He laughed. “And why’s that?”
“Something about that man makes me nervous,” she stated. “I can’t quite explain why, but I don’t entirely trust him…”
This was news to Rodrick. She’d always seemed to fawn over him and want to be around him, but now he supposed that it was all a ruse in order to keep him close so she could keep an eye on him.
He couldn’t blame her, though. He often felt the same way, especially of late.
Lord Alphonse Drake, the Marquess of Fairfax liked to keep an air of mystery and mischievousness around him. Rodrick thought that he was fun to be around when he was playful and light-hearted, but he had a wicked side as well.
It was the wicked side of him that made him sit out the party, Rodrick thought. And for that reason, I’m grateful that Lady Noelle didn’t have to spend time with him.
He only wished that it was that simple. If the Duke and Duchess of Salisbury determined that Lady Noelle should marry Alphonse, then there was little that Rodrick could do about it.
There was also the small fact that he wanted to do anything to prevent it anyway. After all, if she married his best friend, then she’d be around in his life. If she married some other wealthy nobleman, then she could be gone just as soon as she had arrived.
