by Payton Hart
On my vanity table, I lay out the makeup I was planning to wear on this evening. Foundation was first. I added foundation to my face that blended it in with my skin and made it look flawless. Its liquid felt silky smooth on my skin. I dotted concealer on my blemishes, hiding imperfections and my tired eyes. Afterward, I dusted on a fine talcum powder all over my face that made it glow. I dipped my makeup brush into a bright pink powder blush. I smiled to find my cheekbones and lightly dabbed it on both cheeks. It gave me a flushed look that made me come alive.
Now came the hard part, I thought. I mixed lamp black, a fine black spot product, with a touch of oil to form a paste. I had not done this technique since my wedding day. I applied this lightly to my eyebrows and then to my eyelashes to make them look longer and fuller. My long eyelashes made the rest of my eyes stand out and made me look wide awake. I added just a touch of eyeshadow to my lids; I wanted something natural and beautiful with not too much color. A light brown eye shadow worked perfectly. It had a slightly pink undertone that went with my dress. I worked a darker brown shadow in to my crease to give my eyes dimension.
Finally, I came my lips. I wanted something bright. I used vermilion, an opaque cochineal derivate, which gave my lips a painted look over the lip balm which had sunk into my lips and made them smooth. I looked in the mirror for several minutes and saw a bit of a glow beneath my eyes. I looked like my old self again.
“You look beautiful,” my father said, as he escorted me out of the room. I felt a sense of excitement for the night. There was something in the air, a sweeping feel of change that went through the town. It was a night to remember.
***
The front of the Carlton House was lit up as we entered. Crowds started to surround the area, bringing a feeling of excitement. The grass had a mat cover that created a courtyard. Under the Corinthian portico, there was a platform with a band getting ready to play. There were four open tents in the garden with food and tables decorated with garlands of flowers.
We walked inside. Guards stood on either side of us. There was an octagon shaped saloon that was near the grand staircase filled with flowers. There were chandeliers and candelabras everywhere. All of the rooms had candles as well as French furniture and porcelain, which I heard the Prince collected. It was all very elegant and extravagant; I felt like a princess in a fairytale.
At around nine PM, the Prince entered the room. Everyone applauded cheerfully as he entered. I had my eyes on another man though who has been sneaking glances at me all night. He had wavy, dark hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to stare into my soul. I looked at him several times and gave him a smile. He smiled back at me. He seemed to stare at me during the entire Prince’s speech!
As the speech came to a close, I started to walk near the strange man. He looked at me and seemed to draw me in, like a rope was pulling me toward him. Who was he? Did my family know him? I did not see my father anywhere. He walked over to me when he noticed I was coming toward him.
“Hello, miss?” he said. Then to my surprise, he started to recite a poem.
“Your beautiful spirit, peaceful and bright
Brings beauty to my eye tonight
Innocent, pure, and smart
You uplift and move my heart.”
I laughed in a way I had not laughed in a while. I could feel butterflies in my stomach and a sort of lightness in the air. "Are you a poet?" I said. I had not talked or flirted with a man in a long time.
“Yes, I am a poet, drawn to you. And you are?”
"I am Lady Annabelle," I said, introducing myself.
“I am Lord Augustus”.
“Hello, Lord Augustus,” I said, repeating his name. I let myself smile. "Do you have more poetry for me?" In the background, I heard music start to play. It vibrated through me.
“For you, I have all the poetry in the world.” He grinned and put his hand out. I took it and let his body lead me. “Let us go dancing tonight, Annabelle. I hear this band is supposed to play beautiful music.”
He led me to the ballroom floor and we started dancing. Chalk arabesques were on the ballroom floor that laid under our feet. Many people started participating in a square country dance. I danced with this stranger, following the footsteps and music. It was an upbeat song that played, lively and festive for the celebration of the night. It was energetic and everybody seemed to be in a good mood as the music flushed over us.
A slow song suddenly started to play and I stopped dancing. He took my hand and wrapped his body around me. He started to waltz with me, a dance I did not know that well, but I had heard was not socially acceptable in some places. I followed his footsteps as the music played. The dance was a slow and a graceful dance. It was not too hard to pick up as I moved with his body. It was unlike how I was used to dancing, but came to love it quickly and never wanted the song to end. As we embraced the dance floor, the music seemed to move through us.
After a moment, looked around the room in sort of a nervous way; it almost looked like he was looking for someone else. He then looked at me. “You want to go outside? It is a beautiful night out,” he said with a smile and then started to lead me off the dance floor.
As we walked outside, there were hundreds of beautiful brightly colored lamps and lanterns. They outshone the stars in the sky making the whole place look bright and festive. I gasped as I took in the sight of beauty everywhere; the lights made the whole place look perfect.
Outside, there were a couple people walking. The music started to fade in the background as we walked away from the dance floor, following a line of lantern lights. We walked through the gardens and beautiful scenery. The weather was warm out, but not too hot with the sun gone. It was a nice night to be out.
We started to talk. We talked about our backgrounds, our lives, and a little about politics. He came from a large family and grew up in England. I wondered if knew about me and the wedding and how it was called off, but if he did, he didn’t ask. Mostly, he liked to recite lines of poetry he had written. He was a professional writer and had published several books. Both of his parents were well established and famous writers. He had decided to take their lead years ago and do writing of his own. He had written both works of prose and poetry, but said he preferred poetry as it let him express his emotions and took him in to a state of pure joy. I could not help but laugh and smile as he broke out in lines that can only be described as seductive:
“You are my treasure
I will write you lover's notes and letters
I dance with you on this evening just past eleven
Our meeting tonight is a gift from heaven.”
I had never met a poet before. They were so romantic and enticing. Did he mean the lines he was saying or was he just reading me poetry? We sat down on a bench. I felt so comforted by him; I started to feel like a school girl with a crush. We talked for hours.
The lanterns around us shimmered like stars in the night. Nobody seemed to notice us in the dark. Suddenly, he had the need to take his leave. “Lady, Annabelle, it is my time to go,” he said, as he got up from the bench.
He kissed me on the cheek, a kiss that sort of surprised me. I felt his soft lips against my cheekbone. “Goodbye, love,” he said. And he ran off just like that, disappearing like the wind.
“But will we ever meet again?” I called after him.
***
The next morning, I was out shopping with my dear friend, Lady Georgiana. It was a beautiful morning and the birds were chirping as the sun fell over the town. I was wearing a white summer dress. We walked down the line of shops on Ludgate Street and as we were out shopping, I thought of Lord Augustus’s poetry and how he recited it to me.
“Dear, I shall have it all with you
I cannot breathe as I think of our love
An angel has made my wish come true.”
“You are lost in a daydream today, Annabelle,” Lady Georgiana said, looking over me.
I only smiled at her. “It is just a beautif
ul today for shopping, isn’t it? Let us stop at this bookstore. I have been meaning to pick up a new book.”
We walked into the small bookshop. It smelled of musty cinnamon. Dark brown bookshelves lined the entire shops with hundreds of books piled next to each other. I started looking through some books. “I am going to look for a new novel,” Lady Georgiana told me, as she walked toward the back of the bookstore.
I started looking through different books. After several minutes, I heard the door creak open and I looked up.
To my horror, I saw the man from the other night, but instead of being alone, he was standing inside the shop with another woman and four small children. I pushed the book I was holding over my face, opening it so both sides were hiding my entire face. I knew that if I stood there he may not see me.
I started to head to the back of the bookstore, near Lady Georgiana. This was a bad idea. I didn’t know he was an already married man. And all those children? They were his? As I turned around though, his eye caught my eye and I could not help but stop, as he stared at me. Those piercing blue eyes stared into my soul again. He looked at shocked as I did, but then his expression changed and he let out a sort of smile.
He walked near me. "Lady Annabelle, is it?" he said. His voice had a seductive whisper.
"It is, Lord Augustus," I said. I could not help but smile as I saw his face.
“And here we are, as fate has it. We are at the exact same bookstore at the same time. We meet for a second time.” I did not say anything. I frowned. The chance that we would bump into each other was quite unlikely.
“Looking for poetry inspiration, Lord Augustus?” I said.
“I am always looking for a good book to read,” he said. “What kind of writer would I be if I did not read?”
“You must read a lot,” I said.
Before I could say anything else, he leaned forward. "Meet me at the Vauxhall Gardens tomorrow morning at 8. I will be waiting for you."
Just like that, he swept away leaving me standing there alone again. I watched him disappear. I knew it was bad to do things like this and I especially did not want to be in the spotlight again. But we were just talking and no one had made me feel like this since Lord William.
Should I go to the Vauxhall Gardens with this stranger? Should I just not go? It was so easy, I would just pretend the whole thing didn’t happen. I would not meet this seductive man at the gardens tomorrow. I would walk home with Lady Georgiana and then I would go about the rest of my day and not meet Lord Augustus at the gardens tomorrow. I would never see the man ever again. And that would
be that.
“Who was that, Lady Annabelle?” Lady Georgiana asked me. She had a book in her hand as she walked over to me.
“It is no one I know,” I said.
***
Somehow, I was up at seven the next morning. I felt butterflies float through my stomach as I put on my best day dress. It was a simple printed dress made of high quality material. It had a wide neckline and full upper sleeves. I had several petticoats beneath it.
My body seemed to move itself. This is a bad idea, I thought. But somehow I was getting dressed and putting on my makeup and doing my hair. I couldn’t just leave him there, and what if I never saw him again?
I pulled out a large, beautiful hat to cover my face. It was a straw hat delicately trimmed with flowers and it wasn’t too fancy. It had just the right amount of embellishments. As I put it over my head, it seemed to hide my hairstyle. If I angled it the right way, you could hide my entire face and I looked just like any woman with a hat. This way, nobody would see or recognize me. The hat matched my outfit, so I was not going out of my way to hide myself. I was just putting on a hat, like every other day and heading to the Vauxhall Gardens.
There was a pale violet and red color in the sky. A light breeze swept through the air. The beautiful gardens were one of my favorite spots and The Vauxhall Gardens often drew large crowds during the summer season. It looked like it might rain today so I doubted many people would be there.
I walked down to The Vauxhall Gardens alone. I felt a little nervous but no one seemed to recognize me and I did not see anyone that I knew yet. Everything would be fine. I walked across the bridge that went over the Thame River and led to the gardens.
I lit up as I saw Lord Augustus at the edge of the bridge. He had on a light green single breasted coat with plated buttons and collar. He wore light drab kerseymere with Hessian boots. Oh wow, did he look good today. He didn’t see me walk up behind me.
“Hello, Lord Augustus. Here we are again, at the lovely and magnificent Vauxhall Gardens,” I said.
He smiled. “I just could not help but see my best muse again.”
We walked through the maze structure of The Vauxhall Gardens. If you kept walking, you could get lost in them. We went right and then left, right and then left again. As we walked, we talked about life. He talked about his family life and I told him about my family.
As we walked, it started to rain gently over the gardens. I held my hat against my head. “Oh my, it is raining,” I said. “Shall we go home?”
“I did not bring a hat, like you,” Lord Augustus laughed. “You were smarter than me.”
As the rain beat down on us, I felt its wet presence against my day dress. Usually, the wetness and water would bother me, but it didn’t seem to bother me today. It felt cooling against the hot weather we had been having. It seemed to release a feeling of freedom inside me. It started to rain down harder and it wet the grass beneath us. I saw people start to leave and people start to run off, scared of a little wetness.
All of a sudden, Lord Augustus took my body and pushed his lips against mine. I leaned backwards, trying to reject him at first, but felt his body pull me in. I finally gave in and kissed him back, feeling his lips press against mine. After several moments, I pulled back. Time seemed to stop. I kissed him again. Rain started to pour down on us as the wind blew against us.
"Augustus!" I yelled. "Are you not married to another woman?"
He seemed undisturbed by this. He said in his poetic voice,
“I feel love only for you, darling
You are sweet and charming
You are the light of my life
With you, I forget I even have a wife”
"Meet me outside of my place, tomorrow?" he said. He told me his address where he lived. “Meet me just outside the gates.”
Oh dear, I thought. A married man? What was I getting in to? At his place? I could not risk going there. Did he not worry someone would see us? As I walked home in a state of worry, my worry quickly changed as I smiled, thinking of the moment we had at the gardens. I felt so torn between right and wrong. One side of me told me to stop seeing him, but the other side told me that he was the love of my life and I would never forget him.
***
The next day, I was out playing a game of graces with a couple of the ladies. We took turns tossing the wooden hoop, decorated with beautiful ribbons, over the delicately crossed wooden tossing sticks. I did not seem to be winning today. I started talking to Lady Georgiana as the game came to a finish. “Georgiana,” I said, feeling guilt in my voice. I did not bother to hide my feelings. I whispered to her. “I think I may be in love with a married man.”
She frowned and looked at me with a state of shock as she led me away from the other girls. “A married man?” she said, a tone of gossip and worry. “After the wedding?”
“Yes, I know, it is awful of me,” I said. “It seems to have happened so suddenly. We danced at the Carlton and I could not forget him after we talked. Then we met at the gardens and we kissed for several minutes."
Her worry turned into interest. Lady Georgiana and I always talked about our relationships and I listened to countless stories and tales of the men she dated and how the relationship went wrong or turned in to a state of drama. “Who is it?”
“Should I say?” I said. “I do not know him very well. His name is Lord Augustus.”
<
br /> She frowned. “The Lord Augustus? He has been married for several years and he has children. Isn’t he a poet?”
“He is a professional poet,” I said. “Oh my, he reads me lovely poetry. He just makes it up when I talk to him. It is so romantic.”
“But a married man?”
I looked a little worried and felt a gut feeling in my stomach. “Yes, but what can you do?” I said.
“I have never seen you like this!” Georgiana gasped. “It is so risky, you would be the talk of the whole town again if news of this got out.”
I thought of the consequences. “We have only seen each other twice,” I said. “He is more like a friend, really.” I felt the lies roll off my tongue, but I was overcome by passion.
