“There is never a thing out of place in this room, Mama. I should think the staff never dare to put a foot wrong for so scornful a master.”
“Ella, you must not speak in such a way,” Ariadne hissed at her. “You must not speak of your stepfather like that.”
“He is by no means my father, step or otherwise. He is simply the Earl of Dandridge and your husband, Mama. He is no relation of mine, and neither are his dreadful daughters.”
“Really, I must beg you to stop this immediately.” Ariadne looked suddenly desperate and began to look over her shoulder towards the door.
“Just three weeks, and already you are afraid of him, Mama. How much you must regret this hasty marriage of yours.” Ella could not help it, she wanted to say something hurtful.
Her mother had pulled the rug from beneath her feet, the rug that had been her life. Yes, its delicate weaving had been tugged dramatically when her dear father had died, but her mother had seen its complete removal when she had denied Ella her childhood home as well.
And, despite every protest, Ariadne had gone ahead with it all. She wanted to be the Countess of Dandridge, and nothing would stop her, not even her daughter’s broken heart. If she was starting to pay the price for it all, then so be it.
“I am not afraid of him, Ella. Really, what a ridiculous thing to say. But you should be a little more grateful to him than you are, and it certainly will not make for a comfortable existence if he overhears you talking about him in so derogatory a fashion. And, whatever you care to say, he is your stepfather. I have married him now, and he is my husband, and you will simply have to accept it. There is nothing you can do about any of it, so try to make the best of it instead of making things difficult,” Ariadne hissed furiously. “And as for Patience and Georgiana, they are not awful. They are perfectly pleasant, very accomplished young ladies; I think you could learn a good deal from them.”
“There is nothing about those two young ladies I would care to emulate, Mama. And I can assure you that I have absolutely nothing to learn from them, except how not to behave.”
“You have not even tried to ingratiate yourself to them.”
“Why should I ingratiate myself to them, Mama? I am supposed to be a member of the family, am I not? I am not a household servant, after all.”
“No, but this is their home, and you should be very aware of that fact.”
“Is it not my home too? Did you not tell me that Dandridge Hall, once my beloved Longton Manor was stripped from me, would be my home, and a very fine one?”
“I cannot speak to you when you are behaving in such an obtuse manner. But I will insist you behave yourself from here on in. The Earl and his daughters will be here at any moment, ready to receive the Earl of Maybridge.”
“Oh yes, the Earl of Maybridge,” Ella said with a scornful laugh. “What fun it will be to watch Patience and Georgiana vying for his attention like two peacocks strutting up and down a well-manicured lawn.”
“Ella!” Ariadne advanced upon her daughter so quickly that Ella thought she might actually strike her. “You will stop this immediately.”
“I will never forgive you for what you have done, Mama,” Ella said and felt suddenly beaten by it all.
There had never been a need for them to leave their home; there had never been a lack of security. They had everything they wanted, but it would never have been enough. Her own mother had smashed her life to pieces just to satisfy her need to feel like anything but the down-trodden governess she had once been.
Where once Ella had had pity for her mother, now she had nothing but contempt. Surely, there came a time when a person could not blame the past for how they behaved in the present. And, as far as Ella was concerned, that time had long passed for her mother.
“I hear footsteps, so take your seat,” Ariadne said sharply.
Ella took her seat, knowing that she had no other option. She felt as if she had been dropped into the territory of the enemy, a family of people she did not know and whom, thus far, seemed not to like her very much at all. And now her mother, far from looking out for her own daughter’s needs or happiness in any way, had joined their ranks, ready to throw scorn on her if she did anything to upset the precarious nest she had feathered for herself.
How lonely she felt all of a sudden.
“Well, we shall just have to wait and see which of us he prefers,” Georgiana said loudly as the two young women stormed into the drawing room.
“I am the oldest, Georgiana, and you will respect that. It is for me to find a husband first and not you,” Patience said angrily.
“I cannot help it if I am the prettiest,” Georgiana retorted spitefully.
“You are not the prettiest at all,” Patience snapped back. “You are very far from being pretty, Georgiana. In truth, I pity you, you are so ill-favoured.”
As the sisters settled themselves down side-by-side on one of the couches, ignoring Ella completely, she wondered if they would even notice if the Earl of Maybridge himself walked in at that moment. Or would they continue to argue amongst themselves, saying such nasty things to one another in the heat of their tawdry little competition?
They continued to argue about who was the prettiest, and Ella studied them coolly, thinking that there was very little to choose between them. At one and twenty, Patience Bellville was the oldest, with Georgiana at just nineteen. But they both had the same pale blonde hair, very pretty in its own way, but largely used to detract from features that were just a little too large. Both girls had wide mouths, which looked attractive as long as they did not smile too broadly. Their noses were a little thick, and each woman sported a little gap between her front teeth that, in faces much more demure, would have been sweetly attractive. But the girls’ bullish nature seemed somehow to show in their faces and, although they were very well turned out and attractive on account of it, neither one of them was truly beautiful.
The young and handsome Earl of Maybridge arrived in the room at the same time as his host, the two men talking animatedly as they walked in.
“And your mother as well, I take it?” Ronald Bellville was almost convincing; to the casual observer, it would sound as if he truly cared about the old Countess of Maybridge.
“She is as well as can be expected, Ronald. Her health is failing, but not so much that she does not get about anymore.” The Earl of Maybridge seemed to Ella to be a very bright, jaunty sort of a young man.
He spoke with a smile at all times and even sometimes something of a laugh in his voice. He seemed very jovial, even when the Bellville sisters began to aggressively vie for his attention.
“Lord Maybridge, are you to hold a ball soon and at Maybridge Hall?” Georgiana said, and it was clear from his expression that he had not thought of such a thing.
“Yes, when is it to be?” Patience was not one to be denied. “I am very much looking forward to it.”
“My dear ladies, I had not thought to hold a ball at all this year,” Lord Maybridge said and gave a self-deprecating shrug.
“Oh, but that is a dreadful shame. I do so love to dance, but it seems to me that there are very few young men who dance particularly well. But I hear that you do dance very well, Lord Maybridge.” Georgiana, despite being the younger of the sisters, seemed somehow a little more practiced in the art of flattering the male ego.
“Well, I like to dance too. And the truth is, I like very little else but dancing. I live to dance, Lord Maybridge.” Patience’s retort sounded just a little desperate.
As the sisters continued to argue in the same vein, using the Earl of Maybridge as some kind of proxy, Ella found herself curiously fascinated by it all. She had never had a sister herself, but was sure that if she did, she would treat her with a good deal more respect. She would have loved to have had a sister of her own, someone in whom she could confide, someone to take the edge off the loneliness. What dreadful women these were that they could take one another for granted in such a way, so ready to dig holes beneath o
ne another just to get their own way.
“And what about you, Miss Winfield?” The Earl of Maybridge turned to her so suddenly that her mouth dropped open a little. “Do you care very much for dancing?”
“Yes, I do like to dance, Lord Maybridge, when I have the chance of it,” she answered in a very simple way, hoping that all present would see that she was in no way in competition with the arguing sisters.
She truly did not care who got to dance with Lord Maybridge or whether or not he even laid on a ball in the first place. It was immaterial to her life, and she wished that she could escape the drawing room and find something more interesting to do.
And yet, there was something curiously fascinating about the little performance that was going on in front of her. As she watched them all, it was as if everybody was playing a part in a theatrical.
Ronald Bellville was pretending to be a good-natured Earl entertaining his neighbour purely for the pleasure of it, rather than trying to peddle away one of his dreadful daughters to the unsuspecting man.
And her mother, sitting straight-backed and very pleased with herself, was pretending to have been born to such a position, a Countess through and through, not a woman who had ever been reduced to the status of a governess, that was for certain.
And then there were the sisters, Patience and Georgiana. Both of them were pretending to be demure young ladies, not the competitive little dragons they were; bullish little creatures who wanted the poor man to hold the ball simply so they could discover which of them would get to dance with him the most. Anything to satisfy their rivalry.
As distasteful as it all was, it really was fascinating. Fascinating enough, perhaps, that it would divert Ella’s attention from her own sadness for a little while. Yes, she would make a study of them all, as if they were simply mice in a cage and not real people.
She amused herself in such a fashion until the dreadful afternoon tea was over and the poor, beleaguered Earl of Maybridge was finally released.
As the family made their way to the door to wave him off, Ella stayed behind in the drawing room and peered unseen out of the window to watch him depart. As the coach came past, she saw the look on his face, a look that would not have been visible to the family on the great stone steps at the front of the hall.
Ella laughed out loud to see that the Earl of Maybridge looked exhausted and relieved all at once. She thought it very unlikely that the poor young man would lay on a ball at all. In truth, he probably would not lay on another ball for a good many years, or at least he would wait until he had confirmation that the two blonde-haired peacocks had found suitable husbands and were safely married away.
“What are you laughing at? I suggest you pull yourself together, young lady, for your stepfather is furious, and he is on his way,” Ariadne said, scurrying into the room ahead of her husband. “And you had better listen to what he says and say nothing in response unless he tells you to.”
Suddenly, Ella felt afraid. What on earth had she done to produce such a highly excited state within her mother and, apparently, great wrath in the Earl of Dandridge.
“Well, what was all that?” the Earl said immediately he burst into the room.
“I do not understand your meaning, sir,” Ella said truthfully.
“I do not believe that for a minute,” he said and snorted loudly as he slammed the door closed.
Well, if nothing else, at least the dreadful step-sisters were not going to witness whatever humiliation was about to come Ella’s way.
Judging it best not to say anything at all, Ella simply looked at the Earl until he spoke again.
“You ought not to have interfered this afternoon, young lady. I have a duty to find fine husbands for my daughters, and I will not have you trying to steal young men away from under their noses.”
“But sir, I would seek to do no such thing.”
“Silence!” he bellowed so loudly and so suddenly that both Ella and her mother jumped in unison.
Ella knew that she had done nothing to incur his wrath. And she knew equally what had caused his anger, even though she would never dare say it.
Without any prompting whatsoever, the Earl of Maybridge had favoured her over Patience and Georgiana. But she had not invited it at all. She had said nothing and had been as surprised as anybody else that he had continually turned to her to draw her into the conversation.
But she had not put any pressure on him at all; she had not demanded a ball or tried to gain his attention in any way, and he was, without a doubt, grateful for the respite that such behaviour afforded him, especially in the midst of two such determined young ladies.
If anything, Patience and Georgiana might do well to temper their gregarious natures. And she had no doubt that the Earl knew it very well, very well indeed. And it was that failing in his own family, in his own teachings as a father, which had made him so explosively angry.
“You will not behave in such a fashion again under my roof, do you understand?” he said in a voice which was very much quieter and yet somehow more dangerous.
“Yes,” Ella said simply, feeling the pure frustration at having to openly agree with something she did not agree with at all out of fear and fear alone.
She was being bullied, intimidated, and she could not bear it. He really was every bit the pig that the entire county proclaimed him to be. Everything she had warned her mother about was coming to pass, and Ella could hardly think which one of the two of them she despised the most.
Without another word, the Earl slammed out of the room, leaving Ella and her mother alone.
“Now see what you have caused, Ella. I think he is as angry with me as he is with you, but it is not my doing,” Ariadne complained like a child.
“And it is not my doing, Mama.” Ella spat the words angrily. “He has raised his daughters to be as forceful as untrained horses. If a young man of the county shies away from such young ladies, it is hardly my doing. You know very well, Mother, that I did not interfere in their meeting. I sat as quietly as manners would allow me to sit, and you know it. It is only your husband’s anger that the man was not interested in his own daughters that has brought this on, not anything that I have done.”
“Ella, you really must try to see things differently.”
“Differently? You have just blamed me for something I have not done. And then you have complained for your own sake. That you would dare to do so after the way you have treated me is quite astonishing. We are only here in this dreadful house at your behest, Mama, not mine. I did not force you to marry a bully with ugly, ill-behaved daughters. You made that decision on your own and, in doing so, you dragged me here against my will. I will not hear your complaints.”
“And you will not speak to me like that again.” Ariadne had clearly recovered from her husband’s outburst.
“Ah, you seek to bully me as your husband does.”
“I do not bully you, child. But you must see that it is very important to show Patience and Georgiana in their best light. After all, they are young ladies, and it is important for us to find suitable husbands for them,” Ariadne spoke as if she were giving a genuinely sensible explanation.
“What about me, Mama? Or have you taken the daughters of the Earl to your heart as quickly as you took the Earl himself?”
“I will not hear any more of this,” Ariadne said, and Ella knew that the argument was about to be drawn to an abrupt close simply because her mother did not know how to continue in it.
At least some things never changed, she supposed.
“As you wish,” Ella said and turned from her to walk back across the drawing room.
“Just see that you do not interfere again, or I am sure that you will be all the sorrier for it,” her mother snapped and then strode out of the room.
Ella had never felt more alone in her life. She had never felt close to her mother, but Ariadne was all that she had in the world, and to find herself losing her too, even though the woman provided very little co
mfort in any circumstance, upset her more than she could ever have imagined.
As she stared blindly out across the immaculate and immense lawns of the Dandridge estate, tears rolled hot and relentless down her pale cheeks.
Chapter 4
It was a cool autumn afternoon, and despite the weak sunshine, Rufus Darnley knew that night would very quickly draw in. Still, he was not yet ready to return indoors, enjoying the cool air on his skin and the crunch of the leaves underneath his well-worn old brown boots.
Rufus had been out for a ride after luncheon but, on returning, found that it had not been quite as fortifying as he had hoped. The same old thoughts whirled around and around in his mind and, by the time his horse had been stabled again, he felt more listless than he had before he had gone out.
Kind Ella and the Charming Duke Page 3
