by Abby Ayles
“Though I see some things have not changed in that time,” Mrs. Leeson commented as she stepped toward him. “You are now returned and already you are seeking my daughter.”
The pair maneuvered around the parlor to occupy two of the seats nearest the window. Elias laughed slightly as he answered. “You know me too well.”
“Helena has been your plaything since she was born,” Mrs. Leeson mused as she watched him. “Though you will find her much changed now. My daughter has surprised us all.”
“I do hate to contradict you in anything, Mrs. Leeson, but Helena cannot surprise me,” Elias insisted. “I know her as I know my own heart. She has been my heart since she was a child. She could not surprise me even if she tried. She will still be the rambunctious, opinionated girl I've always known. I will chastise her and soothe her hurts and set her right. It has always been our way.”
“Is that so?” a melodious voice uttered from behind him. Elias turned and found a young woman standing before him.
She was tall, her figure well-formed, her skin fair and her eyes the color of the fields after a good rain. Her light brown curls were neatly pinned atop her head. A ribbon held it in place with a bow over her left ear.
She stifled a laugh before she curtseyed. “Lord Chatleton.”
Elias rose to his feet. Thoughts stilled in his mind, and speech was utterly lost at the sight of her. Her mother was right. Helena was changed. He had come home expecting a girl and found none. Where had she gone? Who was the lady who stood before him now?
“I do believe you have done more than surprised him, Helena. I do believe you have shocked him,” Mrs. Leeson teased.
The sound of her voice returned Elias to his senses. He had forgotten himself and stood agape. He quickly bowed his head in greeting.
“Miss Helena,” he replied. It was odd hearing such a formal title on his lips. Helena had always been just that. Now, she was something more. Things had changed. She was no longer a girl, but a woman.
It was foolish to believe such a day would never come, but Elias had never considered it. She was a child. A girl who did not yet know the world but wanted to master it. It was a comfort to think that would never alter, that he could depend on her consistency.
“Did I not tell you that you would find her much changed?” Mrs. Leeson stated.
Elias took slow steps forward, unsure of how to respond to the woman he did not know. Four years ago, he would have swept her in his arms and spun her like a child. Now, he was at a loss. “Indeed, madam, you did.”
Helena laughed. She still had a pretty laugh and hid her teeth while doing so.
“That has not changed,” he commented finally.
“No, I still sorely love to laugh. Though I expect you will find other things about me altered. I hope you will approve of them.”
He looked her over in appreciation. “I dare say that I do. You are a lady now.”
She attempted to stifle her giggle as she looked to her mother and then returned her gaze to him. Such a gaze.
“I told you he would be surprised,” Helena told her mother.
“Did you?” Elias questioned.
“Helena has worked tirelessly to reflect the principles you instilled in her all those years ago. I do believe if it had not been for you, she would’ve run wild,” her mother mused. “Thankfully, we had you to keep her in check.”
“Mama,” Helena interjected. “I was not that bad. I did not run wild so much as I enjoyed the freedom of life. What is life if one can find no pleasure in it?”
Well said.
“I dare say you were that troublesome,” Elias countered. He turned his attention to her mother. “Though it was my pleasure, madam, to occupy her lest her desire for life lead her astray," he mused. “We might have lost her to the trees.”
“You always had great patience with her,” Mrs. Leeson replied.
“She was a sister to me. I wished the best for her.”
“As I did you,” Helena answered. “I hope we have both received our wishes.”
Had he? Elias wasn’t sure. He had wanted her to become more refined, genteel, but the person before him was confusing his senses. She somewhat looked like the Helena he knew, but everything about her had changed.
Her hair was different, her lips fuller, her eyes brighter, her cheeks rosier. Had her neck always been so long and graceful as a swan? Had her movements been so light and delicate? When had this change transpired?
He found a desire in his heart to have been there to see it.
“Elias?” his father’s voice interrupted the strange silence that had fallen upon the room.
“Father,” Elias greeted as the Earl of Wismoth entered.
“At last,” the Earl called as he embraced him and patted his back approvingly. “It was time you were home. Everything is prepared.”
“Prepared?” Elias questioned.
“Did I not tell you that there would be such a celebration at Balwell Manor as has never been seen, once you returned with your letters?”
“Father, please, not a ball.” Elias hated social affairs. He had always preferred quiet contemplation and music and games for edification. He had since he was a child.
“Do you hear this, Miss Helena? He refuses us a ball, yet again,” his father stated as he turned to Helena.
Helena smiled sweetly. “He seems ever to wish to upset our plans,” she answered. “Especially when we have taken such pains to prepare them. I say he shall not have his way.”
There was the little rascal he knew, eager to dance and laugh. Her preference for social events often caused him to set aside his dislike of them, and as ever, adapt his mind to the thought of her pleasure over his own. He smiled.
“Is that so, Miss Helena?”
"It is," she answered. "You are the guest of honor, my lord. I’m afraid your responsibility is to please your guests and not yourself.”
“Do not trouble yourself to argue,” the Earl replied. “He has no choice in the matter. We are going to celebrate and that’s the end of it,” his father declared cheerfully.
Elias had no desire to dampen the hopes and expectations of those gathered, but his own hopes had been for a quiet return to the familiar faces of those he loved and cared for. His eyes wandered toward Helena.
“Since I am overruled, I will ask after the whereabouts of Mr. Leeson and Miss Leeson.”
“Though my father and sister are both eager to welcome you home, my lord, they were called into town on some urgent affairs. I’m sorry to say but you will have to be content with our company alone for the time being.”
“I do not see that there could be an objection to that,” the Earl commented. “There is no better company to be had in the country than yours and your mother’s.”
“You are too kind, my lord,” Helena replied.
“The benefit is ours I assure you,” Mrs. Leeson added. “You have been good enough to welcome us to Balwell these many years.”
“My dear lady, that is because there was no better a mind than your husband. Of all the company to be found at Oxford, I could never find anyone who made more sense than your husband. The proof of it was in his choice of you for a wife.”
Elias watched as Mrs. Leeson, despite being the mother of two grown children, blushed at his father’s compliment.
Several moments passed as the two fell into conversation, leaving Elias and Helena to occupy themselves.
“How have you been?” he asked. He instantly thought the question ridiculous. It seemed not enough to ask for two people who had shared each other’s lives almost since birth. She had shared her every secret with him since childhood.
“I am very well,” she answered calmly. “And you?”
“Well. Yes, very well.”
“Did you enjoy your time at Cambridge?”
“Cambridge? What can be said? It was a good education and my years of tutelage were most educational.”
He sounded like a fool. What was wrong with him?
He was usually so articulate but now he found himself tumbling over his words.
“I’m glad it was what you hoped. I’m glad you’re home.”
The smile that lingered on her lips was sweet. Her fingers fidgeted at her side slightly as if anxious. He wondered what affected her.
“I am very glad to be home. While Cambridge had many allurements, there were some things that could only be found at Balwell.”
“I agree. Balwell has a special take on my affections as well. It always has been my dream. I have never been happier than I have been while under this roof.”
“I am pleased to hear it,” Elias smiled. She returned the smile.
He was home at last.
Chapter 3
“It will be such an event, Helena,” Beatrice happily commented over her sewing. They both sat in the parlor at Balwell Manor. “I heard the Duke of Everwick is to be there, and his son, the Marquess of Rosemoor.”
“I know,” Helena replied calmly. “I made the list.”
“That’s right,” Beatrice chortled. “I almost forgot the Earl had asked you to assist him.”
Helena looked up over the edge of her book. She was aware Beatrice had been hurt by the exclusion in the planning of the party, but she was away in Glimberton when the idea had been finalized. The Earl didn’t want to delay.
“What do you think?” Beatrice asked as she raised the cloth she was working on. Helena wasn’t entirely sure whether it was meant for a frame or maybe had a future as a cushion, but the needlework was neat and the pattern pretty.
“Lovely.”
“It is almost complete,” her sister informed. “I think it’s my best work yet.”
“I would agree,” Helena answered. “You are so much better at it than I.”
“That’s because your nose is always in a page and you are never working on improving yourself in other areas. You are an excellent reader, Helena, that cannot be denied, but I do wish you’d try to broaden your scope of interest.”
“I cannot help my affinity for the written word. It is a source of education and escape. Sewing cannot claim to be able to provide such a distraction, though it does add more beauty to the world.”
“You, my dear sister, are too much,” Beatrice teased as she swatted a hand at her playfully.
Helena’s nineteenth birthday was soon upon her. Beatrice was already twenty-two, and despite the best efforts by all, both remained unattached. There was more effort on Beatrice’s part to correct that particular problem than on Helena’s.
“Elias looks very well,” Beatrice commented absently.
“He certainly does,” Helena agreed. Her stomach flipped as she spoke the words. She’d spent the past four years of her life waiting for him to return. Now, he was finally here, and she found herself completely undone.
He had changed even more in the course of his absence. His appearance had improved and, with it, the effect it had on her, though she would never dare to utter it.
“He seems unattached,” Beatrice continued.
“Perhaps he is. We cannot know that.”
“Why? Did he say something?”
“No. Nothing. I just suppose that if he wasn’t unattached, he would’ve mentioned it in his letters, or at least to his father.”
“You're right. Though it would be excellent if he wasn't. A wedding would gather even greater society together and it would be something neither of us has ever had the privilege to experience.”
Her sister lived for moments to be social. Thankfully, their father’s business often gave them cause to entertain, though nothing could compare to the entertainment provided by the Earl. His affairs were those that attracted the best of the nobility and gentry. Their father's only attracted the latter, with the Earl being the most noticeable exception.
“Bea, will you never stop looking for a husband?” Helena asked cautiously. Her sister’s desire for a husband had been a constant companion since she was old enough to think for herself. Her lack of one was a subject of some contention.
Her sister looked at her calmly. “You never know.”
Helena's brow furrowed. What a curious response. She did think to press the matter, but at that very moment, the sound of jovial voices burst into the room.
It was Elias and a small group of male companions, some of which she recognized. They were all between the ages of twenty-two and thirty, and were laughing animatedly.
“I beg your pardon,” Henry Thatcher stated upon seeing the two girls. He was Elias’ oldest friend and the next Viscount of Dornsby.
Beatrice and Helena both set aside their respite and stood to greet the company. Each gave their respective greetings. There were six of them in all.
“Ladies, we must apologize for our ungallant entry,” Elias said jovially.
“We were reacquainting ourselves with this old boy,” Thom Wickle replied. He was a clerk in her father’s company, Leeson’s Goldsmith & Jewellers. Her father was the fourth Leeson to manage the company and thus far the most successful, which was something of note given her grandfather had earned in excess of forty thousand pounds a year.
“How do the lovely Miss Leeson and Miss Helena fare?” Winston Bell, Baron Glourich, asked. He was another of Elias’ old friends. It had never occurred to Helena how many of the nobility were of their acquaintance due to their connection to the Repington family.
“We are very well, my lord,” Beatrice replied politely. “If you require the room, we would be happy to make it available to you.”
Helena’s heart stopped at the thought as she kept her eyes on Elias. He seemed equally occupied with looking at her. She didn’t wish to leave.
“That will not be necessary,” Elias said calmly. “This room is quite large enough for us to share, is it not?”
“Quite so,” Mr. Thatcher agreed. “We can talk business while the ladies continue their enjoyments.”
Helena smiled thankfully as the men agreed to the arrangement and positioned themselves comfortably on the other side of the parlor. She and Beatrice returned to their reading and sewing.
The men spoke in continued animation, though more subdued than when they entered. While Helena tried not to listen, she couldn't help the wandering of her eyes.
She found, whenever the opportunity arose, they looked up in search of Elias. On occasion, she found his eyes met hers. Other times it was Mr. Wickle's. Their seats were in line with her own making them the two most visible.
“Did you hear?” Mr. Wickle asked.
“Hear what?” Elias questioned calmly.
“Mr. Leeson has had it on good authority that there is an investment opportunity with great prospects to be had in Italy.”
“What kind of investment?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but it promises great returns,” Mr. Wickle asserted.
“Speculation?” Elias asked in surprise. “I did not know that he had such interests.”
Helena's ears were suddenly keenly attuned. Did he just say her father was speculating? She had never heard anything about it. She turned to Beatrice, whose brown eyes were staring back at her in equal shock. It was apparent that the information was a first to her hearing.
“Yes. He has invested quite a sum from my understanding. He has undertaken the investment for himself and a number of us within the company.”
“Are you sure it’s wise?” Baron Glourich questioned.
“If the returns are as substantial as you indicated, then the risk must be equally so if not higher,” Elias’ voice resonated with some concern. It troubled Helena’s heart. Elias was a man of business, and though her father was the same, he had no understanding of speculation, while Elias had.
“He says there are no worries in that. The investment is quite sound. He's had his man in Italy look into it. Gentlemen, there is a fortune to be made for those with the heart to seek it,” Mr. Wickle continued.
Elias’ concerned gaze turned to her briefly and Helena’s heart quaked.
“I
would like to see the reports,” Elias requested. “Before I would wager any of my fortunes, I would need to see what the investment presents.”
“That’s reasonable. I can see about it when I return to London after the ball.”
Helena smiled at the mention of the event. It was still two days hence but already the house was stirring with the excitement. From what she had overheard from the kitchen staff, the entirety of Lendenbarrow was in an uproar. The inns were filling up to capacity, the butchers were slaughtering extra meats for the event, and half the market's produce had been procured.
