The maid kept weeping, staring at them entreatingly. “Please. I need my job. My mam is sickly and my pa is a jail bird. I am all she has and there are two little ones still at home besides.”
George shook his head. “We cannot keep you on, Sally. We must have loyalty from our staff.”
Charlotte rested a hand on his arm. “George, please. This involves me, so I shall deal with it.” She took a deep breath. “I am disappointed, Sally. But I am not heartless. Mrs. Neville tells me that you always do a good service here, and that this is your first transgression. I am willing to forgive you, if you promise that you will not gossip about family matters with outsiders again.”
Dulcie grumbled, but Charlotte raised a hand to silence her. The maid’s face was suffused with joy. “Oh, thank you my lady! I do promise. I will not disappoint you again.”
“Make sure that you don’t,” said Charlotte softly. “If we hear of anything else, I am afraid that my hands are tied and you will be dismissed.” She took a deep breath. “Go now and resume your work.”
The girl curtseyed quickly and scurried out of the room.
“You are too soft, my lady,” said Dulcie, glaring at the door. “This is a bad business. That girl is a feather head, too free with her tongue.”
“Are you sure, Lottie?” said George, staring at her. “We have a right to dismiss her, and she has only herself to blame.”
“I know,” said Charlotte. “But she is young and impressionable. I think she has learnt her lesson and shall not be so indiscreet in future.”
“Thank you, Dulcie,” said George. “You may leave us.”
Dulcie curtseyed, still huffing a little, and left the room.
Charlotte turned to George. “So,” she said slowly. “Your instinct was correct. Miss Drake does know about me.”
George nodded. “It appears that way, Lottie.” He paused. “But the question is, what is she planning to do with the information? She obviously hasn’t told Lord Sebastian … at least not yet.”
“Perhaps she is being strategic,” said Charlotte, frowning. “She is hiding it up her sleeve until she needs it. Who can tell, with such a character?” She paused. “And why did she invite us to this ball of hers? She despises us. I would have thought that she would not want us there at all.”
George shrugged. “I don’t think she was intending to, it was all she could think of in the moment to justify why her maid was here.” He hesitated, staring at her closely. “If the invitation does arrive on our doorstep, what do you want to do?”
Charlotte thought for a moment. Then she squared her shoulders, staring at her brother.
“I am tired of living in fear,” she said. “I think we should go to the ball.” She smiled archly. “I always did enjoy a good masquerade.”
Chapter 21
Charlotte jumped as her bedroom door burst open and Diana entered. She gasped, turning in her chair at the dressing table, staring at her sister in astonishment. Dulcie put down the hairbrush and gaped too.
“Is it really you underneath there, Di?” said Charlotte, her eyes wide.
“One and the same,” laughed Diana, lowering her white porcelain mask. She pirouetted around the room. “What do you think? Do I look like a Roman goddess?”
Charlotte laughed, staring at her sister’s costume. Diana was dressed in a flowing, crimped white gown, draped in the ancient Roman style, with a myriad gold hooped bracelets around her arms. Her dark hair had been curled and was hanging in a knot over one shoulder.
A glowing gold headband rested on her head. Slung over her shoulder was a bag with small arrows in it. She held a white masquerade mask with white feathers sprouting from the top, attached to a long stick.
Diana placed the mask back over her face, then mock curtseyed. “Well?”
“I declare that you are the goddess of the hunt incarnate,” laughed Charlotte, staring at her sister in admiration. “Just like your namesake.”
“Diana was also the Roman goddess of the moon and nature, you know,” said her sister, her smile widening.
“I wouldn’t have recognised you, Lady Diana,” said Dulcie, her cheeks dimpling as she smiled. “Oh, what fun you will both have this evening!”
“Stand up, Lottie,” said Diana, her eyes glittering. “I want to look at your costume.”
Charlotte did as her sister requested, feeling awkward. Despite her brave words to George that she would go to Miss Drake’s ball and be damned, she was having second thoughts now. It was bound to be crowded, and hot, and she knew that Miss Drake would not be happy that they had decided to go.
She shivered a little, thinking of what the lady might do, but George and Diana had both reassured her that Miss Drake would not dare say anything at such a public occasion. Their words had mollified her a little, but not entirely.
She turned to her sister, smiling, trying to banish her misgivings. “Well? What do you think?”
Diana squealed in delight. “I hope that there is a Marc Antony or Julius Caesar amongst the revellers tonight,” she stated, gazing at her sister. “Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, shall need her consort.”
Charlotte laughed. The flowing gold gown she wore, crimped stiffly from the waist, was dramatic. Too dramatic, thought Charlotte, staring down at it. It had a plunging décolletage, and long bat-wing chiffon sleeves, which brushed against her with every move. She also wore a necklace of turquoise and ruby stones, as befitted the Egyptian queen.
It was a costume made to draw attention, she thought anxiously. She shouldn’t have let Diana and George talk her into it, when they were browsing the costume shop. She should have chosen to be a shepherdess, or something else not quite so eye-catching. But she had been emboldened still by her anger toward Miss Drake and hadn’t thought it through properly.
And now she had no choice but to swan around a crowded ballroom dressed as the Queen of Egypt.
Diana approached her, touching her hair, then turned to the maid who was watching them both with shining eyes. “You have done a wonderful job, Dulcie,” she said. “How did you get Charlotte’s hair to sit so stiff and straight, just like Cleopatra’s?”
Dulcie’s chest expanded a little. “You can thank Hettie, the laundress,” she said proudly. “I borrowed one of her flat irons, that she uses on the gowns.”
“Ingenious!” said Diana, laughing. “Dulcie, you are a marvel.”
Charlotte grimaced. “It was strange indeed to have one’s hair ironed. The things we do for vanity.”
The sisters stared at each other, then burst out laughing, gripping each other. Diana laughed harder, pulling at Charlotte, twirling her around the room.
“Stop!” gasped Charlotte, laughing. “I am becoming quite giddy.”
They were still dancing around the room, laughing, when the door opened. They stopped abruptly, letting go of each other, trying to catch their breath. The countess was standing in the doorway staring at them both, a strange look on her face.
“Mama,” said Charlotte, her chest heaving a little. “I am sorry. Did we disturb you?”
The countess walked slowly into the room. She was smiling and her eyes were shining softly, as if tears were swimming in them. Charlotte and Diana looked at each other. What was wrong with their mother? She wasn’t her normal self at all.
The countess turned around slowly. “No, you did not disturb me, Charlotte.” She paused. “I was walking past the door and heard you both in here, giggling and dancing. It reminded me of how much I used to enjoy getting ready for dances and balls with my own dear sister, so many years ago.” She turned to the maid. “Dulcie, would you give me a moment alone with my daughters?”
Dulcie curtseyed, and left the room.
Charlotte stared at her mother in astonishment. “You and Aunt Eliza used to go to balls together?”
The countess smiled brightly. “Why do you sound so surprised? There were only as many years between us as between you and Diana. We were close growing up.” She stifled a sigh. “So close
that we did everything together.”
Suddenly the countess gasped, leaning against a bed post. She clutched her chest, as if in pain. Slow tears rolled down her face.
“Mama.” Diana was by her side in an instant. “What is wrong?”
“Help me sit down, Diana,” breathed their mother.
Diana led her to the dressing table chair. The countess took out a handkerchief, crying softly into it as her daughters watched in confusion. Charlotte realised that this was the first time she had ever seen her mother cry. Even at Aunt Eliza’s funeral she had sat stiff-backed and dry-eyed.
Her mother dried her eyes, staring at Charlotte. “I have done you a disservice,” she said slowly. “I have never told you about what happened to Eliza.”
Charlotte sank onto her bed, staring at her mother. Diana followed, standing behind her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.
The countess took a deep breath. “She was only one and twenty,” she whispered, as if talking to herself. “Before it happened, she was the belle of every ball. Eliza was full of life. She used to ride fiercely and dance madly, and live as though there were no tomorrow.” She stopped, staring off into the distance.
“What happened?” whispered Charlotte.
“A fall.” The countess’s voice was low and bitter. “She tripped on a rug, near the top of a flight of stairs, at our girlhood home. She tried to stop it, but it was no use. She tumbled down the stairs, landing at the bottom.” She hesitated. “I watched it all.”
Charlotte and Diana gasped in horror.
“She was never the same afterwards,” continued the countess. “The physicians said that she broke her back, and for months she never left her bed. She had to learn to walk again, like a baby. It tormented her the whole of her life.”
Charlotte frowned. “Is that why she would sometimes take to her bed? George remembers her doing so, although I don’t recall it.”
The countess smiled grimly. “Yes. She would be fine for a while, and then she would do something that aggravated it. She would collapse and be forced back to bed. She never rode or danced, or did anything too taxing, but even bending the wrong way might set it off.” She paused. “It ruined her life. She never married, for fear that she would not be able to deliver a child safely, and that she would be a burden on her husband.”
Charlotte blinked back tears, thinking of the letter from the reverend to her aunt. The reverend who had been in love with her and wanted to marry her. But her aunt had refused, because of her condition.
The countess took a deep breath. “I should have told you years ago, but my sister was ashamed and desired secrecy.” She blinked back tears. “Our mother supported her in it. Which leads me to you, Charlotte.”
“Me?” Charlotte blinked. “How so, Mama?”
Her mother rose and approached her, kneeling in front of her. She took her hand. “When you fell off the horse that day and I saw you being carried back to the house in so much pain, it brought it all back to me.” She paused. “I have not treated you well, my daughter.”
Charlotte blinked back tears. “You and Papa have spared no expense …”
The countess’s hand gripped her tighter. “No, Charlotte. Hear me out. Yes, we have tried to help you, and sent for the best physicians money can buy. But we have done you an injustice by trying to push you before you were ready and making a secret of your condition.”
Charlotte took a deep breath. “It has hurt me, I must admit.” She bit her lip. “I thought you were ashamed of me.”
The tears started flowing out of her mother’s eyes again. “No, no. I was never ashamed! It was just so hard for me to live with again, after seeing what happened to Eliza and how her accident ruined her life. It was fear for you, Charlotte. It made me distant, and I persuaded your father to be the same. As if hardening our hearts would protect us from what you were going through, and the worry of what would become of you.”
“Mama, it was wrong,” said Diana gently. “Charlotte needed love and support, and you and Papa have brushed her off for years. Telling George and I that we shouldn’t comfort her or indulge her, when she has clearly needed it.”
The countess took a deep breath. “I know, Diana.” She gazed at Charlotte. “It was hearing you both in here, so happy, that made me realise. Remembering how it used to be the same between Eliza and I, and how I did her wrong by going along with our own mother and pretending that all was well with her, when it so clearly wasn’t.” She paused. “Just like I have done with you, my daughter.”
“Oh, Mama.” Charlotte stared at her mother, overwhelmed.
“Can you forgive me?” whispered her mother, staring at her. “We have lost so much precious time together. I will try to make up for it.”
“Of course,” said Charlotte, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Nothing would make me happier.”
They embraced fiercely, and then Diana’s arms were around them both and they were all hugging each other tightly. Charlotte thought she had never felt so loved and protected in her life than in this moment. She smelt her mother’s hair, blinking back fresh tears. She had so wanted her mother to do this, for so long. She had resigned herself to the fact that it would never happen.
Poor Aunt Eliza, she thought. She pictured the spirited girl her mother had described, broken by her injury. She had believed that she could never live a normal life, and although it hadn’t twisted her sweet nature, it had coloured everything else. She had been ashamed of it, desiring secrecy, and so denied herself the support that she should have had.
The embrace ended and they all stared at each other, momentarily at a loss for words. The countess stood up, staring at them both tenderly.
“My sweet girls,” she said. “Stand up and let me look at you both, in your costumes.”
They rose to their feet, and the countess stood back, gazing at them. “You both look wonderful,” she said slowly. Then her gaze came to rest on Charlotte’s head. “I regret that Papa is suffering with a cold, and we cannot come tonight. But shouldn’t you be wearing a crown or circlet, as the Queen of Egypt?”
Charlotte laughed. “Dulcie was about to put it on just before Diana came in.”
Her mother took her hand, leading her to the dressing table.
“Sit,” she commanded.
Charlotte obeyed, staring at herself in the looking-glass, with her mother standing behind her. The countess picked up the golden circlet, lying on the table, and placed it gently on her head. She adjusted it for a moment, before resting her hands on her daughter’s shoulders. She stared at her reflection.
“There,” she said slowly. “Now you are fit to rule, Your Majesty.” She paused. “I want you to have a wonderful night this evening, Charlotte. I want you to dance, and dance, and remember your aunt when you do it. Nothing is impossible and your whole life is ahead of you, waiting to be claimed.” Her hands tightened on Charlotte’s shoulders.
“I will, Mama,” said Charlotte, blinking back tears again. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”
There was a knock at the door, and the butler came in. “My lady, the carriage is ready.”
“Thank you.” The countess stepped away. “Well, come along then. The carriage is waiting, and you mustn’t be late for the ball.”
Diana laughed. “Shall we both turn into pumpkins if we are not back by midnight, or will you let us stay out a bit later, Mama?”
The countess laughed. “You have forgotten your fairytales, my girl. It is the carriage that turns into the pumpkin. You both need to remember not to lose your glass slippers, that is all.” She stared down at Charlotte tenderly. “I think tonight you can all come home a little later. I shall tell the earl that we should turn a blind eye, just this time.”
Lords to Be Enamored With: A Historical Regency Romance Collection Page 74