by Gay, Gloria
Madame Genette had promised to transform the girls’ presentation ball gowns into gowns suitable for the first Almack’s ball, thus saving them a considerable amount of money, and at the same time making sure that the girls would have lovely white debutant gowns for the Season.
Aunt Julia and Lydia, as well as the girls’ sponsor, Lady Fargan, sat waiting for each of Amby’s sisters to don her transformed gown and step up on the dais in front of the ladies, for their inspection.
Edwina was the first one to appear, eliciting Oh’s and Ah’s” from the aunts.
“Amazing, Madame,” said Lady Sandvel, “that by removing those bulky petticoats, flounces and enormous sleeves, as well as all the paste jewelry attached to the silk, the ballgowns have obtained an entirely different personality!”
Madame Gennette, happy with the result of her work, exclaimed: “Vive la difference! Do you not agree, mesdames, that I have taken thirty years off from the gowns as I promised you, yes?”
“Yes!” Lady Sandvel and Lady Ellswood exclaimed in unison. “You have done wonders, Madame! Congratulations,” added Lady Julia. “Not only that, Madame, but you have reduced the many yards of material in the skirts so that the gowns are now in the style of the season. A really wonderful achievement!”
“With the many yards of material left over from gowns I will be able to make three more gowns for the girls, yes?”
“Yes,” readily agreed the girls’ aunt. “We are so grateful for your talent and ingenuity, Madame. You cannot imagine how much!”
“With pleasure,” said Madame, “I will start the designs right away, so that the girls will have another ballgown,”
“We will be so grateful,” said Lady Ellswood with a glance at Lady Sandvel. Madame had stretched the few pounds the girls had for their season and the two aunts were certain three different lovely gowns would emerge from the rest of the elegant white silk.
Madame Gennette was indeed a talented modiste. And she also had a kind heart. She had noticed that the Rustwellon girls had little money to spend on their wardrobes and had sat one evening at the end of her busy day to ponder how best to stretch the few meager pounds the girls had for their season. Then she remembered the bulky court presentation gowns the girls had had adjusted to their slender sizes and an idea occurred to her.
A brilliant idea as it turned out to be.
Once the session at Madame’s establishment was over, the aunts asked the girls if they would like to have an ice at Gunter’s. They were all a little tired from their exhausting fittings, for getting in and out of gowns that closed with dozens of tiny buttons.
The girls exclaimed their agreement all at once in the crowded carriage, eliciting laughter from the aunts.
“You will be given only a short rest before we tackle the second phase of our shopping tour,” said Lady Sandvel, “for there are the ribbons and gloves and dancing slippers yet to be purchased at the Emporium, my dears.”
The following day Lady Sandvel received a letter from Jalenta, requesting that Lady Sandvel contact the Almack’s committee and obtain vouchers for her as chaperone for Lydia. Jalenta added in her letter that she would be unable to attend the first ball at Almacks but would be certain to be ready for the second one.
Lady Sandvel replied that she had requested the Almacks’ vouchers for the family and for Jalenta, as chaperone for Lydia and had received them the previous week.
Lady Sandvel was certain that Jalenta had the intention of making sure that Lydia married a man of Jalenta’s choice, one that would agree to a compact with her as to Julia’s inheritance.
Lady Sandvel had noticed with glee the friendship that had started to blossom between her beloved Lydia and Lord Brandell. She could not have chosen a man of more integrity, honor and valor than him for her niece.
But with chagrin she also realized that Jalenta would be sure to notice Simon and Lydia’s attraction to each other, once she was to attend the season’s balls with them.
“Lydia, my dear,” Lady Sandvel advised her a few days before the ball, “if Jalenta becomes aware of the attraction between you and Lord Brandell, she will be sure to do everything in her power to nip it in the bud.
“We are experienced with her plotting methods, but you may be even more aware of what she is capable of, if her income is threatened, having been the recipient of her wrath.
“If it would embarrass you to speak of this subject to Lord Brandell, I could speak on your behalf and make him aware that if Jalenta notices a close friendship between you and him, she will become even more dangerous than she already is.”
“Lord Brandell and I have discussed it, Aunty,” Lydia replied. “It is uppermost in both our minds that the moment Jalenta is able to attend the balls with us she will do everything possible to keep us away from each other, for it is most beneficial to her that I become engaged to a man of her choice, a man of little character who is in debt to his ears from gambling and sordid living.”
“She sent me a most outrageous letter specifying just such a plan, stating that as she would have to approve my choice of husband, it would be better if from the onset I danced with her choice of husband for me, to avoid confusion and a waste of my time.”
“Here it is, Aunty,” she said, handing the letter to Julia.
Lady Sandvel laughed at this and read the letter with great interest.
“She is often comical, in her quest to become dead serious, is she not, Lydia?” Lady Sandvel said after she had read the letter and handed it back to Lydia.
“As if you would meekly accept her choice of husband for you.”
Lady Sandvel sighed as she gazed at her beloved niece. Only difficult times lay ahead for the sweet girl, for Jalenta was dangerous when crossed and greatly more so when her income was in the offing.
Lydia had no such misgivings. She was almost euphoric that they would be able to attend the first Almacks ball without the unwelcome presence of her awful caretaker.
Lady Sandvel, however, continued to worry. Jalenta would be certain to interfere with Lydia’s attraction to Lord Brandell and try to nip it in the bud. Lady Sandvel had not seen a better young man for her niece if she had searched far and wide than her dear friend’s nephew, the wonderful young man, Simon Westrick, Earl of Brandell.
Chapter 23
The long-awaited day of the first Almacks ball of the Season finally arrived and from early morning the Sandvel household buzzed with activity. And since the girls and their aunts were to enjoy the ball without the unwanted presence of Jalenta, the preparations were doubly enjoyable.
Would that all the other balls could be like that, thought Lady Sandvel, without that awful woman hanging about like a dark cloud over their heads.
Early in the morning, Amby’s aunt, Lady Esther Fargan, arrived at the Sandvel’s townhouse with her nieces, Amby’s three sisters, Edwina, Cassie and Isobel in time for breakfast, to which they had been invited, for they were to spend the entire day preparing for the ball with Lydia.
Lady Esther and the Rustwellon girls were also to spend the next three days as guests of Sir Howard and Lady Sandvel at the Sandvel cozy and compact townhouse in Berkeley Square, where the Sandvels lived year-around.
As she greeted her friend and the girls, Lady Sandvel determined that she would keep Jalenta away from her mind as she helped Lydia and her friends prepare for the ball.
She had often dreamed of helping her beloved niece prepare for her first ball at Almack’s and she was not going to allow the hovering menace of Jalenta to mar the experience in any way.
The ballgowns from Madame Genette’s establishment had arrived that morning and shortly after, a bouquet of white roses had been delivered for Lydia, from Lord Brandell.
Edwina, Cassie and Isobel sizzled with excitement as they and Lydia gathered at mid-morning in the breakfast room, to start the day right by partaking of a wonderful meal and enjoyable banter.
“The chocolate is most delicious,” Isobel provided as her sisters nodded
in happy agreement.
“And these hot scones melt in your mouth,” exclaimed Edwina.
“Lydia nodded happily as she sipped her chocolate and bit into her second buttered scone.
She had piled her plate with scrambled eggs and a thick slice of ham, deciding that she would enjoy her first day of the Season by starting with a delicious breakfast.
She was going to need nourishment to withstand the last ball gown fittings, for a seamstress sent from Madame Genette’s was due to arrive shortly, which meant endless fittings of the girls’ ball gowns.
Later that morning the hairdresser and her assistant were scheduled to begin their work in earnest for they had the girls and the ladies’ coiffeurs to contend with.
To prepare for their heavy schedule, Lydia proposed to the Rustwellon girls that they go for a walk in the small garden in back, where a marked trail meandered in and out among the few fruit trees and flower beds, ingeniously turning what would have been a short walk into a much longer and more beneficial one.
After their walk was done twice, the girls rested for a while as they sat on the bench around the trunk of a tree.
“Let’s do it again,” proposed Isobel, after a few minutes of rest, to eager nods. The girls then went off for the third time to follow the garden trail once more, laughing and chattering all the time as they postponed the grueling schedule that awaited them.
Arriving at Almack’s escorted by Simon and Amby, the Earl of Elswood and Lady Cecily Ellswood, Lord Fargan and Lady Esther Fargan, and Sir Howard and Lady Sandvel, Lydia was quiet. In contrast, Isobel and Edwina were atwitter, speaking in hardly suppressed words their excitement at finally going to the first Almack’s ball of the Season, while Cassie brooded by them.
It was the first time they stepped into a place they had heard so much about and that had taken mythical proportions in their minds.
The aunts tried to calm them down so that the announcer could hear Lord Brandell when he gave them the names of their large group and the vouchers that had gained them admittance.
Lydia was silent in contrast to Freddie’s sisters, who suppressed their giggles only long enough for the majordomo to check their vouchers.
As soon as they were admitted into the ballroom, Edwina and Cassie would have darted away from the aunts, had not Amby restrained them with a firm word.
The sisters glanced around the crowded Almack’s ballroom and were silent for once as they glanced guardedly at the throng of guests dressed in their finest.
Except for those wearing their scarlet uniforms, the men were dressed in the requisite knee breeches, rather than the trousers that were forbidden at Almacks.
The girls expressed their surprise as they glanced around at the two-story high ballroom around which was a balcony that ran the whole length around.
They whispered among themselves that the large, common-looking ballroom fared badly compared to many of the ballrooms of homes the girls had attended.
Isobel, Cassie and Edwina looked at each other and would have burst out in laughter as they expressed their observations had Simon not sobered them with a warning glance.
Simon and Freddie led the girls to the rear of a long line, where Lady Jersey and Lady Sefton, the patronesses assigned to supervise the first ball, were swiftly introduced to the dozens of debutants as they arrived with their sponsors.
Lydia’s and the Rustwellon girls’ introductions to the patroness were over in a flash and they were ushered quickly away from the lines.
Lydia observed that the patronesses appeared to waste no time before the opening cotillion began, herding the long lines of girls with the expertise of grim-faced army sergeants with not a second to spare.
Their introduction to Society now official, the first minutes before the start of the ball passed as in a flash for Lydia as young men made a beeline to their group.
Young men were eager to secure a promise either for the opening quadrille or a dance from one of the numbers later, as they swiftly scratched their name on a girl’s dance card.
The men of their group hurried to secure small glasses of warm lemonade for the women and girls of their group, for such exertion had their throats parched.
Their group was ensconced near a wide pillar as the girls waited for the opening quadrille to begin.
All four of them had secured partners, with not a wallflower among them, to the unspoken relief of the adults who escorted them.
Gazing at her beloved niece as she attended her first Almacks ball, Lady Sandvel sat back on her chair and sighed with relief. Although they were free of Jalenta for a while, Lady Sandvel’s thoughts went back to another problem that lurked in her mind. She had helped Lydia to dress for the ball—up to a point, for Lydia allowed help only for the buttons in back, for she could hardly manage those on her own.
Lydia insisted that she did not need a maid’s assistance, that she was used to dressing by herself.
But it was obvious to Lady Sandvel that Lydia had not wanted to risk that a maid might become aware of the condition Lydia’s arms were.
Her arms were swollen in a way that suggested they had been yanked and pulled at in an aggressive way, enough to cause them to swell and to turn red in splotches.
And you did not have to be a Bond Street runner to detect a nervousness in Lydia entirely unconnected to first ball of the Season jitters.
She had insisted on wearing her embroidered shawl over her ballgown even when the ballroom became stuffy and hot.
This had been a warning signal to Lady Sandvel as she realized with a helpless awareness that Lydia was being physically abused by either Jalenta, her brother or both at the house where she lived.
She could tell that Lydia was very able at blocking Jalenta and her situation at home. She was breathlessly enjoying the unexpected reunion with her aunt and uncle and the surprise of meeting Simon again.
When Simon came to claim Lydia’s first waltz, Lydia went off eagerly with him but not without a pleased glance in Lady Sandvel’s direction that clearly said, “You made this night possible for me.”
Chapter 24
“Wasn’t the ball just divine?” Edwina asked, sighing happily. “I danced all night and wore out my slippers.”
“Half the time would have suited me better,” Cassie remarked with a frown. “I hope we shall be able to rent horses somewhere. I don’t think I will survive London without at least one or two hours per day of riding.”
“Will, we, Lady Sandvel?” she pleaded.
“You’ll be able to ride as much as your brother allows, Cassie. But daily, my dear? That’s cutting it a bit thin, I should say.
“Once a week will be closer to the mark—if he allows it. You must realize, my dear, that there is an expense involved.”
“May we all ride this morning?”
“If your brother allows it and if Lady Fargan approves, then yes,” Lady Sandvel said.
“Do you ride, Lydia?” Cassie asked turning to Lydia who was quietly eating her breakfast.
“Aunt Julia arranged for riding lessons when I visited some years ago when I was thirteen. I very much enjoyed riding then, but I don’t know how I would fare, after not having ridden since then.
“One never forgets riding, my dear,” said Julia. “Simon is looking forward to riding, too. He is a wonderful horseman and led a cavalry during the war.”
“I am looking forward to our long weekend at the Hennisters,” Lydia said, a swirl of pleasure running through her body at the thought of riding with Simon.
At that moment Simon entered the breakfast room and he was informed of the girls’ wishes in a flurry of explanations, all at the same time.
“Girls do calm down,” said Lady Sandvel. “Let us find out from Simon if the outing at the Hennister estate includes riding,” she said as he walked into the breakfast room.
“Of course, it will include riding, my lady,” Simon replied with a wide smile. “That is a large part of the entertainment they have planned for us.
Bernie and I talked about it when he invited us some days ago.
“The Hennisters have a wonderful stable. Some of their horses are entered in contests. I spoke with Amby yesterday and he told me that for part of the group, which includes all of us, it will be a three-day weekend. Here is the invitation,” he said, handing it to Lady Sandvel.
“Their estate is only about three miles from the city,” he added. “He mentioned that he would allow the use of his horses for the group. Of course, that will not include his race horses, but those that he has for us are excellent for riding.
“Lucy is looking forward to reuniting with Simon’s sisters and is also looking forward to meeting Sir Howard, Lady Sandvel and Lydia.”
“Bernie has proposed that we arrive early Friday morning, during which we will have first a breakfast, then picnics, riding and archery.
“The rest of the guests—quite a large group, from what Bernie said, will arrive the following day, for the two days remaining of the weekend, when there will be another picnic and a ball.”
“He asked if we would agree to arrive a full day before the rest of the guests, which would be the day after tomorrow, on Friday morning, so that his sister could have a reunion with Amby’s sisters and meet Lydia.
“He proposed that we arrive in time for breakfast and then go on riding for a while and then a picnic in the forested area of Daven Hall, their estate.
“Why, that sounds wonderful, Simon,” said Lady Sandvel smiling widely. “Harold and I became acquainted with the Hennisters a few years ago, when we coincided with them at a house party.After that we saw them seldom, because of Harold’s accident, and then the war years came about. I am glad that we will have an opportunity to renew our friendship. You could not have made a better plan for the weekend.
“I remember Lucy Hennister,” she added. “She is a sweet girl. At that time that we had an outing with her family she was about ten years old, she must be nearing nineteen now.”