“Twenty?” he asked and she burst out in laughter. Instinct had her hand over her mouth quickly. Colt looked back as she had, towards the ball watching for her mother, but there was no one.
“Let’s walk a little more. I know a place where you can laugh as freely as you want.” His invitation was tempting—much like sin—but she knew she could not be too generous to a stranger, even an incredibly handsome stranger at that.
“I am sorry. I have to head back inside, Lord Ayers—”
“Please, call me Colt. You make me feel much older than I am when you refer to me as Lord Ayers.” Theodora laughed and apologized to him. They both laughed and when they stopped, there was an ominous silence between them as though each was too shy to speak.
“I should be going now. It was a pleasure meeting you, Colt,” Theodora pulled up her gown so she could walk back faster. He nodded and stepped out of her way.
“When might I see you again, Theodora Kent?” he asked her. Theodora halted in her tracks and smiled to herself. He had gone through the trouble of seeking out her name.
“I will be having my birthday in about three months from this day. You are invited if you wish to come,” she replied.
“It will be my pleasure.” He bowed again. Theodora held her breath, waiting for him to speak again. He said nothing and she made her way to the stairs. Getting to the door, she dared to look back and there he was still, staring at her.
When she and her mother rode back home, her mother asked her how her day had been, hoping to get the list of her daughter’s interests and begin investigations as covertly as she could. Theodora mentioned the names of the men that had approached her. Mrs. Kent listened. The ones Theodora really liked were described with more adjectives while those that didn’t pique her interest were described as ‘polite’ or ‘nice’.
“But—” Mrs. Kent asked, seeing her daughter hid something else still.
“Did you notice a man at the ball? His friends called him by the name Colt. He was handsome, young, has green eyes and black hair. I doubt I have ever seen hair so dark before,” Theodora said, almost as though reliving a moment in her past. This piqued Mrs. Kent’s interest.
Penelope Kent, being the wife of a trader, knew most of the noble families and the wealthy families in England but she could not tell who Colt was, not by his first name. If Theodora had told her of his last name, perhaps she would have been able to tell her daughter what she knew about the young man and his family.
“So you like him?”
“I don’t know, Mother. There was just something about him. There was a way he looked at me without uttering words even—” Mrs. Kent smiled at her daughter’s trance.
“Do you think it is love, Mother?” Theodora asked. She had heard tales of her mother’s courtship with her father. The anvil in her breasts, her mother had called it—the pounding in her chest, the seizure of air from her lungs, and the burning of her skin. Theodora had not felt any of that, but she knew she had felt something when he had looked at her.
“It could be. Love is different for different people,” Mrs. Kent told her daughter before she brightened up again. “So how do we plan to cross his path again?”
“I am not talking about that with you, Mother,” Theodora laughed off her mother’s attempt to cheer her up.
“Everybody knows Colt Ayers. I mean every lady knows Colt Ayers. He is the son of the Duke of Morleen and he is so—” Emily said.
“Handsome,” Theodora chorused in unison with her friend.
Emily had come over to visit Theodora at her home for tea. ‘Tea’ was their code for small talk. After her encounter with Colt, she had written a letter to her friend inviting her for tea. Emily had hurried over, knowing there was an interesting tale to tell.
“Did he talk to you? Tell me he walked up to you and I would leave all of my parent’s wealth to be your maid for the rest of my life,” Emily said. Theodora laughed at her friend’s promise. Emily was always more intense than she was, always willing to take grand steps without looking.
It was what made them such great friends. Emily had the heart of an adventurer, as if they were still in the old times of swords and spells like the times of King Arthur or the Great Wizard Merlin. She would not have been out of place if she had been born in that era.
“That is just too much, Emily. I would never accept you as a maid. You cannot even make good tea,” Theodora aimed back at her friend.
“Whatever, I’ll learn that,” Emily waved the change of topic off. “Did he approach you?”
“No, he didn’t—” Emily narrowed her unusually big eyes at her friend “—he looked at me a couple of times. I was so flustered that I didn’t even know what to make of it. I was just—”
“In the clouds, I totally understand. I was at a party with him once and I got some tea spilled on him, by ‘mistake’. It wasn’t my intent,” Emily said but Theodora knew her friend only repeated words when she was lying. “He apologized to me and asked for my name. I tried moving the conversation further but he wasn’t interested. He was polite but he didn’t seem really interested in women so much.”
“That is a bad thing. What if he wants to be a priest?” Theodora was worried. Her heart would not have been able to take it if the handsome Colt had become a priest.
“He can’t be a priest. He is the son of a Duke, soon to become a Duke himself. He would need to birth handsome heirs and who better than a beautiful damsel like you?” Theodora flushed at her friend’s words.
“Oh, you want to see him again, don’t you?” Emily nudged Theodora by the shoulder.
“Stop it, when you say it like that, it seems like more. He is an intriguing gentleman and I would not mind speaking to him once more. That is all there is to it,” Theodora answered in denial as she jumped off her bed, putting distance between her and Emily the teaser.
“Because it is written all over your face, everyone can see it, and because it is Colt Ayers. Who does not fall head over heels for Colt Ayers?”
“Well, I am not simply going by the words of some handsome noble. He has to win my heart,” Theodora said to her reflection in the mirror. Her white-toned skin had a flushed pinkish tint to it.
“So you don’t like him?” Emily asked.
“I like him. He is handsome but there is much more to falling in love, Emily. I find him interesting and maybe he feels the same way about me but he has to win my heart,” Theodora said again, trailing her fingers along the curves of her face, wondering what his fingers would feel like.
She had not seen his hands but she knew he would be gentle. A crackle of lightning, her mother had described the feeling, the first time her father Bruce had touched her face. But Theodora stopped herself from going down the trail of thoughts that Emily’s fancy for Colt was leading her down.
“Well, you need to see him again,” Emily said the obvious. Theodora disliked it when Emily mirrored her mother’s words. It always made her feel as though Emily was much wiser than she was. Perhaps Emily actually was, because she went out much more than Theodora did.
“Ah! Your mother said it too, didn’t she? I see that familiar look on your face. I told you to help me talk to your mother. Your parents could take me in and I would be your loveable sister,” Emily said, seeing the look on her face.
“No, no, and no, you’ll bully me,” Theodora said to her more robust friend.
“That is true. I won’t be able to help myself,” Emily said and after a thoughtful silence, they both broke out in laughter.
Emily left, promising to seek out Colt, as Mrs. Kent had also promised Theodora. Her father had promised her a grand ball for her nine-and-ten birthday which was less than three months away. All she wanted for her birthday was to know more about Colt Ayers and if he would turn out to be more.
6
Life had been much clearer when she had been much younger and it had promised surprises for the young and beautiful Theodora Kent. Age was quite a fragile thing for women in the 17t
h century. So, a woman’s nineteenth birthday was important, much like the birth of a newborn, as with it came the declaration to the English society that she was now a woman. There were a lot of grand expectations for her birthday from all corners; her awaiting suitors, the older women who would welcome her into their company, and her mates. Everything had to be perfect.
“You are having a ball for your daughter’s birthday. She’s finally a woman,” the wealthy Englishman said to Bruce Kent as they hunted. Mr. Hemlock was a very good friend of Mr. Kent and a business partner.
“Yes, she deserves it and more even,” Mr. Kent said, as he loaded his bow and pulled. There was a squirrel in his view, hard to nail with their choice of weapon. It helped them talk more about business, reduced the displeasure at coming up empty, and greatly increased the delight at hitting game.
“You know, my son has been having trouble finding the right girl. He has a lot of prospects but you know my wife, she has high tastes,” Mr. Hemlock continued a conversation Mr. Kent knew all too well. He had trained himself to be able to read people and predict their moves. In his friend’s case, it was all too simple.
He steadied his breathing and kept a keen eye on the squirrel. “You share that similarity also, with your wife, and I am sure your son has it also,” Mr. Kent said.
“I was thinking we could further our business relationship if both our children—”
“Just a second,” Mr. Kent cut in just before letting the arrow fly. He missed. Bruce cursed under his breath. He had wanted to nail the squirrel to the tree. He turned his friend to say, “It depends on the both of them. I won’t get in the way of that. All I can do is invite you and your family to the ball and save you the best seats.”
The message was passed across subtly but it would have been a lot more emphatic had his arrow struck the squirrel. Both men laughed and said no more on the subject.
For Mrs. Kent, it was much the same. Her friends and other socialites were looking forward to Theodora’s birthday party. It had to be perfect.
Theodora tried to hide her anxiety. It was a routine that her mother and her best friend Emily were used to. She would complain about being in a crowd of people she didn’t know personally. She would lie that she was comfortable just being in her room with her family and best friend. Yet when the day did come, she would shine effortlessly.
That was part of Theodora that her mother sought to cultivate quite well. It was a gift that she had learnt only after wedding Bruce. She had set herself as an outcast in the big circles before she had accustomed herself to the crowds.
“This must be getting boring for you, acting like this every time, does it not?” Emily was the first to call her bluff. Her mother was much more patient before lashing out.
“I do not know what you speak of,” Theodora said, as she turned away from the mirror. She came back to her bed and lay down. With the ball fast approaching, her mother had not had much time to bother her about things like staying in her sleeping gown that late in the morning and was slowly easing her into the rigors of planning a ball.
Mrs. Kent saw it as an opportunity to teach her daughter some more about becoming a woman, so Theodora had to give her opinion on everything; the decorations, the foods and wine, and especially her gown. If she agreed to everything, Mrs. Kent just abandoned everything and made her start over.
“I agree with her,” Mrs. Kent chorused Emily’s words. Emily opened her hands to hug Mrs. Kent but she shook her finger, warning her not to.
“This is different. This is my nineteenth birthday and I already feel much older. I have not had any good rest for a week now, Mother,” Theodora complained with a pitiful pout. It never worked on her mother but had more success with her father.
“You can rest after the ball,” her mother promised her.
“That is actually a lie, Theodora. You are going to have men disturbing you for tea or riding along the countryside. Believe me, there is no rest until your children can fend for themselves,” Emily said, trying to be funny but Mrs. Kent didn’t find it funny.
“I apologize and I will excuse myself,” Emily bowed her head and rose to her feet. Mrs. Kent and Theodora exchanged a knowing look as Emily walked towards the door.
“Thank you, madam,” Emily said in an unusually serious tone. Mrs. Kent would have burst out in laughter if she wasn’t trying to be strict.
Mrs. Kent then turned her attention back to her daughter. “We need to go see the seamstress today and you have to learn to dance. Many suitors will want to dance with you. That is the only time they can get to talk with you. Unless they get to steal you, which would never happen, because I will be watching you like a hawk.” Mrs. Kent told her their plan for the day.
“I don’t have to. Can’t I just not dance on that day, Mother? Please.” Theodora shot up from her pillows and begged her mother with the pout.
“You need to know when a thing does not work. I am not your father. Now, have a proper bath and we’ll be on our way to the seamstress,” Mrs. Kent said, as she got up to her feet and told Emily to come with. That was so Theodora would not be distracted and dragged into another conversation by her chatty friend.
Theodora got ready and spent as much time she could lest her mother claim that she had not had a proper bath. They spent a lot of time at the seamstress after her measurements were taken and she tried on a corset. Her mother made small talk with the seamstress.
“Theodora has the perfect body. She could quite easily do without the corset.”
They stopped by one of the fields for a picnic before heading back to the mansion for Theodora’s dance lessons. Though she had nagged about dancing, she caught on quite quickly to her female teacher. Penelope had no doubt about Theodora’s natural flare for dancing, as much as she had for music.
“Any man she chooses should be so proud. She is everything,” Mrs. Kent said with teary eyes. Mr. Kent tiptoed up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“It is her choice. We have taught her everything she needs to know and she is intelligent, more than me, I fear,” Mr. Kent said, as he came to sit next to his wife. They watched their daughter dance gracefully.
“But she is not a patient soul. Deep down, she has a fire that needs to be fed, a curiosity for a world she doesn’t know. You know she has always been staring out of the window of her bedroom since she could walk; always looking out at something.” Mr. Kent nodded, as he shared this knowledge also.
“She is a woman now. We have to leave such decisions to her. We cannot tell the heart what to do lest we become its enemy,” he told her. Theodora and her teacher switched their tempo and moved faster across the room. Not once did Theodora lag behind her more seasoned tutor.
“You are right. We have to allow her to follow her dreams and lead her own path,” Mrs. Kent said in surrender. It was a day she knew would always come, the day when her little butterfly would fly but it didn’t make it any easier on her. She said a silent prayer that her daughter found love in a good man.
The following day, the fastest riders went out to deliver the invitations.
Theodora stood by her window watching as different coaches rode in to drop off guests both old and young. One similarity amongst all of them, they were all wealthy. They were part of her world, the only world she had known.
“You’ll ruin your gown and your face exposing yourself to the sun so much. Come, sit,” Emily called to Theodora. Reluctantly, she came away from the window to sit next to her friend. Her face was sad and Emily quickly took care of that.
“He will come. I am sure he will. Do not let his lateness affect you. Perhaps he simply wants to make an entrance,” Emily told her. “He will be here.”
Theodora nodded. She wondered why it hurt her so. There was no way to know whether her attraction was reciprocated except if she saw him again. A knock on the door suddenly raised her hopes. Her heartbreak seemed too early and too petty when she tried to think it through.
Emily offered to go an
d get the door. She came back holding a piece of folded paper.
“Don’t get your hopes up. It is just a letter. It could be from some random suitor who seeks to beat the rest to you. I admire that in a—” Theodora snatched the letter from Emily’s nonchalant hands and hurried to the window to read it in secrecy. The letter wasn’t from just any random suitor. It was from Colt. He apologized for not being able to make her birthday as he had to run an errand for his father. He however promised to try his best to make the ball.
Dear Miss Kent,
It would be selfish to ask you to wait for me for I might yet fail to come. But, I swear by all things noble that I will be at the Kent Mansion even if night catches me. I will not miss fate’s second chance to see you again.
Enjoy your day my fair lady.
Happy Birthday…
Under a Highlander's Spell: A Steamy Scottish Historical Romance Novel Page 4