by Abby Ayles
“I had no idea that they could climb trees,” her father jabbered on with more energy than he had shown in years, “but the duke said he saw it with his own eyes. How curious for such a large creature, don’t you think? And the duke is also a member of the Zoological Society, did you know that?”
* * *
“Yes, Father, I did,” Lady Alexandra replied in the first pause since he sat down to dinner.
* * *
“He wants to use the museum. How wonderful. Though I am not sure we will have time enough to prepare, and I, of course, told him my reservations on the matter.”
* * *
Lady Alexandra suddenly stilled. Did her father refuse the duke use of the facilities? She hoped not. As much as she would have rathered the man be removed from her presence permanently, it was the compensation he would provide that made him a necessity in her life. She hoped her father hadn’t spoiled that.
* * *
“I hope you didn’t refuse him,” Lady Alexandra said in a strangled voice, hoping to keep her calm.
* * *
“I tried to, but the man quite insisted. Said he would be sending over a solicitor on the morrow to pay in full. Much more than I would ask but he quite insisted and who am I to argue. With the extra funds I may finally get my wish,” he added, rubbing his hands together gleefully.
* * *
“There are a great many more uses for the funds than a giraffe,” Lady Alexandra said stiffly.
* * *
Though she had almost complete control over all aspects of business, in the end, it was her father’s, and he would always have the final say. She was relieved that the duke wasn’t put off by Lord Grebs’ insistence that they wouldn’t have time to prepare for the banquet, even though he had no idea how right he was on that fact. Even still, she didn’t need this inkling of hope of a better financial future wasted on yet another stuffed carcass.
Chapter Nineteen
“Raven, I feel like I haven’t seen you at all these last few weeks,” Aunt Rebecca said, meeting him in the hall as he exited the breakfast room.
* * *
He had planned to take his morning meal extra early that day to join the men of the Zoological Society for the second time since returning home. Lady Rebecca, for her part, was just descending the staircase in her morning dress. He did have a pang of guilt at not spending much time with her since returning home.
* * *
“Are you leaving again?” She asked with disappointment seeing that he was fully dressed for the day and early morning calls.
* * *
“I was,” Raven said, pulling out a watch from his pocket and studying the time.
* * *
“What have you been doing? It's far too early to be calling on Lady Charlotte. That isn’t where you are off to, is it?”
* * *
“No, I was actually on my way to the Society.”
* * *
“Well stay and have some breakfast with me before you go,” she urged with her big, pleading eyes.
* * *
“I just ate,” Raven hesitated.
* * *
He really didn’t have the time, but he was sure the men could last at least the first half hour of the meeting on other matters without him. They were planning to discuss the menu for the banquet to be handed over to the museum’s cook.
* * *
“I could spare a few moments to sit with you, however, while you break your fast if you would like.”
* * *
“I would like that very much,” Lady Rebecca responded, lighting up with satisfaction.
* * *
Raven turned and entered again the room he just left. Sitting down, he watched as the servants set the place for his aunt.
* * *
“Do humor me and tell me what things you have been up to these past days. I suppose social engagements are keeping you very busy?” she added with a hint of intrigue.
* * *
Raven didn’t want to admit that beyond their first walk in the park, Raven hadn’t called on Lady Charlotte once. They had met at a few social gatherings at night and exchanged polite conversations from time to time, but beyond the norm of being in similar circles, he had done little to pursue her.
* * *
It wasn’t that Lady Charlotte wasn’t a charming, proper young lady. In fact, one might consider her behavior that of an adequate duchess already. Raven hadn’t expected anything less in his aunt’s chosen partner, and Lady Charlotte hadn’t disappointed either.
* * *
Her parents, as well, were most charming and he could see them both easily getting along with his aunt. In fact, if he were to make the choice of wife based on familial comfort, he knew that Lady Charlotte was it.
* * *
However, he was still slightly rubbed indifferently to the lady after that walk in Kensington Gardens and the way she spoke of Lady Alexandra on their return ride in his gig to her house. It was indeed an unusual sight they had encountered, and Lady Charlotte was well within her right to be shocked and even speculate over it.
* * *
None the less, from the very moment he met Lady Alexandra, he felt an unearthly connection to her. One she no doubt didn’t feel towards him, if her attitude and opinions were any judge of her affections. Still, he seemed to be drawn in her direction continually.
* * *
Lady Charlotte’s comments on the event and Lord Grebs’ family after their encounter only seemed to rub Raven in a most uncomfortable way on his opinion of the lady through no actual fault of her own.
* * *
He barely understood this strange distance from Lady Charlotte and could by no means express it to his aunt. Not only was she very invested in this connection, but she was also very openly contrary to his association with Lord Grebs’ family.
* * *
It wasn’t that Lady Rebecca thought her family and circles far too superior of status to rub elbows with an impoverished, titled family. Raven had never seen his aunt take such a judgmental opinion of anyone, no matter their situation in life. It was her deep passion for Lady Charlotte and him matching that was at stake.
* * *
Raven wasn’t entirely sure why this particular match was so crucial to his aunt. He asked on several occasions why she cared so profoundly now of all times. Every time the conversation arose, Lady Rebecca gave the same vague answer of her passing of age and matronly duty to uphold in the name of his mother.
* * *
Though he didn’t consider her lying in her reasoning, he also knew that those simple excuses couldn’t be the entire truth of the matter. Still, his aunt had given him much privacy in his own life and the freedom to do his will, he wasn’t about to go prying into his aunt's life, and motives, now.
* * *
“You could say that, yes,” Raven answered his aunt vaguely. “I told you that I am also heading up the banquet for the Zoological Society, didn’t I?” he added as an afterthought.
* * *
“I knew you were taking more interest in the meetings while you are in town but I don’t believe you told me that.”
* * *
“Well, I went to the London Museum of Natural Wonders. Apparently, they have turned their greenhouse room into more than an indoor garden. I believe it is the museum’s hope to extend its services to utilizing the large area for public and private events.”
* * *
“You mean that glass monstrosity that towers over the surrounding buildings? I’ve always considered it to be a bit of an eyesore if I am being honest,” Lady Rebecca said, buttering a muffin.
* * *
“It may not be much to look at on the outside, but I can assure you, dear Aunt, that within its casing it is most breathtaking. Instead of the usual walking garden with a few varieties of butterflies, it has been completely transformed over the last few years. They have turned it into something of a tropical paradise. It even has a few exotic creatu
res within to entertain, including a rather talented parrot.”
* * *
“And what does any of this have to do with your Society?” Lady Rebecca said with slight agitation.
* * *
“Well, naturally I thought it a perfect location for the Society banquet. It would be the first use of the venue for an event. I think it might help spread the word a bit about the opportunity there.”
* * *
“And the other men of the Society agree to this? It seems a bit unorthodox if you ask me.”
* * *
“I can’t see how. It’s a society based on the study of animals. Certainly, a place such as the Museum of Natural Wonders would be an obvious venue.”
* * *
“I’m sure you know much better on the matter than I,” his aunt said, resigned. “I only hope it doesn’t preoccupy too much of your time, Raven,” she added more in warning.
* * *
“I promise it won't,” Raven placated his aunt.
* * *
“Good. Then I would like to go over a few engagements for the upcoming week. Naturally, you know most of these. Lord and Lady Jocasta invited us to a private dinner. I know I’ve already mentioned it to you once,” she added quickly, seeing her nephew sigh at the mention. “I am only reminding you again, so you have no excuse for getting out of it. Lady Jocasta is a very kindly lady. Her health doesn’t allow her out much, and I just know she would be glad to see the man you have grown into.”
* * *
“Of course, Aunt. I will go then,” Raven said, though he had no desire to spend an evening sitting around with the rather aged couple.
* * *
Lord Jocasta couldn’t hear a word one said to him even when shouting. Conversations with him were often a cross of a shouting match and his answers still being completely different than the question asked. And that was, of course, years ago the last time Raven saw them. He couldn’t image how much his hearing had deteriorated since then.
* * *
Lady Jocasta had a great fondness for cats. Raven supposed it was to give her someone to talk to besides her husband, as the lady rather treated the various animals as members of the household. Lady Jocasta had been somewhat of a mentor to his mother and aunt in their younger years, and his aunt had always made sure to keep in touch with the lady.
* * *
As a lad, he was often dragged to the Jocasta home where he sat amid cats and listened to the women chatter on. It wouldn’t be what he would consider a worthwhile evening, but none the less he would go for his aunt.
* * *
“It is on Thursday, a week from tomorrow. Please do make sure you will be there,” Lady Rebecca added for good measure.
* * *
“Of course.”
* * *
“Also, since we are on the subject of Thursday. Tomorrow is a showing of Carlotta at the opera house. I have it on good authority that Lord and Lady Derber plan to attend. Naturally, Lady Charlotte will be there with her parents. You will be a dear and come along with me, won't you?”
* * *
“You know how much I detest the theater. Lady Jocasta’s cats are torture enough for one season.”
* * *
“Theodore Hendricks, Lady Jocasta is not torture,” Lady Rebecca said, dropping her half-eaten muffin to the plate in shock.
* * *
“Her cats certainly are,” Raven mumbled under his breath. He knew better than to counter his aunt at a volume she would hear when she used his Christian name.
* * *
“I am not asking you to enjoy the opera, just to attend it. It is vital not just for a chance to mingle again with Lady Charlotte, but also to show her parents that I bred you to be a well- mannered and sophisticated gentleman.”
* * *
Raven could have guessed that this was the tactic his aunt would use. Anytime she asked him to do something he really didn’t want to, she always found a way of making it a way to show she had done her duty right. He could never refuse her with this. It would be as if he was saying she had failed him in some way.
* * *
“Fine, I will go, but I promise you I will be very sour the whole night through.”
* * *
“Fine,” Lady Rebecca echoed. “Just mind you keep your disposition to yourself.”
* * *
“I will try my very hardest,” he replied with a forced smile.
* * *
“Good. We have also been invited to a small dinner party at Lord Eagleton's house. The day after the Jocasta’s. I fear it might be too much, but I do know you are close friends with Lord Bembury and suppose you will want to attend.”
* * *
“Young Charles stayed in the country with his wife this year,” Raven informed his aunt. “She is great with child again, I believe.”
* * *
“How many children is that now?” Lady Rebecca asked, a little scandalized by the idea.
* * *
“Number four,” Raven replied, though he was beaming with the good fortune of his closet friend.
* * *
“So we won’t attend then? I may send my condolences?”
* * *
“Actually, I would still like to attend. I am sure you are more within your rights to excuse yourself from the evening, but I will plan to go.”
* * *
Lady Rebecca shrugged this off, and they finished the rest of the meal talking on the rest of the upcoming engagements and various events that Lady Rebecca had planned for her day.
* * *
Raven was glad she didn’t think to consider why he was so adamant about attending a dinner party of a close friend’s family when he wouldn’t even be present. From the moment his aunt brought up the dinner arrangements only one thought had entered his mind. There was the possibility of seeing Lady Alexandra again.
* * *
He knew well enough now that Lady Alexandra was a close friend of Lord Eagleton's young new wife. It would only make sense that Lord Grebs and his daughters also be invited to a small dinner party of close friends. At least that was what Raven hoped for.
* * *
He hadn’t spoken to or even seen Lady Alexandra since the day of the museum lecture despite the fact that he always found himself scanning rooms for her. He had no excuse to call on her at present either without it raising more alarm with his aunt that he was doing so.
* * *
After meeting with Lord Grebs, who had seemed a very withdrawn recluse but not an altogether terrible man to converse with, he had no occasion to return to the townhome. His solicitor had done his duty the following day calling on Grebs and settling the account in full before the banquet and with a sum vastly more considerable than was asked of by the earl, all on Raven’s orders.
* * *
He knew it was a blatant act of giving to a family that certainly needed it. As much as he had done it out of a great desire to help elevate some of Lady Alexandra’s troubles, he also had a sinking feeling that she might be quite furious at him because of it.
* * *
Though he had meant it in goodwill, he also couldn’t help but anticipate when he saw the lady again, even if it was with her honey brown eyes narrowed in disdain, chest puffed out in prideful hatred of his kind act. She didn’t seem the type to ever ask for help or accept it when it was given. Part of Raven actually relished the fact that despite her stubborn nature he had found a way around her walls, to provide her with a small portion of relief that she so desperately needed.
Chapter Twenty
Lady Alexandra had scarcely taken a second to eat or sleep over the last few weeks. Her days were filled with task after task preparing for the Zoological Society banquet. Usually with no time for rest between, she would go straight from her daily errands to social gatherings with her sisters.
* * *
Much to her great relief, Josephine had taken on the task of seeing herself and younger sister Willia
mina ready for the nights' events when Lady Alexandra finally arrived home.
* * *
Josephine was also doing as much as she could to see that Sophia was tending to her lessons during the day and not causing trouble before their events.