by Abby Ayles
* * *
Surprisingly it was on that very night that Raven realized that he could never find Lady Charlotte a good match for him, no matter how much his aunt wanted it, or how right it looked on the surface.
* * *
That was also another matter that Raven had yet to bring up with his aunt. He was beginning to feel more distance from his dear boyhood caretaker than he had ever before, even with oceans between them.
* * *
There was still this unknown drive that was pushing his aunt to promote Lady Charlotte to him. He was sure until he found out the reasoning, and a way to rectify it, he would have little chance of convincing his aunt that she was not the right choice for him.
* * *
He looked down the table amid the candlelight, steaming dishes and chatter of the guests to find Lady Alexandra at the far end. She was sitting next to her friend Lady Eagleton with her sisters at her side. The table really wasn’t that full as this was an intimate party and certainly, no more than three people separated the seats between Raven and Lady Alexandra. Still, he wished her closer so he could hear what she was discreetly telling Lady Eagleton.
* * *
It was after the opera that Raven decided to give up fighting his fascination with Lady Alexandra. The realization had been as if a fog had cleared to reveal a bright, sunny day.
* * *
Lady Charlotte had been shallow and bland. She certainly hit all the marks of a proper lady, but beyond that, he saw nothing more than an empty shell.
* * *
Lady Alexandra on the other hand, was fierce in her determination to thrive despite the cards life had dealt her. More than that she had very decidedly become the person she wanted to be. He found it a most admirable trait.
* * *
One he couldn’t help but be a little jealous of. Raven had traveled the world over partly because he had his father’s love for adventure and desire to see just beyond the ever-stretching horizon. It was not only this that drove him to move and seek the new continually.
* * *
He knew part of him was also searching for that place he felt was right. The place where he could let his own shields down and be the true self he was within. He was searching for his home.
* * *
As of yet, he hadn’t found it in a place. These intoxicating encounters with Lady Alexandra had shown him that a place he had once despised and hated returning to could now be a joy he anticipated every morning. It was all thanks to the person who had entered his life and not the place he found himself in.
* * *
It was a curious thought brewing in him. If nothing came of these feelings he was developing for Lady Alexandra he would at the very least have an admiration for the lady and this new feeling she planted within his heart. No longer did he consider that peaceful, safe sanctuary of one's home as a physical place meant just for you, but instead a sensation brought on by the people one chose to surround themselves with.
* * *
As he enjoyed the meal and conversation provided, Raven couldn’t help but feel for the first time that these people were the ones he belonged to. He only wished that his aunt had joined them and then he was sure the night would have felt complete.
* * *
The dinner party the night before, however, with her elderly friend had quite tired her out. Not only that, but she had left the house with what she called the coming of a cold. Raven wondered if it was instead a reaction to the cats. Especially since two more had been added to the household since last his aunt visited her friend.
* * *
Once the meal was done, Eagleton had coaxed his new wife into performing a song for their guests, though she was quite insistent that no one would want to hear such a thing.
* * *
From jeers and cheers around the table, Lady Eagleton finally agreed to the task. The whole party expectantly returned to the drawing room to find the small pianoforte brought out and chairs set in preparations for all the guests to listen.
* * *
“Lady Williamina, would you be a dear and play for me. I couldn’t bear to sing without accompaniment, and your sister talks incessantly of your fine talent.”
* * *
Lady Williamina blushed at the prospect. Unable to speak, she merely nodded her head in approval and took her seat at the piano. It took the two a few moments to decide on a song while the rest of the guests took their seats.
* * *
Raven did his best to find a way closer to Lady Alexandra than he had at dinner. He would have liked to share a more intimate conversation with her before he called tomorrow morning.
* * *
However, he found himself seated between Lord Eagleton on one side with Lady Alexandra’s youngest sister, Sophia, on his other with the lady herself next to the girl.
* * *
Raven did his best to keep his focus on Regina and her beautifully delicate voice, but often he found his gaze drifting back in Lady Alexandra’s direction. He was entranced by her face. She had the look of a beaming mother as she watched her sister play on the piano and even got visibly nervous as the piece took her through a particularly tricky part. She relaxed again, breaking out in a pearl-white smile when Lady Williamina got through it without any mishap.
* * *
Once the piece was over, Raven gave hearty applause with the rest of the audience and stood to turn to face Lady Alexandra. Quite unexpectedly Lady Sophia stayed in his path.
* * *
“Your Grace, my sister, Williamina, and I were going to start a small game of cards and wondered if you might like to join us,” she said, looking up at him with batting lashes.
* * *
Raven smiled down at the girl. She did have beauty even in her young age, there was no denying that fact. He was sure that when her time came to join society in earnest, she would be swarming with young suitors begging for her attention.
* * *
She seemed to know that fact as well. Lady Sophia had chosen a soft blue silk dress for the evening, and though it had a slightly low cut at the bodice for someone of her age, she decided to go without a fiche to cover it. More than this she had also accessorized her dress with a royal blue ribbon at her empire waist and weaved within her dark locks of hair.
* * *
Lady Sophia was undoubtedly there to get noticed that night by someone. Lady Alexandra, in contrast, was in a simple silk of rose gold with lace trim. There was nothing to adorn her appearance or accentuate her features. Yet it was she that seemed to steal the room for Raven.
* * *
“I would be happy to join you,” Raven replied. “Though I suppose we will be needing a fourth,” he added, hoping to rope Lady Alexandra in.
* * *
She seemed to pay little notice to him, however, and started to walk the opposite direction to meet her friend and congratulate Lady Eagleton on such an excellent concert for the evening.
* * *
“Mr. Jamison would be happy to oblige, I am sure,” Lady Sophia said, standing on her toes and saying the name loud enough to get the gentleman’s attention.
* * *
He had been standing quite awkwardly waiting for a moment for the other guests to dissipate from their seats a row in front of the duke.
* * *
Raven had not spoken to Mr. Jamison beyond the initial introductions of the night. He knew that Jamison was the son of the Earl of Hawthorne and planning to enter employment as a clergyman. His older brother had already assumed their father’s title upon his death two winters back.
* * *
“I would be more than happy to join your party, Lady Sophia,” Mr. Jamison said with another awkward bow and darting glance at Lady Williamina who was coming to join her sister’s side.
* * *
Though Williamina was older than Sophia, it seemed to Raven that she took most of her moves from her youngest and vastly more outspoken sister.
* * *
<
br /> “I must confess,” Mr. Jamison continued with a snort of a joke no one else understood, “I am not the best at such things. Perhaps it is why I am destined for the cloth.”
* * *
“Do not fear Mr. Jamison, Williamina is not at all very well at it herself. I suppose it will be up to you and me, Your Grace, to keep the game lively,” Lady Sophia said with a flirtatious tone.
* * *
Raven did his best to smile politely back to her slightly racy comments for a girl of her age. Together the four of them sat at a small table where cards were already stacked anticipating such an occurrence.
* * *
It had been some time since Raven sat down to a game of cards and it took him a minute to remember the games that Lady Sophia was proposing they play. Quickly it all came back to him, perhaps with the aid of being in a familiar place repeating actions from his youth. He had sat at this very table many years before playing card games with Charles Jr. and even Lord Eagleton’s youngest son, Fredrick. From time to time they had also bet money on such games, though his aunt frowned on the act gravely.
* * *
It was no surprise to any at the table when Lady Sophia won the first match. She was turning out to have quite a competitive streak within her. As the excitement mounted with the end of the game, she forgot herself and let her passion of winning run free.
* * *
Though it was nothing like Lady Alexandra’s disposition, he couldn’t help but see some of her in the young girl. It was that same attitude of forgetting oneself and letting all walls slide away to expose the delicate insides.
* * *
After the third game of Lady Sophia’s winning, and commenting on Lady Williamina’s mistakes all the while, the game was beginning to lose any sort of fun.
* * *
During the third match, Mr. Jamison brought up a particular novel of sermons he found quite intriguing. Either Williamina agreed in interest or was just desperate to leave the game with her condescending younger sister. Either way, with the completion of the game, Mr. Jamison offered to show Williamina some passages as he had brought his copy with him. In case a reading was asked for, as the gentleman explained to the small group.
* * *
Williamina eagerly agreed, and the two were up from the table faster than Lady Sophia could protest. She looked at the duke somewhat expectant that he might stay for this moment of private interloping between the two.
* * *
“If you will excuse me,” Raven said, quickly coming to stand. “I have been meaning to try some of Lord Eagleton’s port he recently acquired. Thank you for the lovely game Lady Sophia,” he added quickly, though little heart was felt in the words.
* * *
Lady Sophia stammered for just a moment, not sure, for once, what to say. She was disappointed to see him go as she was sure they were making a great connection. None the less, she gave a flash of her most charming smile and bade the duke farewell.
* * *
Raven had no intention of finding Lord Eagleton or sampling his port. Not only was Eagleton still serving the same beverages since his childhood, Raven had never actually acquired much of a taste for the after-dinner drink.
* * *
Instead Raven quickly scanned the room with one target in mind. He had spent these last days thinking of no one else but Lady Alexandra, and he was determined not to leave this night until he found a moment to speak with her.
* * *
To Raven’s surprise, when his eyes fell on the lady, she was already looking back at him. She was standing in the far corner of the room having a chat with Lady Eagleton and Lady Hawthorne.
* * *
He found it a bit strange that Lady Alexandra always found her way to sit with the married women of the parties and not with the other single ladies like herself. Though it was a small party, he could already see two such groups of single ladies gathered together and mingling.
* * *
Instead, Lady Alexandra always seemed to find her place with the matrons. He wondered what value she could see in their conversations. Surely, they must spend all their time talking about keeping house and the arduous duties of a married woman.
* * *
It was in that moment that Raven realized that, of course, Lady Alexandra would gravitate to those types of friends. It was, after all, the life she already led in her own home.
* * *
Raven had never really had a desire to go on the South African excursion he used earlier as an excuse to help the lady out. It would have been a fantastic adventure he was sure of that fact.
* * *
Perhaps before he would have been too enticed by the novelty and the danger to let such an opportunity pass him by. Now he saw that his greatest adventure was lying ahead of him; not to tame the wild beasts of Africa but instead to master the willful and determined spirit of Lady Alexandra Woodley into allowing him to be in her life.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lady Alexandra had a fitful night of rest despite her exhaustion. All she could think about was the Duke of Raven. The way he always seemed to draw her in, even from the other side of the room.
* * *
She would have liked to think him rude for continually staring at her through the night's dinner at the Eagleton’s. She couldn’t, however, as she found herself doing the very same thing.
* * *
It was almost as if without her realizing it, her body was in heightened awareness with his presence. She seemed to be always in need of knowing where he was just as he was for her that night.
* * *
It was making her feelings tangle up within her. Clearly, Raven's fascination had little to do with the feelings she was experiencing and more to do with morbid entertainment. To make matters worse, her sisters certainly didn’t disappoint that night.
* * *
At first, Lady Alexandra had been so proud of Lady Williamina as she exercised her piano abilities. Lady Alexandra knew that was something that Williamina had endeavored to improve almost incessantly.
* * *
Then there was that wretched card game right after. If it had been at all in her power, she would have kept Lady Sophia as far away from the duke as was possible that night. Sophia was the biggest wild card of them all.
* * *
She still had the vigor of her youth without the weight of dignity that comes when a young woman is of marriageable age. Worse than that she seemed to share Lady Alexandra’s loose tongue.
* * *
Perhaps Lady Alexandra should have been stricter with her younger sister in that regard. It was more than just the fact that Sophia was the baby, and also the one who lived almost her whole life without their mother, that kept Lady Alexandra from reprimanding Sophia’s wild declarations without consideration for the consequences. Lady Alexandra was just the same.
* * *
Of course, she had tempered that, or at least endeavored to temper that less desirable trait. It was impossible for Lady Alexandra to scold her sister for something she, herself, wasn’t able to control.
* * *
None the less, Lady Alexandra had wished she had done a better job as the night at the Eagleton’s unfolded. Lady Sophia had been more than just loose in her lips; she had been a spectacle. Twice she had cheered so loud at winning that it interrupted the whole room of their conversation.
* * *
More than that, the way she freely scolded Williamina for any poor choice she made in the game lead several of the older ladies to consider that respect for one’s elders was not instilled in the Woodley household.
* * *
She had caused a scene for the whole group to behold not just the duke at Sophia’s side. Though she hadn’t spared him any flirtatious glances, Lady Alexandra had to comprise all her strength not to go to that card table and remove Sophia. What a spectacle that would have been.
* * *
By the time light started to enter the room th
at the four sisters had shared, Lady Alexandra surmised that she would not be getting any rest that night and quietly got out of bed without disturbing Josephine.
* * *
She dressed quickly into a cream-colored morning dress before slipping downstairs to the drawing room.
* * *