Page 4 of One Perfect Dance
“No.” Her mother’s refusal to add Elijah to the guest list was immediate and firm. “He is not of our class.”
“We played together when I was a child, Mama. You thought him acceptable then.”
“That was before his mother stooped to taking in boarders after her husband died. Ashby would have turned over in his grave, Regina. He may have been the younger son of a younger son, and estranged from his family, but at least he did not shame his cousin, the earl, by working for a living.”
Regina privately thought that, if Mr. Ashby had worked for a living, his widow might not have had to take in boarders, but there was no point in saying that to her mother.
“You told me I could choose five people to invite,” she pointed out. “Mr. Ashby is the only person I know in London who is not already invited.”
“Quite apart from his mother’s behavior in taking in lodgers and then compounding the error by marrying one of them—and him the fiend who spread rumors about… Well, enough about that. The Ashby boy’s bloodlines are no more than respectable, and he has no influential friends at all, let only money or family connections.”
“Not every gentleman at the ball will be a marriage prospect, Mama. Some of the guests are already married. And some are far too young to consider marriage.”
“The little princess has you there.” Papa had been ignoring the conversation in favor of his dinner, but both ladies shut their mouths when he spoke, to listen to whatever wisdom he had to offer. “I will tell you what, Lady Kingsley, Regina. I will find out Ashby’s current circumstances and address, and I will let you know what I find. If he is respectable…If, I say, Regina. Then you may send him an invitation. You may not, however, encourage any attention from him unless he has come into the possession of a fortune since we last met.” He laughed at his own joke.
He was, however, as good as his word, telling his ladies at dinner the following night, “Ashby is working as a servant to his stepfather.”
“That is the end of that, then,” said Mama, with some satisfaction, although she added, “Though it is sad to see an earl’s great-grandson come to such a pass. Just what I would have expected from that horrible Deffew person.”
“Not so fast, Lady Kingsley,” said Papa, before Regina could begin to be disappointed. “I am happy for the boy to be invited. It will please Regina, and she is too good a daughter, and has too much wit, to allow her head to be turned.”
Mama, of course, subsided. “As you wish, Lord Kingsley.”
Regina was certain this was not her mother’s last word, and sure enough, she heard the rest of the discussion later that evening, when she came back downstairs on the pretext of fetching the book she had deliberately left in the drawing room.
Waiting outside the door, she heard her mother say, “…anyone associated with that dreadful man.”
Her father chuckled. “Actually, Lady Kingsley, from what I understand, no one will be more upset about Elijah receiving an invitation than Major Deffew. Can you believe that the man had the unmitigated gall to approach me at my club, and ask if his sons could be invited? To show there were no hard feelings over what he called someunfortunate suggestions on his part that were taken the wrong way? I’ll give him hard feelings.”
Mama was not satisfied. “But, Lord Kingsley, you agreed with my decision to restrict Regina’s activities when she was ten, so she no longer met that boy. And from what you were told, he has fallen even further.”
“Young Ashby is about to rise again, Lady Kingsley. What if I were to tell you I have it on good authority he has taken a position as secretary to the fourth son of the Duke of Dellborough? And since they plan to leave England for several years the day after the ball, you need have no fear he is a threat to your hopes for our little princess. I see no harm in letting her have her way in this invitation business.”
Regina crept away. She would write the invitation tonight. Yes, and a letter to go with it. It would give her something to do between now and when her parents went to bed, and she could go down again to fetch her book.
That had been four days ago. Today, she received a note in reply. Elijah was coming to her ball. She could hardly wait.
*
On the dayof his emancipation, Elijah rose before dawn, as usual, washed in cold water, dressed, and went downstairs. That was the end of similarities between this day and every other day for the past four years.
In a satchel over his shoulder, he carried every possession he counted as his own, except for those that he had already transferred to his trunk at the vicarage. For the last time, he used the servant stairs to descend to the basement. When he walked through the kitchen, only the kitchen maid was awake. The girl was stoking the fire to have it ready for Cook when she came downstairs.
“Tell Cook I will not be eating here this morning,” Elijah told her, and let himself out the back door.
A brisk fifteen-minute walk brought him to the vicarage, where he joined the vicar for a hearty breakfast, but only after he had changed into his new clothes.
He had a great deal to accomplish today. This afternoon, he was meeting his new employer at the ship that would take them abroad. They were sleeping on the ship overnight, for it would depart on the tide first thing tomorrow morning.
“I’ll do my shopping first, then meet you back here,” he told the vicar.
Elijah had a few things to purchase from the list Lord Arthur had sent a couple of days ago, and he intended to get a professional haircut. He had been cutting his own hair since his mother grew too weak to wield the scissors. Those errands would take half the morning.
He also wanted to tell his stepfather to his face that he was leaving. He had thought about leaving a note, or simply walking out with no word. However, he could not resist the chance to see Major Defect’s face, and, better still, the faces of Dilly and Mouth. If they had failed to make Elijah’s life miserable for the past six years, it was not for want of trying.
The vicar insisted on going with him to the Deffew household, which was probably a good idea. Major Defect had no grounds on which to stop Elijah from leaving, but that did not necessarily mean he would not try.
Elijah was both nervous and exultant when he and the vicar knocked on the Deffew front door. Elijah had not used this entry to the house since his mother died, and rarely while she was still alive.
