Page 27 of The Trials of Alaric
Beverley’s next strike—his prize for the roquet—sent his ball soaring through the hoop, making him the first to complete that run, and he lounged against the wall out of sight waiting for the others, with Howard coming last.
Beverley made two more roquets in the next run, even though the second one, on Fairweather’s ball, was mere spleen, since it didn’t win him an advantage. Quite the contrary, since the partnership of Fairweather and Miss Howard teamed up to roquet him in return. This time, Beverley and Bea were the last two to complete the run, since the other pair targeted her ball, as well.
“Beverley has good mallet skills,” said Miss Bryant, “but he is not a good player. He is not working in concert with his partner. He has forgotten that, in pairs’ play, the overall score is what counts.”
“Also,” Miss Radcliffe commented, “the second roquet in that run was not necessary, and Fairweather and Miss Howard have punished him for it. And poor Bea, too, whose only fault was being assigned as his partner.” Alaric could only agree. Again, he wondered what this trial tested. It would be interesting to see what Lord Claddagh revealed.
Chapter Eleven
In the nexttwo runs, Beverley fought back with vicious roquets aimed simply at disrupting one or the other of the two who had declared against them. They responded, and Bea ignored all three of them and simply played on.
At the end of the set, Beverley stormed out of the alley, and was not seen again for the rest of the day. The other seven players came up to the benches. Alaric and the others playing the second set made their way down the steps at the side of the slope to take their places in the alley.
There were three pairs in this set rather than four, and so the runs went more quickly. It took Alaric most of the first run to relearn how to hit the ball at the right spot and with the right amount of force to send it where he wanted it to go. After that, he made three tries at strikes that would lift the ball through the hoop.
In the next three runs, he improved by leaps and bounds. He finished the third run in fourth place, and the fourth in second, behind Miss Bryant, his partner.
In the fifth, he was blocked in. He had one more strike before he was within range of the ring, but Dashwood’s turn came after Alaric’s, and his ball landed just a few inches from Alaric’s and between Alaric and the ring. Alaric would have to jump his ball over Dashwood’s, and would not make the ground he needed to finish in two strikes.
He needn’t have worried, since Miss Bryant, when it came to her turn, roqueted Dashwood’s ball from Alaric’s path, leaving her own ball neatly positioned for a second strike which took her through the ring. “Well played, Miss Bryant!” he commended her as he took his turn. “I’m thankful Lady Claddagh paired us together.”
Miss Bryant and Alaric finished the fifth run first and second. They waited and watched while the others finished and then waited some more while Lord Lewiston and Lord Claddach consulted with the servants who had been counting strikes. The other players came down from the benches to listen to the verdict.
Alaric and Miss Bryant were the third of the top four pairs, so they were up again. Alaric was dry, though, after the previous set. He was pleased to see footmen with jugs of cider and glasses.
Bea was playing, too, but not with Beverley. Their partnership had come in fourth equal with another pair, and the highest scoring partner in each pair went through into the third set.
It was a hard-fought but fast-paced set. Each pair worked as a team, clearing way for the other when necessary. Nobody bothered with revenge roquets, focusing their effort instead on getting their balls through the rings in as few strikes as possible.
Alaric had one horrid moment when Miss Bryant needed him to clear Bea’s ball from her way. He met Bea’s eyes but could read nothing in her face. With a gulp, he accepted that the game required him to honor his partnership with Miss Bryant. He knocked Bea’s ball to the side of the alley and cast Bea an anguished glance. She smiled in return.
To his astonishment, when the winners were announced, Alaric and Miss Bryant had the lowest point count. They had won.
*
Bea hoped thatpartnering Beverley for one set would satisfy her father. She certainly did not need any more time to confirm her opinion that Beverley would make a terrible husband for her and a dreadful lord for Claddach.
She decided she had had quite enough of suitors for the afternoon. A quiet voice inside her suggested that she’d make an exception for Alaric, but since her agreement with her father made time with him impossible, she would check the ballroom.
Her mother and father were hosting a dinner party after the fête, and dinner would be followed by dancing. Bea was in charge of the preparations.
In the ballroom, a team of servants was cleaning under the direction of the housekeeper. She saw Bea arrive and came to report. “The flowers and greenery are in buckets in the corner, my lady. We shall put them out in pots at the last minute. We have set the green withdrawing room up for cards, and the cupid room for supper. The musician’s gallery is furnished with chairs and music stands. As soon as we have finished cleaning this room, we shall put up the cloth drops and set out the furniture—chairs and small tables in conversation groups at this end of the room, as you requested, and chairs around the space left for dancing at the other end.”
The drop cloths, which Bea and the other lady guests had painted during the first week of the house party, showed garden scenes. There would be one behind each conversation group, with large tubs of flowers and greenery framing the base of each cloth.
Bea looked along the room to the musician’s gallery at the far end. And froze. Didn’t the carving around the gallery include roses? She would have to wait to confirm her memory. The housekeeper was keen to show her the preparations so far, andBea allowed herself to be conducted through the games and supper room and the ladies’ withdrawing room, which was being set up in a parlor a few doors away from the ballroom.
Once she had expressed her appreciation and thanks, she said, “I will just, if you have no objection, walk around a little more. If that will not disturb the preparations?” The housekeeper waved away her concern and Bea was free to check her supposition.
They had finished the cleaning while she had been busy with the housekeeper and were now putting up the first of the painted drops. Bea drifted to the far end of the ballroom, trying to look as if she had no particular destination. The musician’s gallery was lit by only a single small window, and the ceiling was lost in shadow. But she had a clear view of the wooden paneling that rose the full height of the ballroom at this end of the room.
From the other end of the ballroom, she had not been able to clearly see the ornately carved pillars that rose from the ballroom floor on both sides of the gallery, but here they were. Roses. A beautifully carved climbing rose, leaves, vine, and flowers winding up the pillar to arch across the top of the gallery.
Better, if she did not mistake the matter, the ceiling of the gallery was painted with a moon and stars—a silver moon and golden stars.
She would check, but first she would examine the carved panels that fronted the gallery’s balustrade. The sun was setting, and soon there would not be enough light to make them out.
There were four of them, and the rose appeared on them all. A man and a woman—both very young. In the first, they were dancing. The second showed the same couple in an embrace on a balcony. The next scene was one of farewell. The girl was waving from the balcony on one side of the panel, and in the distance, someone rode away. In the final panel, the girl lay apparently dead, surrounded by roses. After a few moments’thought, she identified the Shakespearean play from which they came.Romeo and Juliet.
