Page 6 of Her Notorious Rake
“I’m afraid not. And I don’t rest,” Philippa called. And then she was gone, the carriage rolling out of sight.
But the night dragged on. Gemma and Iris taking their usual spots in front of the fire. Gemma wondered if she would crawl out of her skin. She sprang to her feet, the chair nearly toppling behind her. “What letters? What letters has Aunt Philippa been sending to me? And why are you hiding them from me?”
Iris’s eyes flooded with tears. “I was simply attempting to do the right thing for you.” She lowered her head, as if ashamed. Gemma closed her eyes, trying to keep her temper tamped down. “What has she been writing you about?”
“I don’t know,” Iris wept.
“Where are they?”
“Burnt.”
“So you did burn them,” Gemma cried. She sprang to her feet and rushed out of the room, up the stairs, and finally into her bedroom, where she sank onto her favorite window seat to once again search for the Lyra constellation in the tangle of stars above her. Regardless of her mother’s intentions, Gemma couldn’t believe she’d been lied to all this time. She had once told Gemma that Aunt Philippa had never wanted to see them again, that she wanted nothing to do with them. And yet, was that all just a fib?
She closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing, waiting for a cool breeze to brush through the window and relieve her warm skin. It was early spring, but today was unseasonablywarm.
And then Gemma sat up, wild-eyed. A slow smile spread across her face and she drank in the sweet, jasmine infused air.I could at last be a London debut. And if I find a wealthy husband, there will be no place for the vicar.
Chapter 3
“Tonight’s ball will be essential in establishing your foothold in this season’s marriage mart,” Aunt Philippa drawled as she circled around Gemma. “And that means perfection. If you can help it, do not rattle on about novels, or the opera. Or anything else, for that matter. Let everything you say leave them wantingmore.”
Already, Gemma wondered if she’d just traded in one matchmaking aficionado with another. She straightened her back, lifting her chin and hoping she wouldn’t do anything to earn her aunt’s censure tonight. Though she probably would.
At her feet, Udolpho arched his back, purring loudly.
“I still don’t know what you find charming about that mangy little thing,” Aunt Philippa sighed.
“Udolpho,” Gemma picked the cat up, placing a kiss on his forehead, “Udolpho is my companion. I simply couldn’t leave him in Willow Grove. Mama doesn’t understand him.”
Aunt Philippa raised an eyebrow, and did not return Gemma’s grin. “Put him down, and show me your walk.”
Gemma sighed and put down Udolpho, and began to promenade across the bedroom, doing her best to balance in her uncomfortable shoes.
“That will suffice, I suppose.”
“How many people will be in attendance?”
Aunt Philippa gave her dress a tug, causing Gemma to gasp. “Everyone who matters in London society. I am very well connected. Now, let Rose arrange your hair and put on the finishing touches. I’m going to see how everything is coming along downstairs.”
Gemma sighed with relief when her Aunt Philippa sweptout, the very epitome of pomp and circumstance. Rose, the chatty young maid her aunt assigned her, hurried over and began to work on Gemma’s dark hair, arranging it in a becoming style, curling the tendrils around Gemma’s temples and cheeks for embellishment. She nestled brilliants in the coil atop Gemma’s head, and proceeded to apply the slightest bit of colour and touch of balm on the lips.
Gemma blew out a shaky breath, leaning forward slightly to examine herself, tilting her head this way and that. She’d gotten thinner since arriving in London, and she owed this mostly to nervousness, and busyness. She had already attended a handful of smaller parties with her aunt, but they had been with only her aunt’s closest friends, and a whist party here and there. Other than that, she had yet to truly see the social scene that London had to offer.
Udolpho meowed, nudging his head against Gemma’s leg, and she bent down to gather him in her arms.A ball in my honour. Which meant that she would be the center of attention. Gemma’s stomach twisted and she closed her eyes. “I wish you could come with me, Udolpho,” she whispered. In the mirror reflection, she watched Rose smile softly as she lay out her shawl on the bed.
“You will do very well, Miss,” Rose spoke up in her thick accent.
“I would not be surprised if I tripped on my way down the stairs,” Gemma stood, her legs wobbly.
Rose’s mouth twitched. “I doubt you will, Miss.”
***
“Do stop fidgeting, Gemma,” Aunt Philippa whispered, without even glancing in Gemma’s direction. Gemma straightened at once, locking her arms at her side. She hoped to achieve her aunt’s majestic stance, straight back, a languid wayof looking around, as if nothing in the world could cow her. The first of the guests began to filter into the room, and the reception line began to build.
“This is Duke and Duchess Elmore,” Aunt Philippa began with the first couple, a finely-dressed pair. Lady Elmore wore glistening silk and jewels at her throat that glistened in the candlelight. Both of them studied Gemma closely when Aunt Philippa introduced her, and she might have been a pinned butterfly in a glass case, the way they stared. Too freely, too critically. She wanted to run up to her room and hide in there all of a sudden rather than stay here next to her aunt, and endure an evening full of artifice and scrutinizing. Everything about her first debut came rushing back to her in a dizzying fashion, and her thoughts began to run together.
The last time she’d been at a party like this, in a room like this one, she’d just found out about her father’s failing health. His dark moods had begun to manifest, and he’d started to lock himself away for days upon days.
