Once Upon a Romance 01 - Before the Midnight Bells (26 page)

Ella didn’t even notice when the valet slipped out.

Maybe his family owned land and he was out in the countryside during the week. Maybe there were unseasonal rains causing flooding in all their pastures, and Max was even now wading around, rescuing lambs from drowning. Maybe he was hunting down a rabid dog that was ravaging the flocks.

That was ridiculous. They hadn’t even had a thunderstorm in weeks, and shepherds were perfectly good at hunting rabid dogs without involving a city boy. Ella shook her head impatiently. If she was going to dream up excuses she should at least make them plausible.

She picked the Kairon headpiece up and returned to securing the snake. The problem with refusing to be ridiculous was that none of her reasonable explanations were… good. He could be a second son, and dedicated to the priesthood. That would make their previous night together not only a
very
bad idea but also a mortal sin. At least on his part. He could be the heir to some impoverished fiefdom, and therefore obligated to find a wealthy heiress to marry. That would leave out the mortal sin issue, but it was hardly better as far as Ella was concerned. He could be already married…

At that thought Ella’s needle slipped and gashed her finger. When she jerked her hand away she lost her grip on the headpiece and it crashed to the floor, shattering the ceramic asp. Ella looked in horror at the ruined snake. It was a costly item that would need to be replaced, and Ella had neither the time nor the money to spare. As she ran to fetch the broom, Ella scolded herself. Max was a distraction she could not afford right now.

***

The Emberton household was awash in a sea of excitement. Mr. Binkley had called on Prudence
twice
the day before, and Sir Henry was practically living in their parlor. Ella had been privy to one of his many conversations with her stepmother.

“
Milly, have you ever considered a life on the sea?”

“
Why no, Sir Henry, I always thought my place was on land.” Millicent fluttered her lashes coquettishly.

“
Oh you’d love it, Milly. Traveling from port to port, always in a new place, with new people. You could learn dance steps from the Cast
il
lians, and new-fangled cookery from the Chins.”

“
I’d rather see the latest fashions from Toldas.”

“
You know, Milly, I spend most of my time here in Albion these days, but I get a hankering for the wide open ocean. Someday I might sail to Toldas.”

“
Perhaps you could tell me all about it, when you return.” She sounded a bit sad.

Sir Henry moved closer on the couch, clasping Millicent’s hands in a lover-like embrace. “I was thinking you could come with me, Milly, and see it for yourself.

“
Oh, Henry!” Ella chose the moment of that rapturous exclamation to excuse herself, but not before she saw Sir Henry take Millicent’s plump body into his large, beefy arms.

Beatrice, chatting with Ella
later
while the other two ladies were off swooning with their swains, remarked that it seemed as though engagement fever had hit the kingdom. No less than seven of her card playing friends had stopped by to settle up their debts, and each and every one of them had asked her to go walking, driving, or riding with them.

“
Which one are you going with?” Ella had asked. Beatrice had laughed at her.

“
All of them, of course!”

So, as the week passed, Beatrice gallivanted here and there with half the well born young men in the kingdom. Prudence drew sketches of little red
-
headed girls in pink dresses, and Millicent went around singing sea shanties softly to herself. Ella just worked in her attic. Her concentration wasn’t what it ought to have been; she would suddenly come to realize she had been staring at the fresh crack in the plaster for several minutes, ruminating on how it got there. All of her work took longer than planned, because she couldn’t focus on what she was doing.

Ella tried resolutely to quash her fears, but they kept returning. She had been foolish to… to… to crack the plaster with him before he had revealed more about himself. Perhaps he had ruined numerous women. Perhaps he told all of them they were wonderful. Perhaps he was a nefarious seducer of seamstresses…

Ella shook her head in impatience. Her thoughts were ridiculous and useless. There was a lot she didn’t know about him—too much, really—but she could only trust that what he
had
told her, while not overly revealing, was at least the truth. Speculating on what it might be that he had
not
told her was pointless.
It only wasted time she didn’t have
.

Her work load this week had been impossible. For the Nobles’ Ball everyone’s costumes had to be ornate and opulent, which translated into hours and hours of detail work. Also, thanks to the fervent endorsements of Mrs. Minglesall and Madam Fire Hair, Ella had even more patrons requesting costumes. She couldn’t turn them down; she had almost enough money to pay the first payment due on the mortgage, but there were still so many other accounts to settle, and the second payment would be upon her before she knew it. No, she
had
to take as many customers as she could. And with her distraction over Max, she’d made an unconscionable number of errors this week, setting her back even further in time.

On the night of the ball she was frantically
finishing the hem on Prudence’s gossamer gown
, holding back her tears as she sewed. She desperately wanted to see Max.
Needed
to see Max. But it wasn’t going to happen. All week she had fretted and sewed, and now her time had run out. To her great regret and sorrow Ella would not be attending the final ball. She couldn’t. She didn’t have a costume.

She worried that if she didn’t attend, Max would take that as some sort of sign that she didn’t want to see him. Even worse, if he was going to avoid her, if he really
was
a cad, this might be her last chance to find him and speak with him. She’d thought and thought, but she didn’t see any way around it. She couldn’t attend without a proper costume, and there was no way she could complete one in the scant hours between now and when her family would leave for the ball; nor did her own wardrobe hold anything even remotely suitable. A few tears fell from her eyes, but she brushed them away. She had to go help her stepmother and stepsisters dress for the ball. She could cry later, where no one could see.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Titania and her court were gathered in the parlor. Millicent made an extremely stout Fairy Queen, but at least she matched well with the hearty Oberon presented by Sir Henry. With Puck in the form of Mr. Binkley and two attendant fairy maids in her daughters, it was quite the regal assemblage for the Nobles’ Ball. Titania, Oberon, Puck, and one blushing fairy maiden were all bundling up for the ride in Sir Henry’s barouche, while the other buxom pixie hovered at the bottom of the stairs.

“
Ella! Hurry up! We’re leaving!”

Ella came slowly down the stairs with a tin of glitter in one hand. She sprinkled a final dusting on both fairy maidens and Titania, and then stood back.

“
There, I pronounce you perfect.”

Both girls beamed, and kissed their stepsister goodbye. As the rest of the merry be-winged party traipsed out the door, Millicent hung back.

“
Darling, isn’t there any way you can come? Beatrice hardly needs more suitors, you could wear her…”

“
No, Stepmother,” Ella interrupted gently, “I made Beatrice’s costume for her to wear and enjoy herself. She shouldn’t have to stay home because I ran out of time to make one for myself.” Ella discreetly didn’t say that there was no way she could have made the dress fit herself. “Go to the ball and have fun. Tomorrow you can tell me all about it, and it will be almost like I was there myself.”

Millicent gave her a smile, but Ella could see she wasn’t fooled. She hoped her stepmother would go before she broke down and cried. Almost as if she’d read her thoughts, Millicent reach up and gave Ella a gentle pat on the cheek, and then left, closing the door behind her.

Ella sat down on the stairs and leaned her head against the railing. A tear ran down her face, followed quickly by another. She got up and ran up the stairs, fleeing her feelings, but the tears kept pace with her. By the time she reached her workroom she was crying in earnest, and she slumped to the floor. She wanted to go to the ball. She wanted to find Max. She wanted to knock him down and
sit
on him until he told her his giant, mysterious secret. She banged her fists into the floor and sobbed. She was so wrapped up in her misery that she never heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

“
I see I arrived not a moment too soon.”

“
Godmother!” Ella tried to check her sobs. “What are you doing here?”

“
What a question, Ella! I came to see you, of course.”

“
But, Godmother, you
never
come here.” She scrubbed furiously at her face, drying her eyes, trying to wipe all evidence of her recent bout of self
pity away.

“
Well, darling girl, desperate times call for desperate measures. And I would most definitely call these desperate times.” Dame Merriweather looked around the room, her gaze lingering on the work table and the wall, and Ella turned a fiery red. She didn’t know how, but she was certain her Godmother knew that she and Max had been here, together, and Ella was mortified. “Now, now, don’t look that way, child. I was young once myself, although you wouldn’t know it to see me now. I’m not here to chastise you. We just need to talk.” Dame Merriweather settled herself on Ella’s work stool, resting her hands on her walking stick. Her eyes, as they focused on Ella, were full of worry, with a good helping of compassion and just a touch of humor thrown in. “And by
we
, I of course mean
you
. So talk. Tell me what has possessed my normally practical Ella.”

“
Well, I… that is, I’ve been spending time… I mean…” All attempts to explain herself suddenly seemed inadequate. Her eyes filled once more with tears, and she sank to the floor at her Godmother’s feet, resting her head in the elegant lap. Her voice came out in a whisper, “I can’t seem to help myself.”