Once Upon a Romance 01 - Before the Midnight Bells (31 page)

Seamstress Ella, nabbed the fella

Made the princess give a yell-
a
h

Vivi ran when she lost her man

That was evil Ella’s plan…

Ella shut her door again and leaned her head against it. Tears ran down her face as she faced Max, and her voice was ragged, no longer with anger, now just with a deep pain.

“
The whole kingdom knows,
knows
, mind you, that I am a foul temptress who tried to seduce you away from the princess. What can you do to help? If you speak out on my behalf or keep company with me, it will only make things worse. I can stand being barred from polite society; it was never really a thing I loved to begin with. But my shop…” She stopped, and looked around helplessly. “This dream is done for. I will never be able to support my family now. And, oh irony of ironies, the option I did everything to avoid—that I marry some man just because he could afford to support me—is also no longer available. No man will want to take on the burden of a wife reviled by the whole kingdom.” She took a deep breath, and then kept going. “You cannot help me. The only way you could have helped me was to tell me the truth from the beginning, so that I could have kept my heart whole, and my life together.”

“
Ella,” Max stepped towards her, but she backed away, “I never meant to hurt you.”

“
I believe you. Now believe me when I tell you that the best thing you can do for me is pay and get out.”

Max stared at her a long moment. Her eyes welled with tears, but he saw no hesitance, no weakening, no chance that she would take those words back. So he opened his purse and emptied it on the counter. Then he bowed low and dropped the parcel he had carried next to the pile of money, and left without looking back.

As the door swung shut Ella caught the sound of the children beginning the second verse of that hated ditty. Gritting her teeth in frustration she opened the bag Max had left on the counter. Inside were her slippers from the night of the ball. Max must have gone back for them; he had dropped them in the maze when he’d kissed her.

Kissed her for the very last time.

Ella sat back down at the counter and cried like a child.

***

Max sat in his study, drinking brandy. He been drinking brandy for several hours, but he could still remember the look on Ella’s face when she described the shambles he had made of her life, so obviously he hadn’t drunk enough. Perhaps if he managed to imbibe the entire contents of his cellar he’d be able to forget that he ruined her; carelessly, thoughtlessly ruined her. Then again, perhaps not. He barely noticed his butler entering.

“
My lord, you have a visitor.”

“
Send whoever it is away. I’m not receiving.”

“
My lord, I cannot.”

“
You cannot?”

“
No, my lord.”

“
Mayhew, you have always been an exemplary butler.”

“
Thank you, my lord.”

“
Really smashing.”

“
I appreciate it, my lord.”

“
Which is why I haven’t sacked you on the spot for telling me you
can’t
send someone away.”

“
My lord?”

“
It seems like it’s one of the basic functions of butlers, isn’t it? Maybe first is letting people in, but then next is sending them away, am I right?”

“
Perhaps I could bring you some tea, my lord, before showing her in.”

“
Her?
”

“
Yes, my lord.”

“
Mayhew, perhaps you could tell me
who
this visitor is, that is so special she cannot be sent away.”

“
Dame Fae Merriweather, my lord.”

Almost before Mayhew had finished speaking Max was out of his arm chair and running for the door. As he dashed into the hallway he heard Mayhew dutifully calling after him.

“
In the morning room, my lord.”

“
Thank you, Mayhew!”

“
I’ll be in directly with some tea.”

***

Dame Merriweather stood gazing through one of the large picture windows that faced his drive. She continued her perusal of his front lawns as he checked his mad forward motion and approached her at a more sedate pace. As he opened his mouth to greet her, she spoke.

“
Well, my boy, you’ve made a dog’s breakfast out of this whole affair, haven’t you?”

“
I didn’t realize you so greatly objected to well-trimmed grass and a small duck pond, Madam.” Max’s voice was tense, but blast it all, he was tired of being told how vastly he had erred. Even if he had.

“
Oh, how clever. Yes, you have quite the clever tongue. A pity you used it to woo my Goddaughter, since you don’t seem to have a clever brain to go along with it.” The Dame used a mild tone. Her words were quite sharp enough, no matter how pleasant her voice remained. Oddly, Max felt his irritation draining from him. After all, she was right, wasn’t she?

“
Madam, if you’ve come to make sure I feel adequately wretched, I assure you, I do.” That drew her attention from the window. She looked at him, face in perfect repose but for one eyebrow, which arched alarmingly high on her brow. “Nothing you could say to me would be worse than what I have said to myself. It doesn’t matter that all I wanted was to help my friend. Nor does it matter that I kept company with Ella because, after meeting her, I found I couldn’t stay away. I have discovered, far too late, that I should have chained myself in my own cellar if that was the only alternative to bringing
us to
this particular pass. I am, as you say, an idiot. Although idiot hardly covers it.”

Max’s voice had risen in agitation. Closing his eyes he brought himself under control, and then whispered the truth aloud. “I am an idiot who loves your Goddaughter. And I have ruined all her hopes with my thoughtless actions. So you see,” he opened his eyes, and looked at the Dame with an agonized countenance, “I do not need your words to make me miserable. I am already quite miserable enough.”

Max flopped onto his sofa. Closing his eyes and letting his head fall back he waited to hear the sounds that would signal that Dame Merriweather was taking her leave. Instead her heard a gentle rustle, as she settled on to the sofa next to him.

“
So, you love my Ella, do you?”

“
Rather more than I intended, Madam.”

“
Does she love you, do you think?”

“
At the moment I am assured that she despises me.”

“
Been to see her, have you?”

“
Been to see her, been properly flayed by her, been thrown out by her… yes.”

“
Ah.” Dame Merriweather chuckled, an unexpected sound for Max. “You give up too easily, my boy.”

His eyes popped open. “Come again?”

“
Never yet has there been a woman who allowed her heart to be broken by someone she
didn’t
care for.”

Max sat up. “What?”

“
If I were in your position, not that I would ever be so foolish as to get in the position in the first place, mind you… I would think of a way to set things to rights with someone
I
loved.”

Max was staring at her, eye
s
wide with hope, but brain fogged with brandy. “I…uh…I…”

“
Never mind, I’m not sure you’re smart enough to deserve my Goddaughter.”

“
Wait, wait, I’m not stupid, I’m just dead drunk.”

Dame Merriweather gave him a skeptical look. As well she might. Dead drunk was hardly a sterling recommendation. Although, perhaps, if the alternative was real idiocy… Max shook his head. He wasn’t focusing properly.

“
What you’re saying…” he forced his mind to churn out a logical statement, “is that I should set things right.”

Dame Merriweather beamed at him. “Mmmm… well, at least you’re trainable, if not overly bright.”

“
Hang on, hang on, let’s review the situation.”

“
A decent proposition, if you believe you can manage it.”

“
Well, I am currently in severe disfavor with the king. He has refrained from levying an actual punishment, because he, much like yourself, thinks I am just an idiot.”

“
Always knew our monarch was an astute fellow. Go on.”

“
I am in a great deal of trouble with Ella, mostly because I have destroyed her reputation and ruined any hopes of her garnering clientele or settling her family’s debts. Also possibly a little bit because I failed to tell her a few things.”

“
I think the word is ‘lied’ boy.”

“
Don’t distract me with your adherence to the facts, Madam.”

“
Sorry, pray continue.”

“
Vivienne should be half way to her mother’s kingdom by now, and if that’s the case…”

Max trailed off. Dame Merriweather waited for him to resume, but he was lost in thought.

“
You were doing so well, boy, don’t stop now.”

“
I’m a little afraid of where I was leading.”

“
I should think so, it’s a terrifying idea.”

Max looked at his caller. She knew. Somehow this canny old woman was looking inside his head. How? Max shook his head. A thought for another time, perhaps.

“
My father’s going to be very angry.”

“
Your father? Worry about him later, boy—the
king
is going to be furious.”

“
Any ideas on how to avoid banishment, beheading, or good old-fashioned incarceration?”

Dame Merriweather cocked her head to one side, as though assessing him. Max got the distinct impression that whatever decision she made would be important, and he tried to fill his mind with noble thoughts and purpose. Instead it just filled with thoughts of Ella. Ella laughing at the peers of the realm in their finery, Ella working at her counter, Ella dancing in his arms; and yes, Ella kissing him, touching him, melting with him. He couldn’t suppress the memory of his night with her in the attic, and watching the Dame, he knew she somehow could see his every thought. He held himself rigid, waiting for her response.