Once Upon a Romance 01 - Before the Midnight Bells (32 page)

Dame Merriweather sighed.

“
Well, you’re still not good enough for her. But you do love her, don’t you, boy?” Running a knowing eye over his body she gave a small wicked smile. “And I guess I can see why she likes you.” Like a flash the smile was gone. The Dame cleared her throat and opened up her small reticule.

“
I would suggest that, when you go, you take this along.” She drew forth a small crumpled sheet of paper. Max recognized it.

“
How did you get Vivienne’s note? I looked everywhere for it when they first noticed she was gone.”

“
Yes, yes, and if you’d found it you would have handed it over, wouldn’t you?”

“
Well, Vivienne said to give it to her father.”

Max wasn’t sure why the Princess had written the note in the first place. It only said
,
“
Don’t blame Max, none of this is his fault.
”

“
But if you’d given it to him
before,
he would have assumed her Royal Highness was assigning blame to Ella.”

Max furrowed his brow. He’d never thought of that. Perhaps the Dame was right and he wasn’t too bright.

“
Anyway, I think it’s safe for you to regain possession of it now.”

“
Thank you, I suppose.”

“
What, no further questions at to how it came into my hands in the first place?”

“
I’m a little afraid to ask.”

“
Good boy, you’re learning.”

The Dame gathered up her gloves and reticule, clearly intent on taking her leave. Max took a quick step towards her.

“
Wait, after… after this, will you…would you… I mean…”

“
You want me to talk to Ella?” She gave him a piercing look.

“
Would you?”

“
I’m sorry, Max, truly I am.” Dame Merriweather gazed on him with eyes full of sympathy, a little affection, and a great deal of humor. “But have faith. You’ve convinced
me
, and I don’t even like you that much.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-T
WO

For once, the parlor in the Emberton house was immaculate. Ella, deprived of anything else to do, had fallen to house cleaning with a ferocity that surprised her stepmother and stepsisters. Meals were once again composed affairs, and their skirts no longer brushed puffs of dust up everywhere they stepped, but no one much appreciated the change. Ella went about the house work with zeal, but no happiness, and her family found themselves longing for a return of the frantic, busy, happy Ella, who had no time to see to the comforts of home.

All four of the ladies of the house were taking tea. Beatrice, Prudence, and Millicent were all chatting around the fire, discussing possible wedding plans. It was one of their favorite topics, as nothing could really be settled, so they could natter on about it forever. More than one plan had been made for fall, winter, or even spring weddings. At this point they’d discussed flower arrangements so many times that Ella felt like shoving her hands in her ears and singing, just so she didn’t have to hear a serious conversation on the merits of lilies versus roses yet again.

She didn’t, though. She was well aware that it was her fault that the wedding plans couldn’t be finalized. So she let her family talk about daisies and peonies and petunias, and she pretended it didn’t drive her mad, while a cup of tea sat cooling—forgotten—in her hand.

The knock on the front door startled all of them. They hadn’t had an unexpected caller in over two weeks, since the night of the
final
ball. Beatrice and Prudence tripped each other trying to stand up, and Millicent stumbled over both of them. Ella rose, unhurried, and managed to open the door while the other three were all still trying to untangle their skirts. There, on the doorstep, stood Mrs. Pritchett.

“
Oh, Eleanor, dear, I cannot credit it! You must be so relieved!”

“
Why, I… What?”

The question was lost on their neighbor. She had already made a beeline for the parlor and was ensconcing herself in the large, wing-backed chair.

“
I can’t believe you ladies are sitting here so calmly, surely you’ve heard the news?

“
What news?” Millicent and Beatrice spoke in tandem. Plopping themselves down on the sofa they pulled Prudence between them, ready to hear any gossip Mrs. Pritchett wanted to divulge.

“
What news? What news?! I can’t believe you haven’t heard.”

“
Perhaps,” Ella spoke as she settled herself in the window seat, “you might do us the very great favor of telling us.”

“
Well, my dears,” the busybody began, “it seems that this morning, Christopher Wellesley threw himself into the lion’s jaws.
Apparently
he suffered a crisis of conscience…”

Ella listened in a daze.

“
…and he marched right into the audience hall, right in front of the king, and his father, and all the Lords Advisory, and…” the list went on. Ella
los
t track of
the conversation
. Max had gone to the king? What did he say? When was this blathering woman going to tell her
what he said?

“
…I simply cannot credit it! To think that the princess has set out on her
own
through the
mountains
with only her
horse…
” Oh. He’d told about the escape plan. He’d told? That seemed… foolish, to say the least. Max had actually gone and told the king that he’d purposefully defied him and snuck his daughter out of the kingdom? Why? What on earth…

“
… the king said he had thought she ran away because of the shame, and then Lord Wellesley spoke about our Ella, claiming she knew nothing, that she’d just been caught up in his plotting with the princess…” Ella went utterly still, and
ignored
what Mrs. Pritchett was saying. He had told so that everyone would know it wasn’t her fault that Vivienne left. And he had done it in front of the whole court so that word would spread, and the whole kingdom would know. He had told… for her.

“
…and then the guards just dragged him off. I heard they’re talking of banishment.”

Ella’s attention snapped back to the conversation. Banishment? The sudden realization of what this could cost Max came crashing over Ella. She sat, mute and numb, until Mrs. Pritchett left to spread the news. Then tears began to slip down her cheeks, slowly at first, and then faster and faster, until she was huddled over in the window seat, sobbing.

Millicent and the girls flew to her side in a flurry of anxiety. All three had been supportive of her when the kingdom turned against her—they staunchly believed her when she said she’d had no idea of who or what he was. She had never been forthcoming with the details, though, and none of them had any idea of her true feelings.

Until she started crying among the tea remnants.

“
Eleanor, darling, whatever is the matter?” Millicent fluttered her hands.

“
Aren’t you happy, Ella? It sounds like soon everyone will know this wasn’t your fault.” Prudence was down on one knee, patting Ella’s fingers gently.

Beatrice was more direct. “So what, you fancy him, then?”

Ella only answered with a wail. The three women comforted her in a variety of ineffectual ways, until there came, again, a knock at the door. Ella dried her tears and attended to their next guest, Mrs. Geardry, who was determined to tell them the same story, all over again.

So went the afternoon. They had caller after caller, all of whom wanted to bring them the news that Max had spoken out on Ella’s behalf, and been locked away by the king. Ella sat, white
-
faced with horror, as each successive visitor spoke about his possible fate. Some, telling the story, said he would be banished. Some mentioned flogging. The first time execution was mentioned Ella thought she would be sick. She rushed from the room only to slump on the second flight of stairs, sobbing her heart out. Eventually her tears ran dry and, wiping her face, she walked right down the stairs and out the front door. A carriage was waiting, as she had known it would be, and she climbed in and bid the driver to go.

***

The door opened a crack and a guard spoke to Max.

“
Your father is here.”

Max sat up and tried to comb his hair roughly with his fingers. His father hadn’t come to see him yesterday, and Max was starting to worry that he wouldn’t come at all. It was a relief to finally see him, but the look on the Duke’s face wasn’t comforting.

“
Hello, Max.” Duke Nathaniel said it heavily, as though even greeting his son was a huge effort.

“
Sir.”

“
I want you to know, I would have come to visit yesterday, but the king commanded that I organize the search for the princess.”

“
You’ll never find her. She’s on the other side of the mountains by now.”

“
I know, but the king has commanded I send out searchers, and so I do. Now would be a very bad time for
another
Wellesley to defy the king.”

Max hung his head. “I’m sorry, father, I can honestly say it never occurred to me that you might be blamed for my actions.”

“
I know, boy, I know.” The duke sighed. “You’ve always been one to put a good joke before common sense, any day.”

“
Be fair, Father.” Max’s voice held indignation. “I didn’t do it for the joke, I did it for Vivi.”

“
Oh, I’m well aware. As is the king. In fact, it’s probably only your loyalty to his daughter that is keeping the king from declaring your acts treasonous.”

Max snorted. “Last time I checked, assisting the princess was considered a duty, not treason.”

“
Not if it means defying your king. And then, of course, there’s the fact that you’ve been lying through your teeth for months now. I’m fairly sure the king can have you banished for ‘speaking an untrue word unto your sovereign.’”

“
That law is antiquated.”

“
But on the books.”

“
So what
is
going to happen to me?”