Chapter 24 #2
“And then,” Mrs. Heyer went on, once she caught Ellie nodding, “I want to add morning glory trims and pearl details. Do you have pearls, Miss Ellie? For your throat and for your hair? And gloves? Oh never mind, we will find those things for you and include them at no additional cost.”
“No, Mrs. Heyer!” Ellie protested as sharply as she could while her voice was weak from awe.
Mrs. Heyer rapped her arm with her fingers, the sting as surprising as it was fleeting.
“Tush! This is a treat for me, so you will let me do as I please. I do not have a string of pearls for your throat, but I do have pins and combs for your hair. We will give you a selection of pearl pins as well as some morning glory flowers to match the trim. I trust you will have someone to dress your hair with this?”
“Erm . . .”
“Where will you be wearing this stunning garment anyway?” Anna asked, jumping in to enhance her employer’s enthusiasm.
Ellie swallowed hard as Mrs. Heyer began pinning and cutting the crepe layer. “C-Carraway. We’ve been invited to meet Mr. and Mrs. Beale.”
Mrs. Heyer paused in her work to gape like a fish, while Anna beamed brightly.
“Miss Ellie!” Anna squealed, taking her hands and squeezing them. “Mrs. Beale knows all of the most elegant people around! Is she going to get you a husband?”
“Anna Tucker!” Mrs. Heyer scolded in a slight screech. “Miss Ellie was engaged to the late Lord Bickham, if you recall, and he is now deceased. She is not ready for a new attachment!”
Well, if Mrs. Heyer was going to answer and make the appropriate excuses for her, then Ellie might not have to do much speaking at all.
That would be far more preferable than trying to be vague and slightly less than fully honest with these women just to keep the reputation of herself and West unspotted.
“I am sorry, Miss Ellie,” Anna told her with lowered eyes, her cheeks flushed. “I had forgotten about the death of your intended.”
Ellie squeezed the younger woman’s hands tightly and waited for her to look up.
“You are absolutely forgiven. I did not know the late Lord Bickham well at all. We did not have a love match, so my heart is not wounded. I mourn for him as I mourn for any who might have died before expected. But you have not injured me.”
Anna exhaled sharply in relief, nodding and moving to help Mrs. Heyer with pinning.
“But,” Ellie went on, watching them work through the mirror, “I am also not looking for a new attachment right away, that is true. Am I ready for it? Who can say?”
“Sometimes the best things come when we are not looking,” Mrs. Heyer mused from behind her, drawing Ellie’s attention to her quickly. Mrs. Heyer gave her a quick wink and went back to her work.
Anna giggled in a disturbingly knowing manner. “Nothing says we cannot give others a fine thing to look at, either.”
“Anna!” Ellie screeched, face flaming so hotly, the red flush extended all the way down her neck and into her chest. Visibly. She watched it move in the mirror.
What an embarrassing sight! What if she had blushed like this in front of West? He would have seen just exactly how mortified she was no matter what her facial expressions revealed.
She would never be able to lie convincingly if her body did that sort of thing.
“I agree,” Mrs. Heyer said without concern. “Personally, I think the new Lord Bickham is remarkably handsome.”
Well, there went another wave of redness and heat over her skin.
“And my brother says Lord Bickham looks at Miss Ellie a great deal,” Anna pointed out.
Oh, this needed to stop, and it needed to stop quickly.
“Well, she lives in the house with him, and he is only now seeing how actively she engages in the work on the land,” Mrs. Heyer replied with ease. “It is only logical to presume that he would be confused by her being out there.”
Bless Mrs. Heyer for her wisdom and tact and good sense! Now if only Anna would listen to her and not fly off into some sort of girlish ridiculousness on her behalf.
“Oh.” Anna seemed to deflate before her very eyes. “That is true. And she was engaged to the previous Lord Bickham. His . . . brother?”
“Half,” Ellie corrected before she could stop herself.
Then she smiled, realizing that she had done exactly what West was always doing when Leonard was mentioned as being his brother.
It was an instinctual response for him, as though he needed to push their relationship further away and increase the distance that their blood connection had.
If there had been affection between the half siblings, perhaps there would be less of a distinction, but considering the vindictive nature of the relationship, the distinction remained.
The distinction had to remain.
Perhaps it would also help to prove to people that West was not at all like Leonard. Every little bit could help.
“But,” Mrs. Heyer quipped in a tone entirely too playful for a woman holding sharp pins, “I think his lordship might be looking at Miss Ellie for an entirely different reason in this dress, don’t you?”
Anna bit back giggles while Ellie groaned and closed her eyes, willing this entire appointment to be over.
So much for tact and support.
And distance.