Chapter Seventeen
“Good morning, miss,” Alice said, entering the room.
“I need to wake you up.” She softly shook Ashlyn to rouse her.
“Mrs. Dove-Lyon asked me to see if you’d like to join her for some tea after you finish your breakfast,” she added, before carefully choosing a soft green muslin dress from the wardrobe and hanging it on the back of the door.
“Alice—good morning. It seems much later than I usually sleep.” Ashlyn stared up at her canopy, willing herself to move.
“Will anyone be joining us for this tea?” She pushed herself into a sitting position, stretching her arms with a big yawn.
“I’m so tired for some reason. Maybe it was everything catching up with me,” she said, her voice drowsy, as she tried to shake off her sleepiness.
“I cannot be certain, miss, but I believe Lady Ashbourne and her daughter, Lady Paula, may also be joining you at tea. At least, that’s what I heard in the kitchen.
And as far as feeling tired, I suspect your wine may have been laced with laudanum last night.
When I noticed you and Lord Ravensthorpe leaving the game room, and you seemed…
not yourself, I asked one of the staff to bring me your wine glass from the table where you were playing whist, which smelled of laudanum.
That’s a very distinctive smell,” Alice said tartly.
“It’s terrible to think a grown man resorted to that behavior.
But I saw Lord Pervis bring you wine. The man… ” She stopped.
“Alice, you don’t have to say anything else.
I feel the same way. The man seems creepy to me.
And I never use laudanum if I can avoid it.
It gives me a megrim, much like the one I have right now.
” Snatches of memory started coming back to Ashlyn, and she recalled Pervis bringing her the wine.
She shuddered at the memory of his hands on her and briefly thought about complaining about him to Mrs. Dove-Lyon, but worried it would cause problems with the friendship between Mrs. Dove-Lyon and Aunt Beatrice.
Ashlyn would return to America, but Gabriel would remain here—and she didn’t want to cause animosity between them, even though Pervis would be to blame.
The man was a creep, and his behavior was beyond inappropriate.
But if Alice was right, he had used laudanum in her drink with the intent to compromise her. She shuddered.
“I would have helped you, but Lord Ravensthorpe intervened,” the maid said.
“Oh, no,” Ashlyn whispered, suddenly recalling some of the things she’d said to Gabriel.
Flashes of memory surfaced—his carrying her to her room.
She had called him Lord Handsome! Heat crept up her neck in embarrassment.
But thankfully, he had behaved like a true gentleman, helping her to bed and leaving.
“Shall I tell them you aren’t well, miss?”
“No, I should attend,” Ashlyn said, still trying to clear the fog from her head.
“I had strange dreams last night.” She had dreamed that Gabriel kissed her.
And as she looked around the room, she focused on the drapes and wondered why seeing them tugged on a memory.
She was standing behind the drapes, and there was a kiss… and then something else happened.
“I’ll make sure your gown is ready for the ball. It was the only dress I didn’t press with all the others,” Alice said, snapping Ashlyn’s attention back.
“Yes. Thank you, Alice. There’s something that’s nagging at me from last evening…” That’s it. “I think I heard someone at my door last night. They were jiggling the lock. I just recalled it.”
“Well, that’s very strange, Miss Vickers.”
“Yes, it is. I’d better secure the jewelry I’m not using and my diary in the hidden panel of the trunk, while I’m out of my room. Can you secure the lock on the trunk when you leave?”
“Yes, miss, I’ll do that.”
“Thank you, Alice. I would feel better about that.” Ashlyn pressed her hands to her aching temples, trying to minimize the throbbing headache. “Why would anyone want to break into my room?”
“Well, your wine was tampered with. Both things suggest someone may be trying to compromise you. Lord Pervis is not a nice person. Have a care around him,” Alice said.
Ashlyn struggled to put all the pieces together in her mind as Alice helped her dress.
“Some people are so loathsome that they’ll resort to anything to compromise a person, all for a dowry.
Perhaps you ought not drink anything,” Alice said, suddenly sounding very protective.
“That way, if you feel yourself acting strangely or feel drowsy, you’ll know it wasn’t from something you drank, and you should find me or Lord Ravensthorpe. ”
“That makes sense,” Ashlyn said, deciding to do exactly as Alice had suggested.
“The London modiste knew what she was doing. This soft green is lovely on you,” Alice remarked as she finished working on Ashlyn’s hair.
“Yes, it wasn’t my first choice, but I see the wisdom in the selection.
I love everything about it,” Ashlyn said.
“And my simple pearl earrings go so well with it.” She watched as Alice curled the sides of her hair.
“It’s hard to accustom myself to Elizabeth’s hairstyles, as hard as I’ve tried.
She likes her hair in updos with so many curls, while I prefer my hair down and looser. ”
“You always look lovely,” Alice said, inspecting her work. “I think you’re ready to break your fast. Remember, the tea with Mrs. Dove-Lyon is afterward.”
“I won’t forget,” Ashlyn said, inhaling and then lowering her shoulders and exhaling to relax.
She soon entered the breakfast room, where several small, round dining tables had been set up throughout the room specifically for the house party.
She looked about the room and noticed that a few of the guests had already begun to pair off into couples, chatting and exchanging smiles with each other.
She felt happy for them, though she couldn’t help but wonder if some of these pairs had been part of Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s original intended matches.
Ashlyn spotted Gabriel at the buffet and bade him a good morning as she began to gather refreshments. “The seat next to me is available, Miss Vickers,” he said. “And if you’d allow me, I’ll carry your chocolate to the table.”
“I’d like that very much,” Ashlyn said, selecting some lemon biscuits from the buffet table to go with her chocolate before taking her seat next to him.
“Perhaps we can take a walk through the gardens, after we break our fast. How are you feeling this morning?” he whispered.
“A walk in the gardens sounds wonderful,” she said, giving a slight nod. “And I’ve had a slight headache, but other than that, I feel fine. Mrs. Dove-Lyon has invited me for tea in the parlor, but I’ll meet you afterward.”
Throughout their conversation, she couldn’t help but notice how genuinely he cared about her well-being. When his leg accidentally brushed against hers, a pleasant flutter stirred in her stomach.
She wished she could stay longer, but after eating, she politely excused herself, as she was expected in the parlor for tea. She felt more than a little reluctant to leave.
A few minutes later, she arrived at her appointment with Mrs. Dove-Lyon for tea in the parlor.
“Miss Vickers,” Lady Ashbourne said after Ashlyn had settled in, fluffing out her dress on the floral-patterned damask settee, “I see the Ton Tattler mentioned that you and your cousin, Miss Ashlyn March, took in various sights in London. So, do you still have anything left to see?”
The woman’s tone sounded strained, as though she were being forced to be polite.
Taking her teacup in hand and making certain she was holding it as she had practiced, Ashlyn smiled prettily.
She was relieved to be sitting to Lady Ashbourne’s left, in a wingback chair that discouraged her from fidgeting, shifting—or fleeing.
“My cousin and I spent several days doing nothing but exploring the sights we had read about on our list—everything from Hyde Park, which we enjoyed for days, to London Bridge. Still, there are so many other places outside of London I wish to see, including Brighton Beach, Greenwich, the cliffs of Dover, and perhaps Stonehenge. Although I’m not sure this trip will allow for that.
” Ashlyn was glad she had reviewed the sightseeing list she had drafted, or she might not have recalled the names of the sights still on it.
“It’s such a shame that your cousin could not have attended,” Lady Ashbourne said.
“Yes. She hated to miss it, but came down with a horrible megrim,” Ashlyn said.
“Oh yes. I seem to recall that you put that on your reply to our invitation,” Lady Ashbourne said before sipping her tea.
The parlor was decorated in cheery shades of yellows and whites, with sheer white muslin curtains allowing the warmth of the sun to stream into the room.
Mrs. Dove-Lyon sat in a yellow damask-upholstered chair across from Ashlyn, elegantly covered from head to toe in her signature black.
Lady Ashbourne sat to Ashlyn’s right on a small white settee.
Her yellow-and-white floral chintz dress matched the furnishings of the room so perfectly that she almost blended in.
Ashlyn bit her lower lip to keep from laughing; the thought of a mouth suddenly forming on the back of the couch and speaking amused her greatly.
“Miss, would you care for me to freshen your tea?” a maid asked, stepping forward with a steaming silver teapot.
“I’ll just have a little more sugar,” Ashlyn said, eyeing a silver tray of delicate sandwiches sitting on the caddy beside the maid.
She hoped her favorite, cucumber sandwiches, were among them.
She had not eaten much at breakfast—only a few bites of toast and lemon biscuits, and a few sips of chocolate—because of the laudanum.
Perhaps her appetite was finally returning.