Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
It was early in the evening when Matteo, Helena, and Chastity bid their friends and acquaintances goodbye. The garden party had lasted longer than everyone had expected, a proof of its success.
Helena and Chastity were thanking their host for a wonderful time when Lord Stuart and a lady approached them. Matteo, who had been waylaid by other friends, stood some distance away from them.
“Lady Helena, Lady Chastity,” Lord Stuart said cheerfully. “I am very happy to have made your acquaintance today.”
“The pleasure is all ours, my lord.” Helena started to curtsy when she recognized the lady that the gentleman was with. She felt herself falter in her curtsy, but was able to recover before anyone noticed.
“My dear Helena, how have you been?” the lady said.
“Oh, I see that you already know each other!” Lord Stuart said, delighted.
“Yes,” Helena said, forcing a smile. “We have known each other since our first season.”
Lady Margueritte Goodwin was one of the first ladies whom Helena had met when she first came out into society. But unlike Helena, she had been proposed to, engaged, and married after only a year. Needless to say, she was her batch’s most successful debutante.
But that was not the reason why Helena remembered her well.
Aside from being the most successful, Margueritte was also the most mean-spirited of them.
Indeed, Celine, Dahlia, and she had secretly called her Margueritte the Unsweet because of how she treated the other young ladies, themselves included.
Her beauty, which had bloomed at an early age, had, of course, made her popular, giving her an arrogance that spawned her meanness.
Years later, Helena had heard that she had been widowed after merely three years of marriage. A year of mourning passed, and with no children from her first marriage, Margueritte had once again entered the marriage mart.
Now, Lady Margueritte Norris, she was still beautiful, and from the way Lord Stuart looked at her, still popular with the male of the species.
“It has been an age since we have spoken,” Lady Norris said. She took Helena’s hand and drew her nearer. “We must catch up. So much has occurred since we last met.”
You mean since you tripped me and made me spill punch all over Celine’s gown?
“Yes, it has been quite a while.”
“I understand that you are finally engaged. And to the Duke of Valen no less!”
She could see both disbelief and envy in her eyes, though veiled, she remembered very well how Margueritte was to be fooled.
“Yes.” Helena tried to keep her smile from wavering. “Finally.”
“Oh, but what happened to your manners, my Lord Stuart?” Lady Norris gestured to Chastity. “You have not yet introduced me to your other friend.
Lord Stuart introduced her to Chastity, with Lady Norris describing herself as Helena’s old friend.
Helena caught herself before she rolled her eyes. If only Celine and Dahlia were here.
The conversation went on for a few more minutes until Helena could not stand it anymore and excused herself and Chastity, saying that they must go to Matteo.
“You must call on me, my dear Helena.”
“I shall endeavor to, Margueritte.”
They curtsied and bid each other goodbye.
“We must hurry away, Chastity, before she decides to schedule a date and time for a call.” Helena hissed.
“But why would you not want Lady Norris to call on you? She is your old friend.”
“Old friend, indeed.” Helena sniffed. “I have never called her that, quite the opposite in truth.”
Chastity raised her eyebrows, intrigued.
“Suffice it to say that she was a nightmare to the rest of us girls during our first season. She was the ton’s favorite then, and she never let us forget it.”
“Oh, what a terrible thing.” Chastity frowned. “But perhaps she has changed now?”
“I highly doubt it.”
“But perhaps she has. She invited you to call on her; does that not say that she wishes to resume your friendship?”
“Such as it was?” Helena lifted an eyebrow.
“Lady Helena.”
Three other ladies approached them, all of whom were long-time acquaintances, and all of whom issued their own invitations to her and to Chastity for various social functions.
Helena had barely extracted Chastity and herself from the group when she found herself standing before a bowing Lord Scott.
Chastity, who had recognized him at once, could not prevent the flash of surprise and dislike in her eyes. She bowed belatedly.
“My ladies,” Lord Scott smiled at them. “I had wanted to greet you earlier in the day, but you both appeared very busy with your friends.”
“Lord Scott, a good day to you.”
“My sister, Lady Wilson, if you recall her, Lady Helena?” he paused, waiting for her confirmation.
When Helena nodded, he continued.
“My sister will be hosting a dinner party a fortnight from today, and she bade me to express her hope that you, Lady Chastity, and His Grace, the Duke of Valen, might join us for the evening. She has sent out the invitations just today.” Lord Scott said.
“I do hope we shall hear a positive reply from you.”
When Matteo finally joined them again, Helena was more than ready to leave. Indeed, she found that she was exhausted. Their walk back to Huntington House, although a short one, appeared to cost both ladies their remaining energy.
Upon reaching the house, Chastity excused herself at once.
“I thank you for a very eventful day, Your Grace.” She smiled at him warmly despite her apparent fatigue. “I shall see you tomorrow at the family dinner.”
“I look forward to it, Lady Chastity.”
Alone in the hall, Helena pulled Matteo towards the sitting room.
“Already wanting me to yourself, I see,” Matteo said, a smug look on his face.
Helena leveled him with a stare. Matteo laughed.
They sat on the wingback chairs set next to each other beside the fireplace, where a small fire was burning. They both leaned back, enjoying the comfortable position. Outside, the sun was setting on the horizon as if it too had enough of the ton’s busy social schedule.
“Matteo?”
“Helena?”
“I wanted to tell you that if you prefer not to come to dinner tomorrow, I will understand. I shall simply make up an excuse. It was an extremely short notice anyway.”
“I shall be there tomorrow,” Matteo said it with so final a tone that Helena said no more.
As if surprised that no opposition came, he studied her, his brows furrowing.
“Are you unwell, Helena?” Matteo asked, concerned.
“No, I am not. I am merely tired, I suppose.” She sighed.
“Perhaps going to two social functions in a day is too ambitious for us?”
“Perhaps.” Helena grimaced. “I must tell you, Matteo, that we have received close to twelve invitations this afternoon alone.
“Ah, well, that can only mean that our engagement is starting to be recognized and accepted by the ton.” Matteo smiled. “That is great news, indeed.”
Helena closed her eyes. With her arms resting on the arms of the chair, she spoke.
“People whom I have not spoken to in years are now suddenly asking me to call on them and are inviting me to dinner parties and balls. People from my past, there was even a person whom I have an extreme dislike for.”
“We shall take the bad with the good, I suppose.” Matteo took her hand. “Who is this person? A spurned suitor? A jealous rival for the spurned suitor?”
With her eyes still closed, Helena laughed.
“More like a sworn enemy. Though back then she probably hardly saw me as nothing more than an insignificant debutante.”
Matteo scowled, already disliking this phantom enemy.
“Was she the one who invited you to call?”
Helena’s eyes blinked open and looked straight at Matteo.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Well, it seemed very likely that the person you considered an enemy would be the one who asked you to call instead of making the call herself. The honor must be hers first of course.”
Her eyes stayed on Matteo’s face. He was very astute. She did not know why that took her by surprise, but it did. Thinking of him, for the longest time, as a man who preferred pleasure and ease over everything else, she was now just realizing how there was more to Matteo Castor than met the eye.
Indeed, she saw in her mind’s eye how he moved across the Wakefield music room with confidence, speaking to one friend and then to another. She could also recall the calm way he supported her, especially during the first few minutes of their arrival when she was nearly overwhelmed with nervousness.
This false engagement, which they had agreed upon, was meant to make things easier for both of them, a convenience for her, peace and quiet for him.
But what Helena did not count on was that being betrothed to the Duke of Valen would make people see her in a different light.
She was suddenly sought after, suddenly the first person to give an invitation to.
She pictured herself in her mind. How different she was now from the girl who attended her first season, hoping to find the man she would marry. Now, here she was, still looking—but not for herself, rather for her sister.
Suddenly proud of how far she had grown since the young debutante of six years ago, Helena felt her heart swell. She still had a long way to go, but she knew that she was on her way. And that, in itself, meant the world to her.
I have this engagement to thank for that, for making me see some parts of myself that I did not notice before.
“And of course,” Matteo continued, placing a kiss on her hand, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “You must wait for her to make the call.”
She laughed at his words.
“Yes, I think I shall heed your advice, Your Grace.” Helena drew in a deep breath, sank even deeper into the chair, and closed her eyes. “After all, she is the one who wants to renew our friendship.”
“Good.”