Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
“Chastity?”
Helena, who had called her sister’s attention for the third time, stood up and poked her on the shoulder.
“Chastity!”
“Oh!”
“Did you not hear me?” Helena said with mild irritation. “I have called you three times.”
“Indeed, I apologize, Helena,” Chastity replied, facing her older sister. “I think I am still tired from last night’s ball.”
Helena’s irritation faded when she saw her sister yawn; they did get in very late, just a little before dawn, in truth.
“Well, then, perhaps I'd better go alone to Madame Leroux to show her your choice of gloves and bonnets for your last set of gowns.”
Chastity nodded almost at once at her suggestion. She took La Belle Assemblée, the fashion magazine for ladies that she favored, from the sitting room table and showed her sister the pages she marked.
“These are beautiful, Chastity,” Helena said as she scanned through her sister’s choices. “Yes, this green bonnet will go perfectly with these gloves.”
“Thank you, Helena. I apologize that I cannot go with you.”
“Do not worry about it, my dear. Now you must get your rest. Tomorrow will be another busy day for us.
They both headed to their chambers, Helena to get ready to step out of the house for her errand, and Chastity to have a lie down.
Sally was to accompany her to the modiste. Precisely twenty minutes after she left Chastity, Helena and her lady’s maid were in their carriage, bound for Madame Leroux’s shop.
“I hope Chastity is not about to become ill. She looked very out of sorts today, and her cheeks were flushed.” Helena turned to Sally. “Has she a touch of fever, Sally?”
“Oh, no, m’lady.” Sally said in a rush. “She was just very tired is all.”
“Did you make certain she had everything she needed for her rest before we left?”
“Aye, m’lady.”
“Good, thank you, Sally.”
They arrived at the modiste shortly, and Helena quickly entered the establishment.
She wanted to be back at Huntington House to make sure that Chastity was alright.
Despite Sally’s assurance that she was not feverish, Helena was worried of her getting sick.
She was progressing very well into her season, and it was, Helena knew, just a matter of time before the more serious suitors would make themselves known.
Madame Leroux attended to her personally, and the business of the accessories was quickly finalized. Helena, glad to have completed the task quickly, was bidding the modiste a good day when she heard her name called.
A lady who had just entered the shop approached her excitedly.
“Helena!”
“Why, Cecily! It is a pleasure and a surprise to see you!” Helena grinned at her. “It has been an age! I thought you were still in Germany?”
Cecily started her first season at the same time as Helena, Celine, and Dahlia. They had been a group of seven young ladies who had banded together at the start. But as the season wore on, they had drifted off into smaller, more intimate groups.
And though Celine and Dahlia were her best friends, they had all maintained a warm friendship with Cecily, which they enjoyed during the times she was in London. Having wed a German gentleman, they were not many.
“I arrived in London but two days ago.” Cecily grinned back. “I had not planned to return this time of year, but my dear Stefan had to travel to Denmark, and since he would be gone for close to a month, he asked me if I had wanted to visit my dear Mama.”
“Who else knows you are back?”
“I saw Dahlia and Celine at the promenade yesterday.” Cecily’s smile deepened. “Dahlia was blooming; motherhood seems to become her. But I heard that you are now an engaged woman!”
“Oh, yes. Yes. I am.” She was sure that Celine and Dahlia, who had been suspiciously silent the past few days, were planning to ambush her with a call very soon. She dreaded the meeting with her friends.
“Is that why you are here at Madam Leroux’s? Are you starting with your trousseau? How exciting! I remember when I was completing mine, that seemed just like yesterday.” She took Helena’s hands and squeezed them. “And I am sure you will have a wonderful time of it as well.”
“Ah. I actually haven’t started yet.”
“Well, whyever not?”
“Oh,, with Chastity’s coming out into society, it has just been such a hectic time.”
“Dear Chastity is out?” Cecily asked, her eyes wide with realization. “My goodness, that makes me feel old.”
They continued on in that vein for a few more minutes before Helena excused herself, and with a promise to call on Cecily soon, she bid her goodbye and went out the door.
“Huntington House, please,” Helena told the coachman.
“If you please, m’lady.” Sally interrupted her entry to the carriage. “Lady Chastity has asked me to purchase some new hairpins for her.”
Helena frowned.
“She did not tell me that she needed new hairpins. What is the matter with the ones she is using now?”
Sally’s eyes looked about her.
“They, er, they are…”
“They are what?”
“They pinch her hair! Yes, that is it.” The lady’s maid looked relieved.
Helena frowned again.
“You must be doing her hair too tightly if she feels a pinch. I do not think the hairpins are to blame for that.”
“Er, they, they have too much friction in them, m’lady.”
Too much friction?
Helena had never heard of such a thing about hairpins. But she inwardly shrugged her shoulders. She would not pretend to know better than a lady’s maid.
“Alright, let us head to the milliners then.”
Sally seemed to sigh with relief, and Helena, seeing this, raised her eyebrows, but shrugged her shoulders again and did not think any more of it.
Her mind went instead to Cecily’s question.
Are you starting with your trousseau?
Helena knew it would just be a matter of time before people started asking her that question. Of course, what would follow would be the more pertinent question: When is your wedding?
Although her parents had not yet prompted her for the information, she knew that they would need an answer to the yet unasked question. Knowing them, they would not really care when it would happen, just that it would actually happen. And a date would be proof of that.
A feeling of trepidation made Helena clasp her hands together. The longer she and Matteo kept up this pretense, the harder it would be to end it without grave consequences.
Helena felt like a giant clock ticked in front of her. And she and Matteo were running out of time. For the first time since she accepted Matteo’s proposal, she felt that perhaps she had made a mistake in agreeing to this harebrained scheme.
The carriage slowed as it neared Huntington House. Helena, who had been preoccupied with her thoughts, suddenly sat upright in her seat.
“Is that Chastity?” Helena asked as she craned her neck from the carriage window. “What is she doing out? I thought she was resting in her chambers?”
The carriage was about twenty yards away from the house. A lady was climbing up the front steps of the house. By the way she walked and at the sight of the familiar dress—a favorite of her sister’s, Helena was sure that it was, indeed, Chastity,
“Sally?”
The lady’s maid visibly gulped.
“I-I am sure I do not know, m’lady. I left her in her room.”
“Well, what could have been so important for her to forego her rest?”
As soon as the carriage stopped, and she was handed down, Helena hastily went after her sister.
She found her in her chambers, attempting to remove her stays by herself.
Unsuccessfully reaching for the ties behind her with her right hand, Chastity tried with her left.
Though she was obviously having difficulties in her endeavors, a wide, wistful smile still played on her lips, and her eyes sparkled.
“Chastity?”
“Oh! Helena, why, you are back!”
“Yes, we were delayed because Sally said that you needed new hairpins.”
She watched her sister, who continued to undress, rather clumsily, by herself.
Moving closer, she assisted Chastity with her stays.
She stayed still. From her reflection in the vanity mirror, Helena could see that she was biting her lip.
Having finished with the stays, Helena laid them on the chair and waited for her sister to face her.
When Chastity turned around, she voiced the question she had asked Sally earlier in the carriage.
“What were you doing out, Chastity? I thought you wanted to rest?”
“Oh, I did rest, but I woke up soon and thought I craved a walk outdoors, so I went to the park.”
“By yourself?” Helena exclaimed.
“I-It was just a quick turn in the park,” Chastity said with a defiant look in her eye. “Nothing untoward happened, Helena, the Grosvenor Gate to Hyde Park is but a few yards from Huntington House. I was gone but for a few minutes.”
“Chastity, you know that young ladies should not be walking out by themselves,” Helena said slowly, taken aback by her younger sister’s words. “But more than that, I was worried that you are too wearied. For earlier today, you said that you needed rest.”
Chastity visibly deflated. Her anger, which had seemed to be rising, was suddenly gone.
“I am sorry, Helena.” She said, not able to look her older sister in the eye. “I do not know what has come over me.”
Helena smoothed her sister’s hair.
“It is quite all right. The season is starting to take its toll on you, I imagine. It can be quite taxing for young ladies, really,” she said kindly.
“Yes, I believe you are right, dear Helena.”
Helena kissed Chastity on the forehead.
“I shall ask Sally to prepare you a bath. That will make you feel better, I daresay.”
“Yes, that sounds wonderful. Thank you.”
Helena left Chastity’s chambers and bid Sally to attend to her. She walked into her own chambers and sat on a chair, her elbows resting on her desk.