The weak rays of dawn light came earlier than she wanted them, but Alice forced herself to wake to make sure the house was ready for her aunt and cousin’s arrival.
When her aunt had taken her and Penelope in after their parents had passed, Alice had decided a fitting way to repay her aunt for kindness was to help around the house. As the eldest of the girls, she made sure the menu for each week was set and attuned to her cousin, Eliza’s picky taste, and her aunt’s persnickety demands.
She also made sure the servant girls laundered her cousin’s dresses properly, that Eliza had her breakfasts at precisely nine-fifteen in the morning, and that her aunt was not disturbed between the hours of one and three in the afternoon.
After washing and dressing, she slipped inside her sister’s room and found Penelope just sitting up.
“Good morning,” she whispered to her sister while sitting on the edge. “How are you feeling?”
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Penelope mumbled, “I feel well. How—” her eyes shifted from Alice to the doors as if someone would suddenly barge in on them. “How did last night go? Did you find him? Did you find Rutledge?”
Alice hated admitting failure, but this time she had no choice. “I came close, Elly, I came really close, but I didn’t get to him in time. I promise you though, I will find him again and convince him.”
Her sister swayed, lifting a hand to her mouth, her eyes pooling with unshed tears. “I—I don’t know why I allowed him to… to seduce me, Alice. I swear, I thought—I thought he loved me.”
“I know, Elly,” Alice whispered sympathetically, her heart hardening with contempt for the man. “He is a vile, dishonorable seducer and if he does not do the right thing, one day he will face his comeuppance.”
Resting her cheek on Alice’s shoulder, Penelope asked morosely, “What if he refuses to marry me, Alice?”
A seducer is as liable to change his ways as a leopard is to change his spots.
“I’ll shoot him,” she said plainly, while forcing the Duke’s words away. “Not somewhere he might die from but somewhere he might really feel it.”
Her dry comment eked a laugh from Penelope as she made to get out of bed. “I need to wash and get ready for today. We have a luncheon at Lady Westley’s home tomorrow, remember.”
“I do,” Alice sighed. “I anticipate it will be a long dreary day with women tittering about this handsome lord or which lady is likely to marry him. That is if they are not debating which French fashion is the best and the older women trading advice on how to combat colic.”
Giggling, Penelope vanished into her bathing chamber. Alice left the room and descended the stairs to the main room and after briefly speaking with the staff, returned to the level above to make sure the breakfast room was in order for her aunt and cousin’s luncheon later that day.
Returning to her rooms, she picked out the dress she was to wear for the luncheon and laid the gown; a light ivory tight-waist gown with puff sleeves and a modestly revealing décolletage on the bed. She lined up her half-boots with it and then went to assist Penelope.
“What gown are you thinking?” she asked while rifling through the dresses.
“A muslin,” Penelope took a gown out and pressed it to her front while swirling in place. “It is the newest one I had made from the modiste.”
“It is very flattering,” Alice smiled. “I like the bodice trimmed with white lace.”
“So do I,” Penelope nodded while turning to the floor-length brass-gilded mirror. “I hope it will be a good day for me to see my old friends. The last few days were hardly nice ones.”
Alice’s tempered smile hid the grief in her chest; the last few weeks had been rough for Penelope, especially the night when she allowed Rutledge to tempt her into his bed.
“Do you think he will be there?” Her sister asked while rifling through her jewelry box.
‘He’being Rutledge.
“I don’t know, Elly. I do not think he will be there,” Alice replied thinking, dully, that the man was probably still in the gambling house in the bed of his nightly companions. “If he is, I will find him and confront him.”
The clatter of boots down the hallway drew their attention and from the voices coming from down below the floor they were on, it was clear that their aunt and cousin had returned.
“We should leave it at that for now. We’ll continue this discussion later on,” Alice said while rising from the bed and leaving the room.
She could not dare let Eliza, a ribald gossip and embellisher, to even get a hint of the position Penelope was in. If she did, her sister’s reputation would be ruined in a matter of days. Closing the door behind her, she spotted a grouchy Eliza, clad in a dove grey coat, entering her rooms with two maids behind her.
Alice knew she would not see her cousin again until noon, so she went to her aunt’s room to greet her before her noontime rest.
“Aunt Agatha,” Alice smiled warmly. “How was your trip?”
Her aunt peeled her coat away and plucked her pins from her greying hair. “It went well. I must say though, Lady Oglerthorne is not the lady I thought her to be. Her daughter looked at poor Eliza as if she were a fisherman’s daughter, not that of a respected solicitor.”
