“What is it that troubles you?” Edward asked, his voice soft.
“I fear that I may not be perfectly sure that the duke is the one for me, and I feel terribly that I am letting our courtship drag on with such doubts,” Alaina admitted.
“Drag on?” Edward questioned, almost rhetorically. “Two weeks is such a short amount of time, you could hardly be accused of drawing out your time with the duke unnecessarily. Like I said before, not every love story starts with a lightning strike. You need to let your heart find its way.”
“I suppose,” Alaina acquiesced, but the bent of her dream still weighed on her mind, and her response came out taciturn. How was she to explain that Christopher had been at the center of her thoughts?
But Edward was not finished. “However, I shall leave you with a warning; do not delay once you have settled in your heart and mind how you feel. Once you are sure, more time just serves to complicate matters of the heart.”
Alaina nodded slowly. She understood how more time could complicate matters, and made a promise to herself that by the end of the garden party, she would have a decision. No matter how her mind wandered to Christopher, Alaina was determined to discern her true feelings for Graham. She owed it to herself and to the duke to be honest about her heart.
With renewed resolve, Alaina got up from her seat and gave her father a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you, Papa. Goodnight.”
Edward watched his oldest walk from the room, smiling to himself. He was not one to offer his own opinion on matters of the heart, at least not out loud, but if he knew his eldest well enough, he could predict the outcome.
Raucous laughter rang through the Finch townhome, and glasses clinked in celebration, all sounds of merriment grating on Lady Barbara’s ears. “To our good fortune, and Charles’s bad luck!” Percy jeered, and the target of his comment threw back the remaining contents of his glass.
“Deal another round, Percy. Let’s see if your good fortune holds,” came Charles’s retort, a little slurred, his face reddened with drink.
Richard clasped Charles on the back in a show of encouragement. “I knew you were not a quitter. You never know when the cards will turn around. The night is still young.”
Another round of laughter peeled out of the men, so loud that Lady Barbara thought it might rattle the windows. She stifled a yawn and rolled her eyes. “You men. It seems all you care about is a game of cards and endless brandy.”
Her statement did little to quell the joviality, as Percy chided, “Come now, Barbara. Your brother assures me that your parents are not going to be home until the ‘morrow. We are free to have some fun.”
Barbara strode over to the table where the men were setting up another game of loo, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. “You assured me that we would be married this season, that I would have something to come to my parents with to convince them of our match. All I see is a drunken fool who is going to let a garden party in the country seal his fate.”
That statement had a sobering effect on Percy. “Barbara, let us not talk about that here, especially in front of our guest,” he said, motioning to Charles.
Charles seemed oblivious as he looked at his hand of cards. “A garden party? How dull…”
Percy was quick to interject, “Quite right, my friend. I fear Barbara worries for no reason.”
Barbara’s brother, Richard, cleared his throat. “Alright, let’s play, gentlemen. What is the wager?”
“Can we not just play a friendly game of cards this evening? You came close to cleaning me out last night at White’s.” Charles chuckled but could not cover the whine in his voice.
Lady Barbara scoffed and walked away, perching herself on the settee by the fireplace as she watched the men. Only Charles’s presence kept her from berating Percy further; it seemed that nothing she said spurred him into action. For several moments, the only sound in the room was cards being placed on the table.
“You know, not all garden parties are dull,” Charles said, almost absently. “There was a story bandied about when I was young, of a garden party with a fair amount of drama, if rumors were to be believed.” Charles placed another card on the table before he continued. “Apparently, some tenants were in the midst of a feud during a party my parents were hosting. Well, normally those things would be of no matter, except for the fact that one of the tenants decided to release the pigs from their pen. The pigs made their way all the way to the party, through the garden doors and into the center of a game of charades! Needless to say, the game was cut short.”
A chortle escaped Charles as he laughed at his own story, distracted enough to miss that he had once again lost at cards. Eventually, a frown knit his brow, and he scrubbed his hand over his face.
Richard was first to speak. “I feel your bad luck streak continues, my friend. You should be grateful we are playing with nothing more than pride at stake.”
Charles grunted, and then tried to stifle a yawn. “Well then, I fear I must retire for the evening and hope a new day brings something better.”
Abruptly standing from the table, Charles bowed to both gentlemen, neither Percy nor Richard seeming to care about Charles’s quick departure. Charles walked unsteadily toward the door before he appeared to remember Barbara’s presence. She watched as Charles approached and bowed drunkenly in front of her.
“I wish you a pleasant evening, my lady. I do apologize if our presence so late in the evening was bothersome,” Charles said, the slur of his word slight but noticeable to Barbara. “I hope you can convince Percy to take you to the garden party; it seems a silly thing to let decide one’s future.”
Barbara watched as Charles stumbled out of her parents’ townhome. A smile made its way to her face for the first time this evening.
“I had hoped all evening that you would smile, but now that I see it, I fear I am not going to like what it entails,” Percy stated flatly, as he shuffled the cards mindlessly. Richard was half dozing in his chair.
“But you heard Charles. A garden party is a ridiculous thing to worry about; all I would need to do is to convince you to accompany me,” retorted Barbara.
