Page 4 of Lady Theodora’s Christmas Wish

Theodora glared at the dress that Polly was holding up for her. The bed was covered with other dresses, as were the chairs in the room. And she wasn’t happy with any of them. Choosing what to wear was so difficult!

It had to be just perfect, for this, her first Ball!

She took a deep breath, and valiantly resisted the urge to throw a foot stamping, screaming tantrum from frustration. She was an adult now. She had to remember that.

Closing her eyes, she imagined, again, that she was dancing with a handsome Duke.

In the imagined scene she cast her eyes down, trying to see what she wore. All she got was a faint impression of colour, but it was enough for her to know, instantly, which dress to choose.

Opening her eyes, she went to the bed, and carefully extracted one dress from the pile. It was a pale ivory dress, with an overlay of delicate golden tissue lace. It almost glowed from the soft gold, and she knew that it made all of the highlights in her hair glow as well. It was decorated, tastefully, minimally, at the bodice and hem, with some tiny clusters of red rosebuds with intense green leaves, all made of silk. The red drew the eye, and the green made her brilliant green eyes seem even more so.

It was pale and demure enough to not offend those who thought that young ladies shouldn’t wear anything of strong colour, but interesting enough to be different from all of those insipid white dresses she saw illustrated in the fashion journals (when any of those managed to reach them, all the way from London). It was also elegant in its simplicity – no massive flounces and frills for her.

It was exactly what she wanted.

Polly nodded in approval of her choice, and patiently started putting all of the other dresses away.

It was immediately obvious what jewellery she should wear with that dress too – Papa (how wonderful it was to finally be able to call him that!) had given her a pearl set on her birthday – a necklace of pearls with tiny gold drops between them, two strings of pearls for twining in the hair, and a matching bracelet. They would suit the dress wonderfully.

Theodora sighed, utterly relieved, as Polly carefully took the dress away to make certain that it was clean and perfectly pressed, for the Ball was in two days’ time, on Christmas Eve. She settled in the comfortable chair in front of the window, and stared out at the grounds, where a light dusting of snow decorated the evergreen hedges of the maze and the leafless branches of the trees stood out stark against the winter grey sky.

She had never liked winter much, but this year was different, for with winter had come her birthday, the Ball, and the chance to meet eligible gentlemen.

Remembering her wish, she allowed herself to dream again, picturing herself in the beautiful dress, dancing with a handsome man. He would be tall, strong, with dark hair and piercing eyes. She could not quite imagine his face, but everything else was quite clear. Relaxing, the daydream stayed with her, as she drifted into a doze in the chair

Polly found her there, sleeping, curled like a kitten against the cushions, with a smile on her face, when she came to help Theodora dress for dinner.