The Bluestocking’s Absolutely Brilliant Betrothal (The Notorious Briarwoods #6)

Chapter 3

“M y lady, you’ve not been invited!” exclaimed Aurelia’s pert lady’s maid over the rumble of the coach wheels.

Aurelia stared at the young woman.

The girl did have a point, sitting there with her wide brown eyes, apple cheeks, bowlike mouth, and flapping mobcap.

Molly was quite wise and vocal, but Aurelia could not take heed. No. She had to act with as much confidence as she possibly could.

And so she lifted her chin and said, with a confidence she did not feel, “It does not matter, Molly. I am Lady Aurelia Pritchard. Of course the Dowager Duchess of Westleigh will be happy to see me. She is famed for her generosity of company. She has many a salon.”

“Yes, but this is not a salon,” Molly pointed out with an impertinence that was only possible because she knew that Aurelia generally welcomed honesty. “This is quite early in the morning. No doubt she’s recovering from last evening.”

Molly was indeed honest.

Perhaps too honest and too blunt, but it was one of the reasons Aurelia liked Molly so well. She gazed out the coach’s window and swallowed.

Heron House was no small affair. It was on the outskirts of London, harkening back to the days when lords used to travel into the city by barge. They’d wanted to stay away, of course, from the grime, dust, and disease of the city. Now, London was a different affair. The very wealthy and the greatest lords often lived in the west of the city very close to Parliament, but not the Briarwoods.

They kept themselves separate in their own way.

Oh, and the house? Heaven! Everything about it was bliss. It should have been intimidating. Somehow it was not. It was like a grand old dame who had a great deal of jewels and a knowing smile, which would captivate the heart of anyone, and yet the lady was a tiny bit cantankerous.

“I shall make the very best of it,” she assured her maid. “Besides, Molly, I have to. You know I do.”

Molly eyed her carefully, then leaned forward, smoothing her hands over her wool skirts. “I don’t see why, my lady. I think you should simply get married. It is the greatest solution to your affairs.”

“I can’t simply get married, Molly,” she replied, groaning inwardly. “I have too much to do, and if I become a wife, well, you’ve seen Mama and all the other ladies in the ton. They all become the slaves of their children or their marriages.”

Molly cocked her head to the side. “You might like being a mother, my lady. Babies are wonderful.”

She frowned. Babies were wonderful. She liked all of her siblings very much, and she had taken care of them since they were small to some degree. And the truth was she would have innumerable servants to assist her if there were babies, but she’d also seen the way that birth could take a toll on a lady.

There was illness. There seemed to be some mental fatigue, and it was difficult for them to go about society in the last few months. And then there was the birth, and then the recovery. And, well, the world was on fire, and she did not want to bring a child into it at present. Not until she had figured out how to sort things.

And to do that she could not be overly distracted, not by love and not by babies.

No… Love and all that came with it was far too dangerous. She thought of her mother and how she’d given over so much of herself to her family and how she was now facing the loss of the love of her life.

The pain… Aurelia dug her fingertips into her palms. She did not want to imagine such a tide ever befalling her.

Perhaps one day, after she’d learned to sort things and protect her heart from the sort of pain her mother would soon face, she could contemplate a husband.

The dowager duchess was going to help her. Aurelia was certain she would. The dowager duchess was a remarkable figure.

Molly did have the right of it. No doubt, the dowager duchess was recovering from the previous evening. Aurelia had seen her come in with her brood of beautiful, strong, powerful, fascinating adult children.

Several of them were married and attended with their wives and husbands. They dominated wherever they went, and Aurelia had gazed with amazement. Oh, how she had! And she had known in an instant that this was her salvation. They were her solution.

For the Briarwoods were different than everyone else and did not conform. And that was what she desperately wanted for herself.

As the coach rolled up right before Heron House, she drew in a steadying breath, then looked at Molly. “The answer lies in that house.”

“Your doom lies in that house,” Molly returned. “Your mother will be furious if she finds out what you’re about. After all, your father is not well and will return from Bath at any time and you—”

“Yes, Molly,” she said swiftly, pain lancing through her. “I’m aware of all those things, and I shall do what needs to be done. I promise you that. But first I will find a solution that will suit me as well.”

Molly scowled. “Yes, my lady.”

The coach door swung open, and she took her footman’s hand and climbed down, stepping on the cobbles. Molly followed, keeping one step behind. They went up the beautiful steps headed towards the door, and it swung open quite easily. The butler did not appear perplexed or surprised by the appearance of a strange young lady on the step.

She was, after all, dressed very well, and she had also heard tales of Heron House and its oddities. Heron House was a place where anything was possible, or at least that was the whispered rumor.

“Yes?” the butler asked. “May I help you?”

“I am here to see the dowager duchess,” Aurelia declared.

The butler did not even so much as raise an eyebrow. He simply stepped back and said, “She is receiving this morning.”

And with that, he led her across the foyer floor.

She did everything she could not to gape. After all, she was accustomed to grand houses. But this one was particularly beautiful. And not only was it beautiful, it was warm. So many of the great houses across the countryside were cold, in her opinion, with no feeling, as if somehow they had brought together the greatest art in the world and felt nothing about it.

Here at Heron House, warmth and color seemed to dance in every corner, and it was clear that everything had been picked not only with an aesthetic taste in mind or a desire to impress. No. The things here had been picked out of love. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did.

Molly let out a gasp.

She smiled to herself even as she began to feel her insides spinning. This was an extreme decision. Perhaps she should just tell her mother the truth, that she could not and would not marry when she longed to accomplish so much… When the world was coming apart.

But her mother had too much to worry about.

Aurelia steeled her resolve. So many girls had to stop thinking about their own desires and dreams and fears and concerns and were required to simply get on with the continuation of the ton’s familial lines, and perhaps that’s what she should be doing. But there was something in her crying out, something that railed to stay away from love and family.

Because those things could be ripped away in a mad world. And already the mere threat of losing her father was too much.

No, she would be far wiser to remain independent and free from emotional entanglements.

And if anyone could help her, surely it was the Dowager Duchess of Westleigh.

She paused at the threshold of the parlor and then the butler stepped in and announced her. She entered and spotted the lady in question.

The dowager duchess was a sight to behold. She was beautiful. Her blonde hair was shot with silver, and she sat before the fire. It was cool this morning and the fire crackled warmly. She was drinking tea from a beautiful painted set and her gown? Her gown was resplendent. A sea-green silk spilling across her ivory silk chaise.

The room was like heaven, as if it could lift the spirits of any heart or soul. It did not matter if it was high summer or the darkest moments of winter, the room was a haven.

The dowager duchess gave her a smile that at once seemed to reassure but was clearly sharp with curiosity. “Good morning, my dear. Please do come in and sit. I am most curious as to your presence. Do I know you?”

She swallowed. It was not a rebuke, she realized, but it was a question which gave Aurelia pause. She had never been introduced to the dowager duchess and so she was taking a great chance by boldly coming here.

“We have not been introduced,” she confessed as she crossed the room. “But I do think that you know my mother and father. I am Lady Aurelia Pritchard.”

The dowager duchess’s brows rose ever so slightly, and she brought her teacup up to her lips. “I do know them. Absolutely marvelous people.” And then, after she returned her teacup to its saucer, she gestured with her elegant hand. “Take up a seat and I shall pour you a cup of tea and you will whisper to me all your secrets, for you must have many if you are here without your mama. I see you are wise, though, and have brought your lady’s maid. Would she like to go downstairs and have a cup of hot chocolate?”

Molly gave a quick bob of a curtsy in acknowledgement.

“Oh, yes. That’d be very kind,” Aurelia said.

And with that, the duchess gestured for the young lady to go to the stairs at the servant’s entrance.

“I’ve already rung the bell. Someone will be waiting to guide you down.”

With that, Molly gave another quick curtsy, eyes wide, and skittered to the entrance, which she disappeared through quickly as if it was a magical portal to another world.

And in some ways, perhaps it was. For the servant’s world was very different than the aristocrat’s.

Aurelia took the last steps across the Axminster carpet to the dowager duchess.

She smoothed her hands over her skirts, attempting to steady herself. For if she was honest, she felt overborne, overwhelmed, and, frankly, full of admiration. She sat slowly.

“Thank you for receiving me.”

“Oh, I receive many young ladies,” the dowager duchess said. “It gives me great pleasure to help anyone, and clearly you are seeking help if you are here. Does your mama know you’ve come?”

“No,” she admitted. “She thinks I’m out buying ribbons.”

The dowager’s silvery brows rose. “Oh my. Well, we best get you some ribbons then to make certain the ruse is not given up when you return home. Are you here for some frightening purpose? Are you in trouble?”

“No, not in any trouble,” she rushed, her heart beginning to pound. “Not really. Not in any sort of physical or moral trouble.”

“Ah,” the dowager surmised. “Trouble of the spirit. The most significant kind, often. Do tell me all about it.”

It was such a strange reception, straight to the point and quite compassionate. She supposed she was expecting something slightly stranger, something more suspicious or mysterious. But she found herself full of the desire to pour out all her thoughts.

“I have to get married,” she blurted.

The dowager duchess gave a little tsk, free of mockery. ’Twas as if she was tsking at the limitations of this life rather than any complaint Aurelia might have. “I see that lot in almost every lady’s life. To whom, my dear?”

“I don’t know,” she said, her desperation beginning to stir. “To someone. To anyone that my mother and father approve of. It is what I am supposed to do, after all.”

The dowager let out a knowing sigh. “Yes. It is the lot of young ladies,” the dowager duchess said. “Even my sons, poor dears. It is their lot too, you know.”

She nodded. “I suppose I do know, but I have so much that I want to do.”

“Ah,” the dowager duchess breathed, “I see.”

For a moment, Aurelia was certain the dowager did see and her hope at a solution grew. “I don’t know how to tell my mother and father that I wish to do other things.”

“Other things than get married? I do other things,” the dowager duchess pointed out, “though I’m not married now.”

“You were an actress,” she said.

The dowager duchess studied Aurelia carefully as the morning sun danced through the tall windows, spilling brightly over her skirts. “Yes, I was. And what do you think of that?”

“I think it is simply marvelous,” she said. “Truly, and I—”

“You don’t wish to be an actress, do you?” the dowager duchess cut in, her eyes dancing with merriment. “Your mother and father shall never recover. Though if it’s what you absolutely want, I’m certain we could find—”

“No, no, I don’t wish to be an actress,” she interjected swiftly, unable to imagine standing in front of a large group of people like that, reciting plays and pretending to be larger-than-life characters in grand costumes. “You see, it is the state of affairs of the world that holds me captive. I can barely sleep sometimes. My mind whirs constantly with what is happening in France. You see, my friends, people I’ve written to for years, are in jeopardy, and I want to do something about it. I cannot sit idly by as a wife and do nothing but serve tea and have babies and wear dresses. I need to be a part of helping people, of saving them, of doing things for the people who are being…”

Suddenly, she feared she sounded very foolish for imagining she could be of any help at all.

“Oh, my dear,” the dowager began gently, “you are a noble heart.”

She laughed hollowly. “Am I? Perhaps I am, though that seems a rather bold thing for me to claim for myself.”

“You should claim it immediately,” the dowager professed, leaning forward and patting Aurelia’s hand with her bejeweled fingers. “For it is a noble thing. But I see what you mean. Many a young man will not want a lady who is a crusader.”

Aurelia winced, both relieved that the dowager understood and saddened that gentlemen could be so detrimental to a ladies’ hopes and dreams. “Exactly.”

“Truly, can you not tell your mother and father this?”

“I don’t think so,” she said, tensing and feeling anguish twist inside her. “They so long for me to make a happy match, and my father has not been well. He went to Bath, and I don’t wish to cause him strain.”

The dowager tilted her head to the side, silent as she considered this.

The silence stretched and, for a moment, Aurelia was afraid she was about to be sent packing.

The dowager took up her teacup again and took a sip, savoring the beverage before at last replying, “So, you need a temporary solution until you can tell them what you’re hoping for. Is that it?”

She nodded, swallowing back her fear. “Yes.”

The dowager duchess smiled slowly. “I think I might have a solution for you.”

“You do?” she said.

“Oh yes.”

“What is it?” she gasped, excited, astonished, and thrilled that a solution might arise so quickly.

The dowager’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. “You should get married.”

And Aurelia’s heart sank.