Page 1 of Dropping the Ball

Chapter One

Near Lyndhurst Grove, Wessex – Summer, 1816

Lady Bernadette Attleborough was glad to be in Wessex. That was a sentiment that few of her dearest friends among the Oxford Society Ladies would ever express, given the somewhat draconian state of laws pertaining to women in the Kingdom of Wessex. But for Bernadette, locating herself in Wessex meant that she was not at home in her native East Anglia, and as long as she was not home, under her father’s unforgiving roof, she would not have to face the consequences of her long-ago mistake.

A mistake that continued to hang over her head, like the Sword of Damocles, ready to end the life she had so happily built for herself over the last ten years.

“I’ll give you this much, Surrey is a pretty part of Wessex,” Bernadette’s dear friend, Lady Muriel Godwin, commented as they rode together, along with Muriel’s new husband, Lord Cedric Godwin, Marquess of Amesbury, through the countryside surrounding Lyndhurst Grove, gazing out the window at fields of green and a deep blue sky.

“All of Wessex is pretty,” Lord Cedric said as he lounged by Muriel’s side, watching her more than the landscape. Muriel glanced over her shoulder, as if she would argue with him, but Lord Cedric cut her off with, “As long as I am with you.”

Muriel’s expression turned from scolding to sly, and she leaned over to kiss Lord Cedric’s lips softly. “You are a flattering rogue, sir, and I will not stand for it.”

“No, you most certainly will notstandfor it,” Lord Cedric said, wickedness in his smile and a sparkle in his eyes.

Muriel laughed low in her throat and leaned toward her husband, then seemed to remember Bernadette was in the rear-facing seat opposite them, watching the entire display. She cleared her throat and straightened, saying, “I am so sorry, Bernadette, my dear.”

“Oh, do not let my presence impede your newly-wedded bliss,” Bernadette said cheerily. “I rather like seeing my friends so happily settled.”

“Bernadette, how dare you!” Muriel gasped with pretend offense. “We are Oxford Society Ladies. We only enter marriage by accident.”

Bernadette laughed, as did Lord Cedric, but her face flushed hot, and it took a monumental effort of will not to squirm in her seat. “You sound very much like Kat now,” she said, hoping to deflect the conversation away from her. “Kat is Lady Katherine Balmor of Mercia, a good friend of ours from the Oxford Society,” Bernadette explained to Lord Cedric.

“I have met Lady Katherine,” Lord Cedric said with a wary, sideways look to Muriel.

“Yes, you have,” Muriel said in return, grinning broadly.

Bernadette remembered then that Lord Cedric had met both Kat and their friend circle’s other member, Lady Minerva Llewellyn of Wales, at his and Muriel’s wedding several months before. Kat had been highly suspicious of Lord Cedric’sintentions in wedding Muriel and had let Lord Cedric know. Kat had accosted the poor man as if he were a spy or a smuggler and she had been assigned to bring his criminal activities to light. Lord Cedric’s brother, Lord Waldorf, had not approved.

“Regardless of what Kat thinks of the state of marriage,” Muriel said, taking Lord Cedric’s hand and threading their fingers together, “I have found it to be a perfectly reasonable state. I am happy.”

The way Muriel and Lord Cedric smiled at each other had Bernadette sighing, both with joy for the two of them and with wistfulness for herself. She would never experience that sort of happiness in her life, and certainly not in marriage.

She had no interest in dwelling on her own fate, so she put on a smile and said, “I am quite looking forward to designing and executing this ball that your cousin, Lord Alden, intends to host, my lord.”

Lord Cedric pulled his attention away from Muriel and smiled at Bernadette, though there was something ironic about that smile. “I fear you may have your work cut out for you, Lady Bernadette,” he said.

Bernadette blinked and sat a bit straighter. “I should think not,” she said. “I have been planning and organizing social events, from musical evenings to grand coming out balls, for nearly eight years now, since shortly after my graduation from Oxford University.”

“Does Oxford offer a course on planning parties?” Lord Cedric asked, half in jest, but half in seriousness.

“No,” Bernadette said, lowering her head somewhat. “I studied Music and the Classics at Oxford. As lovely as those subjects are, they do not exactly prepare one for an industrious career.”

“Bernadette’s most prized attribute is that she knows everyone in theton, and she gets on with them, which is theclosest thing to a miracle I have ever witnessed,” Muriel said, winking at Bernadette. “She is far too sweet and amiable for anyone to say no to, which positions her ideally to introduce important people to each other, particularly within the sphere of grand social occasions.”

“How extraordinary,” Lord Cedric said.

Bernadette shrugged. “I have an eye for design, and I have gained a reputation for competence and accomplishment. Quite a few matches have come from the events I have orchestrated.”

“So you are a matchmaker?” Lord Cedric asked.

“Not precisely,” Bernadette said. “I merely set the stage and invite the players. What they all choose to do once the curtain rises is up to them.”

“Admirable indeed,” Lord Cedric said with a broad smile. That smile dropped a moment later when he said, “But I still fear you have an impossible task ahead of you, Lady Bernadette. My cousin Alden is … unique.”

Bernadette had heard the whispers. Lord Alden Godwin was some sort of a naturalist as well as being a member of the high-placed Godwin family. He’d spent a great deal of his early years, after university, traveling abroad in exotic locations such as South America and the islands of the Caribbean.

From what Muriel had told her after Lord Alden wrote to her in London, saying that Muriel had recommended her services and asking if she would plan a ball for him at Lyndhurst Grove, Lord Alden had only just returned to Wessex two years before, and he had not been seen much in company since then. He was a man approaching fifty in need of a wife, and he had turned to Bernadette for help. That was all Bernadette needed to know.

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