Page 13 of Dropping the Ball

“Get that creature away from me!” Lady Gladys said, skirting the edge of the room to bypass Alden and to bolt for the parlor doorway. “I shall call upon you some other time, Lord Alden, when that thing has been dealt with.”

“Really, there’s no need to go,” Alden said, trying again to show Lady Gladys that Herbert was docile.

“There is every reason to go,” Lady Gladys protested. “Just as I now see there is every reason for you to find a wife. You need someone to set this entire place and yourself to right. I will assist you in this endeavor. You can dismiss this woman and put aside the idea of this matchmaking ball. I have far better ideas for you.”

“I rather like the idea of a ball,” Alden said, glancing to Lady Bernadette. Really, he liked the idea of planning the ball with Lady Bernadette. “But if you wish to help–”

“Oh, I couldn’t ask Lady Gladys to extend herself like that,” Lady Bernadette said.

Simultaneously, Lady Gladys said, “I cannot think with that thing anywhere near me. Good day, Lord Alden. I will return when my nerves have calmed.”

With that, Lady Gladys rushed out to the hall. A moment later, Alden heard Smythe wish the woman a good day as the front door closed.

“It’s a shame she couldn’t stay,” Alden sighed, staring at Herbert as if he was addressing his comment to the chameleon.

“She did say she would return,” Lady Bernadette said, stepping forward to look at Herbert as well.

“Yes, she did,” Alden said, not certain how he felt about that. He shrugged and smiled at Lady Bernadette. “Never mind. We should return Herbert here to the terrarium, and then we’ll retire to my study, where we can discuss plans for improvements to the house in greater detail. Does that suit you?”

“It does,” Lady Bernadette smiled, seemingly more relaxed, now that Lady Gladys had gone. “I have already had additional ideas since our earlier conversation. If you would but lend me paper and a pen with which to write them down, we can formulate a plan and an order of work.”

“I have all of that in my study, Lady Bernadette,” Alden said, heading out of the room and down the hall to the terrarium with her.

However worrying it was that Lady Gladys wanted to be involved in plans for Alden’s future happiness, Alden was satisfied with the course things were taking so far. He was certain that with Lady Bernadette’s help, he would have the finest house and host the finest ball in Wessex before the summer was over.

Chapter Five

As far as Bernadette was concerned, she was sailing in uncharted waters. And there were alligators in those waters, among other things. She was well-versed in the sort of conversations that necessarily took place with fine ladies and gentlemen of Britannia’s aristocracy when planning a ball or other event. Over the years, she had developed a procedure for such conversations, which was, in part, what had gained her a reputation for efficiency.

Everything was different with Alden, however, beginning with the fact that he’d finally broken through her resistance to addressing him by his given name. She still could not do it to his face, but more and more throughout the day, as they’d discussed ideas and toured the gardens, she’d found herself thinking of him that way.

For a man who had spent the middle part of his life abroad, Alden was very familiar with the peculiarities of his estate.

“My cousin may balk at the demolition of the old part of the house and the construction of the terrarium,” he commented to Bernadette as they stood in the garden, staring up at the startling, glass room, “but he did not know how decrepit and ill-designed this part of the house was before. You saw in your tour of the newer wings of the house that a great deal of work is needed to make the guestrooms and parlors presentable.” He nodded at the huge, glass face of the terrarium. “The same was true of this central section of the house. Perhaps more so.”

By the end of the afternoon, Bernadette was able to see that Alden might have been eccentric, but he was not half as zany as Lord Cedric and Muriel had believed him to be. As wild as his ideas were, and as ambitious as he wanted to be with the ball, every peculiarity had a point, and every outlandish idea was, in fact, possible, perhaps even ingenious, once he explained it.

Because of that, Bernadette should not have been surprised at all when she awoke the next morning to the sound of hammering elsewhere in the house.

“What is that racket?” she asked Rachel, the young, energetic maid whom Alden had assigned to be her lady’s maid as Rachel brought a fresh pitcher of wash water into her room, then rebuilt the fire in the grate.

“That, my lady? That’s the workmen,” Rachel answered with a smile.

Bernadette climbed out of bed and wrapped her banyan around her shoulders, tying it in front. She stepped over to the door, then opened it and carefully poked her head into the hall.

The room she had been given was one of the nicest in the house. It was at the end of the hall closest to the stairs, and from the doorway, she had a good view of the entire hallway on that floor, as well as a view of the stairs leading down, if she stepped out far enough. The workmen sounded as if they were already hard at work on the floor below, but Alden and a pair of menin rough dress also stood at the far end of the hall, discussing something and gesturing into one of the rooms, whose door was open.

Bernadette gasped and pulled back into her room, shutting the door, as soon as Alden glanced her way and smiled. She was in no way ready to be in company yet.

“I’m amazed that there are already workmen in the house,” she said as she hurried to bathe and dress, with Rachel’s help. “We only just concocted the idea of improving the guestrooms two days ago, and Lord Alden and I only began discussions about how to proceed in earnest yesterday.”

Rachel laughed. “That’s Lord Alden for you. He’s not a man to let moss grow under his feet, if you catch my meaning, my lady. When he wants something, he finds a way to get it.”

Bernadette was surprised by the statement, even though she’d already seen it to be true. Grasping something one wanted was a trait she had always associated with bad men and conniving ladies. Honorable gentlemen and ladies were patient and waited for the things they wanted. They deferred to others. Or so Bernadette had believed.

But why did she believe that? It was certainly the way she’d been told she should behave. It was the way she had behaved. She had deferred to her parents and her betters, agreeing to whatever they wanted for her, whether it was what she wanted or not. Even now, she waited, wrote letters, and remained patient and steadfast instead of asking the burning, impertinent questions that had eaten away at her for more than ten years. Questions such as “Why are you not here?” and “Why am I not there?” and “What is the purpose of all this?”

She had learned a different way at Oxford. Different enough to break her out of her parents’ home, and into a different sort of waiting in London. But knowledge and experience had notsupplanted the deeply held belief that to be good, one must be agreeable, unquestioning, and patient.

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