Page 46 of Dropping the Ball

“I thought you understood that I do not love him,” Lady Gladys said, her voice thin and sharp.

“I love him,” Bernadette countered her.

“But you are already wed,” Lady Gladys said with a vicious smile. “So what you think and feel is irrelevant.”

Bernadette fought the feeling that Lady Gladys was right. She would not be defeated so easily.

“I may not be able to marry Alden, but I can still be his friend,” she said. “And as his friend, I will fight to protect him from your machinations.”

“By throwing another bride at him?” Lady Gladys asked, one eyebrow arched and a look of victory in her eyes.

Bernadette huffed out a breath. She did not see any possible way that she could bring a satisfactory outcome to the situation they were all in. But then, she had known it was doomed from the beginning.

“If you will excuse me, Lady Gladys, I must go up and change for supper,” she said, straightening her back and pretending she had the upper hand when she was certain she did not. “If you would kindly vacate the terrarium, I believe it will soon be declared out of bounds for guests.”

“I would gladly leave this place,” Lady Gladys said, accompanying Bernadette to the door that led into the rest of the house, though Bernadette would rather the two of them had parted ways entirely. “I would gladly destroy this place, and I will, once it is mine.”

Bernadette did not deign to reply. Lady Gladys was so certain of her victory … and Bernadette was increasingly certain of her own defeat. The only thing she could think to do was to prevent Lady Gladys from sinking her talons into Alden.

Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to ensure that Alden found one of the other female guests pleasing enough to marry. As she changed for supper, washing away the dirt and sweat of the day, she considered advising Alden to return to the Americas of his own will, without marrying Lady Gladys first. But she did not think Alden had any interest in traveling again at his age, and she could not bear the thought of parting with him.

There was nothing for it but to wait out the situation to see if an alternative solution would present itself.

She searched for that situation at once, as soon as Alden and his guests went in for supper. Bernadette had arranged nearly all the details for the grand meal, from consulting with Cook over the menu to instructing Mrs. Pettigrew on which flowers should be brought in to decorate the table and how they should be arranged. The footmen had outdone themselves when it came to the placement of silverware and crystal goblets for drinking, and as Bernadette took her seat near the head of the table, where Alden had the place of honor, even Egbert was there to do his part.

“Egbert,” Bernadette whispered to the bright lizard as he sat tucked under the foliage of the flower display in front of her. “What are you doing here?”

Egbert, of course, could not answer. He merely turned his head slightly and blinked at her.

Bernadette could not worry about Egbert with so many other things hanging in the balance. She promised herself that if Egbert became a nuisance, she would discreetly tuck him into her lap under the table, hoping no one else noticed. For the time being, the most important task in front of her was to find someone who could rescue Alden from Lady Gladys’s machinations.

“Lady Wendine,” she addressed the woman, who had been seated next to her. “What do you think about the potential unification of Britannia?”

Lady Wendine glanced up from her soup in shock, looking from Bernadette to Alden, two places away from her, as if any answer would reflect badly on her. “I … I do not know,” she said.

Bernadette tried to hold onto her patience. “I believe unification is a subject Lord Alden is quite passionate about,” she said, glancing across the table to Lady Alyce as well. She had arranged for several of the young ladies who had shown a bit more intelligence to sit closer to Alden, at the end of the table.

“Yes,” Alden said, smiling, though Bernadette caught confusion in his expression as well. “It is my sincerest hope that the kingdoms of the New Heptarchy will join together in a single nation within my lifetime.”

“Is that what you wish?” Lady Wendine said, smiling slightly.

“It is,” Alden said.

“Then that is what I wish as well,” Lady Wendine said, then glanced down the table a bit to her mother, who had taken an immediate interest in the conversation.

Lady Madeline nodded in approval of her daughter’s answer, but Bernadette wanted to roll her eyes. No opinion was even worse than a conflicting opinion. In fact, a conflicting opinion would spark a discussion, and it was through discussion that people became closer.

“Would you wish for unification under any regime?” she asked Alden, careful to keep the young ladies engaged as well. “Or, like me, would you want unification under the Mercian plan only?”

A bit farther down the table, both Kat and Lord Waldorf, who had been seated across the table from each other, sat straighter and took some interest in the conversation.

“I … ,” Lady Alyce began, glancing worriedly to Alden. “I would want whatever my husband wanted,” she said, then glanced mournfully down at her place.

Bernadette cursed inwardly. She should not have selected a woman who still pined for another to be among her chosen few.

“I do not think the Mercian plan is a good one,” Lady Collette put her opinion forward, batting her eyelashes at Alden. “Women should not be given so much power. They should bow to their husband’s wishes in all things.”

Like Lady Wendine had earlier, Lady Collette glanced to her mama, as if checking to make certain she’d given the right answer.

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