E is for Elena

7 Diabolical

We followed through with our plan at the very first opportunity which so happened to be the very next week. We spent our afternoon getting ourselves ready, laughing as we did each other's hair and makeup, posing in the mirror in our fabulous new dresses. I'd never had a friend before, not really, so I was surprised to find just how close we'd gotten already.

When we emerged, we acted as though we hadn't noticed the time and grumbled about how it was far too late for Anne to head home just to meet us at the ball by now so we supposed she would have to go with us. It was then decided, in surprisingly, that Alexander would be her most appropriate escort as my father was with my mother as always and so the responsibility fell to him as the next available man in the house to see to it that all young females were accompanied. So he took her arm and led her gently off to the carriage. As Nathaniel and I filed in behind them, I could hardly wipe the smile from my face.

It only grew when we arrived at the ball itself and entered to wild stares and whispers about the girl on my brother's arm. Anne was finally getting the attention she deserved and Alexander was finally being introduced to someone who wasn't as vain and vapid as the rest. I couldn't hear them from where Nathaniel and I entered a few paces behind but I saw my brother smiling as he leaned down to speak to her. That's when I heard Nathaniel chuckling beside me. I glanced his way to find him watching them as well.

"You truly are using his lack of social awareness to your advantage, aren't you?" Nathaniel muttered with a grin.

"Excuse me?" I snapped back.

"Your brother hasn't the faintest idea of what his entrance with the young woman on his arm appears to be to this crowd, during this season," he accused, though his expression was merely amused.

I opened my mouth to defend myself but he caught me off guard by continuing.

"It's practically..." he leaned down so that his lips were tantalizingly close to my ear when he whispered, "diabolical."

He pulled away, pumping his eyebrows and I grinned back at him, feeling something almost like pride.

"Miss Langley," someone spoke and I turned to find a dashing young gentleman in a velvet doublet speaking to me. I gave him a serene smile and waited for him to continue. "My apologies but I saw you enter and, well, I am Peter Kingsley and I simply had to come and introduce myself and tell you just how beautiful you look this evening."

I returned his kind smile and opened my mouth to return his introductions as well when Nathaniel Harrison stepped between us.

"Kingsley," he called out in a greeting of his own, though his voice seemed oddly strained at the utterance of the man's name. "What a delight to see you again. Tell me, how does the tea trade fare?"

"Oh, well, it is fine, Mr. Harrison. But, if you'll excuse me, I was just-"

"Leaving? Us too. Have to make the rounds, you know. It was excellent seeing you again, Kingsley."

With that, Nathaniel took me by the arm and led me off, leaving Kingsley staring after us, blinking as if coming to terms with what had just occurred. When we had made it a few meters away, I wrenched myself from his grasp and whirled on him.

"Am I to have two older brothers scaring away suitors now?" I demanded in my fury.

"Is that how you think of me, Elena?" Nathaniel asked then, his eyes darkening and his voice becoming a sort of low growl that had me both wanting to run away from him and pull in closer at the same time. "A brother?"

Stunned by his tone, I could only blink back at him in surprise.

"Elena! There you are!" A shrill voice interrupted. Nathaniel hesitated but then turned away from me. I glanced in the direction of the voice to find a few girls who had debuted this season making their way over to me. Apparently seeing that our interruption was female, Nathaniel slunk away, leaving me to fend for myself among the gossiping horde. "We saw your brother arrive. Who is that on his arm?"