Sitting on a small gilt chair and agitatedly smoothing the silk of her chocolate coloured dress until her Aunt slapped her hand and glared before getting up and sweeping majestically towards several of her friends, Katherine looked out at the assembled gathering; there were so many new faces this season, young girls bright eyed and eager to entice a man, any man, to marry them so that their purpose in life might be fulfilled.
Katherine would never be able to join them, her mistake was too great to remedy and even though she was dressed the part and had her hair curled just so, she was now relegated to the position of chaperone for her younger cousin Melody who at just eighteen and making her debut this year had made something of a splash in society, her scheduled audience with the Queen was imminent in just a few short days and her mother deemed it necessary for Melody to get some practice in at formal gatherings and so here they were at the Westcliff’s first ball of the season.
Katherine watched Melody with a sharp focus to her green eyed gaze; the brunette seemed to sparkle out on the dance floor as she was twirled gracefully around the floor by a young man who had been introduced to them all as The Earl of Maybury; Katherine knew him better as Jonathon Winters.
He had been one of her brother’s closest friends at one point in their lives and Katherine still remembered his kindness to her after she was thrown from her horse one afternoon, picking her up and carefully wiping her tear stained face with his handkerchief as he joked with the young girl that everyone fell at some point in their lives, it was how they were picked up that counted.
Barely twelve years old at the time, the young Katherine had been in awe of the seventeen year old and for days afterwards had watched him covertly from her window until her governess had admonished her for not paying attention to her school work.
The years had changed things between them however, as well as Katherine’s status as a chaperone; when Jonathon had been introduced to her Aunt and cousin, he’d barely spared Katherine a glance, dismissing her from the dark clothing she wore as not being worth his interest.
It hadn't always been so.
Sighing to herself Katherine glanced to her left to see her Aunt encased in a flock of brightly coloured matrons and she rose to inform her that she was going to get herself a glass of punch, she’d not been offered anything from anyone all evening, despite both her Aunt and cousin having been brought several glasses, but that was the role of a chaperone; to be frequently ignored unless one wasn’t doing one’s job.
Instead of heading to the overly crowded punch bowl, which was surrounded by dapperly dressed men in well-fitting evening dress, and having to force her way through the crush whilst being ignored, Katherine headed out of the open French doors and onto the darkened balcony.
It was still slightly too early in the year for it to be considered decent enough for the lamps down in the garden to be lit and people to be walking the carefully manicured pathways but there were several people taking the air with her at the other end of the long balcony and so Katherine felt safe in lingering for a moment, she leant her elbows on the balustrade in a most unladylike fashion and took a deep breath of the cool night air.
“And I thought I was to remain alone out here, enjoying the quiet solitude.”
A voice spoke from the darkness over to Katherine’s right and she jumped slightly as a figure came into view; he had black hair with the oddest silver streaks, causing Katherine to wonder if he had gone prematurely grey, but it was the man’s eyes that caused her to catch her breath, one was a bright green much like her own, but the other…
“Your eye…” She breathed the words out slowly and watched the man flinch slightly; she assumed that he was at least five or six years her senior however it was rude to ask such a question, especially after making such a faux pas as she already had.
“Forgive me” Katherine said quietly, “I did not mean to comment so rudely on your appearance, nor do I wish to disturb you in any way, I was merely seeking a quiet moment alone” She knew that she should stop speaking to him, they had not been formally introduced after all.
She should turn around and return to her small chair tucked away in the corner of the magnificent, and stifling, ballroom; yet Katherine had spoken to no one other than her Aunt and Melody, no man had even acknowledged her presence and though she had brought it all upon herself she couldn’t help but wish just for a moment to be someone else, to once again be that bright young girl with her whole future ahead of her.
Tucking a stray strand of unfashionably dark brown hair behind her ear Katherine slid her eyes back to the ballroom; she couldn’t see any of her relatives, she would be safe talking to this man for a few moments more.
“I was also seeking a moment’s privacy from the hullabaloo that is Westcliff’s soiree” He placed one hand across his torso and the other behind his back, bowing prettily to Katherine in a way that she hadn’t been greeted in a long time, causing her to blush with its elegance, “I am at a loss as there is no one to introduce us to one another, but I am Lysander Blake”
Katherine curtsied and replied smoothly, “I am Lady Katherine Cottingham, daughter of the Earl of Sussex”
