Only Olivia

Chapter Sixteen

April 1810

As promised, Olivia Fairfax split her time between the Baynes and Phillip. For a while it was lovely, but then life got in the way and Philip had to return to his busy schedule, which left Olivia alone in a house that suddenly seemed too large.

At least she had Hannah, a hastily employed maid, who proved to be a loyal, rambunctious sort with magic fingers and an eye for both fashion and hair design. The sweet girl talked far too much for Olivia to ever feel any loneliness.

This evening she chattered away as she took a hot set of curling tongs to her mistress' hair, an ordeal Olivia never quite understood as her hair curled prettily enough on its own.

"I have heard this ball is the highlight of the Season," explained Hannah.

"You said that about last week's ball." Olivia winces as the burning metal brushed against her ear. She squeezed her eyes shut, having a scar to look forward to in a few hours.

"Oh, but this one truly is the highlight. Lady Sheridan always hosts the fanciest events. She has not hosted many over as the past few years as she is readying her daughters for their debut. Her servants claim she is scouting out the best marital prospects for her eldest daughters." Hannah secured her topknot with several jeweled pins. Olivia's thick locks proved difficult this night and freed themselves until the maid jabbed the pins roughly, their sharp ends tinging her scalp.

"So this ball shall be brimming with eligible men?" she asked, tilting her head back.

"Yes, which I know does not interest you."

A wisp of a sigh escaped Olivia's gritted lips. "Even if I did not have Philip, eligible men in the ton neither interest me nor are interested in me."

Hannah scoffed at her mistress, pulling a face in the mirror. "Look at you, Miss Fairfax. You enchant men wherever you go. You could find a wealthy husband with ease."

She smothered the desire to laugh in her face. A husband? No. She made her bed once she agreed to be a mistress. While she felt she still cared for Philip, she wished, at times, she had taken a different path.

Marriage seemed a dream left by faeries as impermanent as their dust. That path was no longer hers.

"If only Lord Dryden divorced that wife of his," mused Hannah.

Again, Olivia sighed. "It is not quite that simple."

"Is so." The maid insisted with a harrumph. "I heard about a Scottish divorce that is as easy to procure as their marriages. It is nothing for a couple of their standing."

Hannah only spoke words that Olivia kept silent. She enjoyed her maid's honesty, even when it stung. Her frankness made her feel less foolish since someone felt the same as she.

She dared not ask these questions of Philip though he used to proclaim he would we her only if he could. His sentences were full of "woulds" and "coulds", never a hint of "will" or "can". Before she never noticed the difference. That was before he left her with the emptiest of promises though her bank account filled with each apology.

As the clock chimed the turning of the hour, Hannah let the matter drop. Lord and Lady Baynes were to call in minutes to whisk Miss Fairfax away to the ball. Philip promised his belated attendance with a cool kiss upon her lips. Cat, as she loved to do, came to Olivia's rescue, insisting she accompany them.

By the pealing of the next set of bells, Olivia descended from the Baynes family carriage in a silk cloak. She cursed Hannah's choice of gown. The maid insisted on her newest gown, spun out of whisper-thin silk with a low-cut bodice and cap sleeves encrusted with paste diamonds.