I Will Find You

* ~ 2 ~ *

Gwendolyn's POV

After Gideon has come I can see something again. He has matchsticks with him, so we can see the room where we left. It is really pretty, blue curtains and a weak scent of lavender. I could even stay here, except there isn't any green sofas here. Here the sofa is blue and flower printed. 

"We should go."

I follow Gideon to the big salon, where all the guests are. On the other side are Lord and Lady Brompton. I expect we have to go and say hi to them. But not 'hi', something more appropriate that fits to this era. Charlotte would have a heart attack if I said something like that.

"Good evening, my Lord", Gideon says and bows to Lord Brompton. I expect that I have to do the same thing, so I do a curtsy.

"Good evening, Mr. Gray. May I ask whose company we are enjoying this evening?", Lord Brompton looks at me.

I almost forgot the fake names that we have to use. I am Penelope Mary Gray, and Gideon is my brother. I'm from Derbyshire.

"This is my little sister, Penelope Gray", Gideon says. He looks at me significantly, and I assume I have to do a curtsy again. I give the lord a shy smile and say:

"It's a great honor too meet you, Lord Brompton".

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Gray", Lord Brompton says and nods a little.

"Come on darling, come with me", Lady Brompton says and guides me forward to other guests. I see a lot of colorful dresses, and the wigs could reach up to the ceiling which is full of paintings. I can see that Gideon has already found some company. Lady Brompton sees my gaze.

"Have you already met lady Lavinia? She's the youngest widow in these locations. I think that she is going to entertain us with her singing abilities. Take this, looks like you need it," she says, giving a glass of some red liquid to me. I bet this is her famous fruit punch that James told me about. I taste it, and it spreads in my veins with a lovely warm and a sweet mellow feeling.

"I think you're going to need it even more when lady Lavinia starts to sing", some older woman says.

"Oh stop it Joyce "(It is so long when I've read Sapphire blue. Isn't there some other lady too?), lady Brompton laughs. "Could you do it any better?"

"I bet I could," the lady named Joyce says.

After that I hear an orchestra starting to play classical music. Oh my God, now I have to dance and I still don't know how to do it correctly. Charlotte's teaching just confused me more.

Suddenly Gideon touches my shoulder. I wince and turn around.

"On your thoughts again?", he asks with a tone of a criticism. I mumble something about the violinist's hair.

"It's hard not to be in your thoughts in this kind of place", I say.

"Maybe you should just be more outgoing."

I sigh and take a sip of punch. It starts to feel like I'm in a little ship.

"May I dance with you, before you drink too much?", Gideon asks, giving his hand.

"How did you come to the conclusion that I would drink too much?", I say and take his hand. He doesn't answer while guiding me to the floor.

I bite my bottom lip while I'm trying to recall the steps.

"Just remember: left hand, left shoulder, right hand, right shoulder", Gideon says.

"Yeah, that helped a lot". I say. I hope that I wont step on someone's foot.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help", he says as we change pairs. I almost miss mine. He's way taller than I am, and the green jacket he's wearing smells like plums.

"This Miss has got really beautiful hair", he says. I guess my wig is the only thing he can see, being as tall as a giraffe. I say "thank you Mr. ..." That's all we speak during our dance before it's time to change pairs again. As I'm moving towards another partner, I see how Gideon is dancing with Lady Lavinia. Lady Lavinia bends over to whisper something to Gideon's ear. Gideon responds with a smile. I almost hit someone moving to his next partner.

As I am Gideon's pair again, the dance is about to end. Gideon sees something on the other side of the salon. He grabs my hand and says:

"We haven't introduced ourselves to the Count yet." He starts dragging me to the other side. We go past Lady Brompton and her punch and the Lady named Joyce. They seem to have a good conversation. I wish I could join them. 

"Oh, here are our little time travelers!", the count says as we reach him. Gideon bows and I do a curtsy again. Still the count looks only to Gideon when he speaks to us. How rude of him.

"Gideon, I have something to show you downstairs," he says, pointing to the door with his hand. When he sees we are both coming after him, he says:

"Just Gideon, women are not allowed there".

This is starting to go a little too far. I stop and look how they disappear behind the corner. Gideon looks at me apologetically.

"Another time, Raven," I hear the count whisper in my head.

***

On Thursday, when my mom drove me home from my dance practice by car, we let some man cross the road with his bike and he was so happy about that, he waved his hand and showed thumbs up and when we went past him again he still waved and smiled. I'm still so happy about that :3

Don't forget to elapse daily,

See you next weekend!