Lips That Lied || hs

Twenty-Six

Newcastle, United Kingdom
December 1851

It was the tradition in Newcastle for the Pelham family to host a grand celebration during the holiday season. It was the talk of high society as families travelled far and wide to take part in the three-day event that would kickstart Advent. Complete with many displays of art, music, and dancing, this party was a playground of sorts for those who had a particular taste for the finer things in life.

On the first of December, the guests began to arrive and settle into their rooms, filling the typically empty mansion with laughter and the ceaseless chatter of people who were in awe of all the splendid decorations they were seeing. The house had been extravagantly decorated for Christmas, complete with ropes of garland, candles, and golden ornaments to make the Pelham ancestral home seem even more magnificent than it usually did.

Henry and Regina, ever the dutiful hosts, made it a point to greet each and every one of their guests before sending them inside for an afternoon of refreshments and light conversation. Once their things were delivered upstairs to the guests' wing of the house, they would join Jane in the drawing room, where she would entertain them and make sure that everything was to their satisfaction. It felt much like a useless job, but Jane was nonetheless tasked with the monotonous undertaking, all the while having to keep an inviting expression throughout every dull conversation that took place.

Jane was exhausted by the time night fell, her will to socialize dwindling with each congratulation she received on her engagement. During the hours she spent welcoming people into her home, Jane was joined by none other than James Hale. He stood stoically behind her, saying not a word unless directly addressed by someone who had the audacity to speak to him. It was clear to everyone who encountered him that evening that his charm of prior years had evidently disappeared, or at the very least, had been hidden away and replaced by a distaste in the world. He was bitter about something, and only Jane seemed to know just why.

Several times when they had a brief moment standing by themselves, Jane would turn to him and tell him to at least pretend to be pleasant, but to her dismay, James would simply roll his cold grey eyes at her before taking another drink of his champagne and walking away to fill it once again. He wasn't outright rude to her in the presence of so many people, but their interactions were tense and strained, leading those around them to suspect that things were not so amiable between the should-be happy couple.

Luckily though, Jane did not have to sit by James at dinner. It was apparent that both of their demeanors improved drastically when not in the presence of the other. Jane observed this in James and how he seemed to be friendlier towards the women that were seated near him, his blue eyes seeming to come alive with that enchanting glow that he had suppressed in the last weeks of being in that house.

Though Jane knew that she shouldn't have cared, she could not help the offense that she took over James' apparent interest in any woman but her. She knew it was stupid to be hurt by this; after all, she had Harry, and he was her future. But as confident in his love as she was, Jane could not suppress the insecure teenager within her that longed for the approval of those around her. And since James so obviously did not seem to give it to her, Jane found herself wondering what it was about her that left him so dissatisfied.

He rarely hesitated to stare lustily at her when he had had enough to drink, but never had he so shamelessly flirted with her as he was with the married women sitting near him. There was a playfulness in the way he talked with them that made Jane hate him. It was jealousy, though she would never admit to herself. She had better things to worry about than the man that she was leaving, so Jane determined not to look at him again.

Instead, she fixed her eyes on Harry who sat with her Uncle Andrew diagonally across from her. This proved to be a wise decision as she was given an excuse to talk to Harry with no one to suspect them of anything. It was then that she completely forgot about James and the slight that he had paid her; why should she think of him when Harry looked at her with such adoration in his lively green eyes? That was surely a much more pleasant attitude in which to spend her evening.