Eloisa's Adventure Read online

  ELOISA’S ADVENTURE

  By

  Rebecca King

  Eloisa’s Adventure

  By

  Rebecca King

  © Rebecca King 2015

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  COMING SOON

  OTHER BOOKS BY REBECCA KING

  CHAPTER ONE

  Eloisa lifted the lid of the box and stared at the silken creation that lay before her.

  “Let me see it,” Cissy demanded as she peered over her shoulder.

  “My beautiful dress,” Eloisa whispered reverently. She lifted the voluminous folds of her new ball dress free of its delicate confines and held it against her chest. She shook out the skirts and stared down at herself in stunned delight. Her new gown was the most exquisite item of clothing she had seen in her entire life. It was wonderful just to be able to own such a creation. She was so excited that she couldn’t stop herself from twirling around. The thought of being able to wear it for the forthcoming ball brought forth such excitement that a giggle escaped her.

  She looked at her sister, Cissy, and grinned. “Well?” she asked.

  “Good Lord, Eloisa, you must keep dancing while you are at the ball tomorrow night. If you stop, a handsome prince charming is going to sweep you off your feet.” Pride rang clearly in Cissy’s voice as she studied her.

  Eloisa shook her head ruefully when Cissy’s chin quivered. While Cissy dabbed at her eyes, she held the dress up to her chest with one hand and stroked the silken folds of the voluminous skirts with the other.

  “I am sorry,” Cissy whispered as she dug around in her pocket for a handkerchief.

  “Do you really like it?” Eloisa asked as she studied herself in the mirror and tried to envisage what the dress would feel like on.

  Cissy studied her thoughtfully. “Are you sure the colour is right?” she asked with a hint of caution in her voice. When Eloisa whirled to face her, she looked a little apologetic. “I didn’t mean I didn’t like it,” she gasped. “It is gorgeous, but you are going to your first ever ball. Should you not wear a lighter colour?”

  Eloisa smiled at her darling sister to assure her that she wasn’t offended. “I am not supposed to be there if you remember,” she reminded her. “I am not an invited guest.”

  Cissy remained cautious, in spite of Eloisa’s eagerness. “Are you sure you should do this? I mean; what if a guest sees you and thinks that you have broken in or something?” she asked.

  She didn’t want to put a dampener on her sister’s joy, but felt compelled to raise her concerns over the arrangements Mr de Lisle had made. Although his heart had been in the right place, the unusual conditions of Eloisa’s attendance at Lord Aldwich’s birthday ball didn’t seem fair on her darling sister. Eloisa had put so much time and effort into her dancing lessons that she deserved to go to the ball as a guest with a formal invitation. She shouldn’t be made to dance on the terrace outside as was required of her.

  Completely unaware of her sister’s doubts, Eloisa smiled. “I don’t know many burglars, you understand, but I doubt any of them would ever wear something this splendid.”

  She whirled around the room in gay abandon and giggled when her legs got ravelled up in the folds of the skirts and she became dizzy. She flopped into the chair next to the window with a grin and draped the dress over her lap while she studied her sister.

  “I am sorry that you cannot come, Cissy,” she declared quietly. Her smile dimmed. “You should come with us.”

  “No, thank you. This is your evening, Eloisa,” Cissy declared firmly. She shook her head so vehemently that her ringlets bobbed and danced against her alabaster cheeks. “I shall stay here, and shall continue to work on my embroidery instead thank you very much.”

  “Why do you think father insisted we take these lessons?” Eloisa asked when some of her joy had faded.

  Although she had raised this issue many times with Cissy over the past several weeks, neither of them had been able to come to any satisfactory conclusion. She didn’t really expect any different outcome this time round, but felt compelled to ask anyway.

  “The solicitor said it was a condition of us receiving our inheritance. You were there when he informed us that we each must engage the services of someone to teach us a useful skill. Once we complete training in our chosen skill, father’s money will be transferred to us. I don’t know why the stipulation was put there, but it was.” She looked at Eloisa. “Father never bothered to explain anything he did to us.”

  Eloisa nodded. Indeed, what their father had actually done with his life was a complete mystery to both of them. It had been a shock when they had visited the solicitor after their father’s death and discovered the terms of the will. Although both sisters understood the common sense behind the stipulation, the reason he had left it until he had passed away left them both somewhat confused.

  “I am aware that I keep raising this, but if Papa wanted us to learn a useful skill, why wait until he died to demand that we learn one?” Eloisa frowned at Cissy, who shrugged.

  “I do not know, my dear,” Cissy replied. “Neither of us had any idea that Papa had so much money stashed away.” She frowned at Eloisa. “It is a shame he hoarded so much of it. Our lives might have been better if he had spent some while he was here to enjoy it himself.”

  “Our life at Hollywell hasn’t been that awful though, has it?” Eloisa gasped. She paused and stared out of the window. “I think our lives are of a perfectly reasonable standard,” she argued.

  Cissy snorted. “Papa was wealthy, yet we live a frugal life in the middle of a small country village. If Papa hadn’t been so mean with his spending, we could be living somewhere like Lanley Hall instead,” she challenged.

  Eloisa stared at her sister in shock. She had never seen such fire in her sister’s eyes before. Cissy was usually the meek and mild one of the two of them. It was a surprise to see her so scornful, and about their father no less.

  “Lanley Hall is huge. It must be difficult to heat in the winter,” she mused.

  “What?” Cissy snapped with a frown.

  Eloisa studied the well-worn rug at the foot of the bed while she chose her words. “I am just saying that living in a massive house comes with a lot of responsibilities and expense. I appreciate that Papa could afford to spend more on us than he did, but I think it is nice here. We haven’t had the luxuries that wealthy people take for granted but, in return, our lives have not been too difficult. The confines that an aristocratic lady has imposed upon her haven’t applied to us. Papa has allowed us to do what we wanted. We have been spoilt really, just not financially.”

  Cissy knew she would disagree with her sister on this matter forevermore, so let the matter drop for now. Although she could understand Eloisa’s reasoning, she knew that they could have moved in circles that befit their status, and would probably be married by now. Unfortunately, because they were stuck in this rural backwater, there wasn’t an eligible suitor in sight for either of them. Now, thanks to their Papa’s frugality, Eloisa was going to creep through the back door of Aldwich Hall like a criminal.

  “You should be making a grand entrance at Lord Aldwich’s ball through the front door with everyone else,” Cissy declared.

  When Eloi
sa looked at Cissy, her eyes were solemn. “What is done is done now. We can’t go back and change it,” she sighed.

  Silence settled over them for several minutes. Eloisa shifted uncomfortably in her seat. When she sighed, Cissy looked at her.

  “What is it dearest?” she asked.

  “I hate to admit it but, in some ways, you are right about Papa,” she whispered.

  Cissy frowned. “How?”

  “If he had arranged suitable tuition for us while we were younger, we might be proper ladies by now and would have been able to attend Lord Aldwich’s ball as proper guests. Unfortunately, father didn’t prepare us for lives married to wealthy men who live in houses like Lanley Hall. I wouldn’t have the slightest notion of how to run a house like that; and neither would you.” She gave Cissy a pointed look to which her sister nodded. “Having said that, I don’t have the slightest idea what to do at a formal ball either.”

  “Apart from dance,” Cissy sighed.

  “Apart from dance,” Eloisa confirmed. “I don’t belong there, Cissy. I just want this one night to practice what I have learned. Then I shall leave and not look back. I don’t have the life skills, or the learning, to move about in circles like that on a regular basis.”

  “I suppose it isn’t too much to ask,” Cissy agreed quietly, if only to ease her sister’s fears. Inside, she still didn’t agree with Eloisa being made to dance on the terrace.

  Eloisa seemed to sense her sister’s continued disquiet. “I don’t belong at Aldwich Hall, Cissy, so please don’t object to the arrangements.”

  “Alright, I will let the matter drop,” she agreed with a nod. “I just don’t see why Papa put the stipulation in his will if he didn’t want you to use your chosen skill. What’s the point of learning to dance if you don’t get the opportunity to put it into practice properly? That’s all I am saying.”

  Eloisa nodded thoughtfully. “Do you know what?”

  “What?”

  “I think Papa was aware that if he had arranged for us to undertake training to be ladies, we would have had a proper coming out. That would have taken us away from him.”

  “Do you think he was lonely and wanted to keep us here for as long as he could?” Cissy thought about that for a moment. Now that Eloisa mentioned it, it made sense.

  “He may have been afraid we would leave him. We were all he had,” Eloisa mused.

  “We will never know now,” Cissy whispered.

  Silence settled over them for a moment. Cissy shivered, as if to shake off the grief that hung over her. She offered Eloisa a brave smile and nodded at the dress.

  “Well, look on the bright side,” she said with a smile of encouragement. “You may find a handsome suitor waiting for you at the ball who won’t care about your upbringing.”

  Eloisa snorted. “I doubt it. I am not to mix with the guests, remember?” She threw Cissy a grin. “The only other place we can dance is at the village ball in the autumn. When did you last dance the Viennese waltz at the country fayre?”

  Cissy laughed and shook her head. Now that the joy had returned to Eloisa’s eyes, she regretted ever mentioning money and their father’s will.

  Eloisa rolled her eyes. “I am going to dance, that’s all. My partner for the evening will be Mr de Lisle, and he is no prince. He has been able to arrange this with Lord Aldwich because he taught his lordship’s children how to dance, or something. Lord Aldwich said it was too late to add me to the guest list, but I was welcome to dance on the terrace.” She looked at Cissy and shifted in her seat when she saw the doubt cloud her sister’s face again. “We don’t have connections, Cissy, so I cannot expect more. It’s generous of Lord Aldwich to allow me to go at all given that I have never met the man myself.”

  Cissy still looked dubious, so Eloisa hastened to reassure her. “It is a perfect arrangement. I get to dance while listening to wonderful music being played by a proper orchestra. Formalities and potential suitors don’t apply to me. I can just lose myself in the music and dance. It’s perfect.”

  Cissy sighed. “What will you do after the ball? You can dance a cotillion, and Viennese waltz along with the rest of them, but what do you plan to do next? You can’t dance on Lord Aldwich’s terrace every time he has a ball, or sneak in through the back door when he is not looking, now can you?”

  Eloisa frowned and tried to ignore the irritation that stole her joy. “You are always putting a dampener on things,” she accused. “What are you going to do with your sewing lessons? Teach others?”

  “No, I am not always putting a dampener on things,” Cissy countered, ignoring the rest of the question.

  “Yes, you are,” Eloisa argued. She sucked in a huge breath in an attempt to quell her anger, but the words rushed forth anyway. “Who says I need to use my new skill after the ball? I am going to enjoy this one evening and nobody, not even you, is going to destroy that.”

  Cissy sighed. “I am sorry for being such a wet blanket. I didn’t mean to steal your enjoyment of your first, somewhat unusual, official ball. It is just that you are doing yourself a great disservice by staying in the garden. You will be just as elegant as the other ladies, and should sweep in through the front door with them.”

  When Eloisa began to smile again, Cissy nodded to the dress. “Stay in the shadows while you wear that delightful creation. Any eligible bachelor who sees you will want to keep you.”

  Eloisa scoffed. “I will stay outside then and hope it doesn’t rain.”

  Cissy rolled her eyes and made her way to the door before she said something else that drained her sister’s excitement again.

  “Talking about rain; I need to get the washing in before that rain soaks everything through.” She nodded to the spots of rainwater that meandered down the window pane and hurried downstairs.

  Eloisa heard the back door slam and turned her attention back to the dress. She held it against her again and walked over to the mirror to study her reflection more carefully this time. In spite of Cissy’s words of caution, a thrill of anticipation swept through her. It didn’t bother her in the least that she wasn’t an invited guest. It was heaven to be given the opportunity to dance the evening away while listening to the music. Now that the big day was almost upon her and her dress was here, her nerves had changed to excitement she struggled to contain.

  “I wish you were here to see it, Papa,” she whispered.

  She desperately wanted to be able to wear her dress, or at least try it on again, but she didn’t want to risk it being spoiled before her big night. In spite of her worries, she began to twirl around in a giddy circle while humming the tune to Lady Mary Montagu’s reel. When the room began to swirl again, she stopped and placed her precious dress onto the bed before she did something foolish like stand on the skirts and rip them.

  While she unpacked the various accessories she would wear with her outfit, Cissy’s words came flooding back. A tendril of doubt began to unfurl in the back of her mind. It took effort, but she quashed it, and put it down to Cissy’s worries rather than her own. She had practiced several dances with Mr de Lisle and was confident that she wouldn’t make a fool of herself if anyone did catch sight of her. If her card was marked, she knew enough dances to be able to dance amongst the Lords and Ladies in attendance without making a fool of herself. The fact that she wouldn’t have a card was somewhat insignificant because this was her first – and her only – official ball. Life was not likely to bring her another opportunity like this. She didn’t want to waste a single moment worrying about insignificant little details like a lack of formal invitation, or where she was supposed to dance.

  When she had laid everything out on the bed, she stood back to study her handiwork and considered what tomorrow might bring. Once again, niggling worries began to resurface. This time, she struggled to ignore them.

  What would she do if someone took exception to her dancing outside? What would she do if someone approached her and told her to leave?

  Sudden doubts flooded in as
to the suitability of the skill she had chosen to learn.

  Should I have learned something about sewing, or social etiquette instead? She mused, but immediately dismissed that as ridiculous. To her, sewing was something she did to clothing as a chore. She found it tedious and passed it over to Cissy whenever possible. There really was nothing else that interested her apart from dancing.

  “No, dancing is the right choice for me,” she declared with a nod.

  Dancing soothed her worries, and was a skill she could take into the future if the need arose. It was something that she had yearned to do since she was a child. It was impossible not to take advantage of this golden opportunity to indulge herself in a more formal setting while she had the chance. For the first time in her entire life she was going to be dressed like a proper lady and could dance, listen to music, and enjoy herself. What harm could it do?

  With a firm nod at her reflection, a proud smile broke out on her face and she began to pack her outfit back into the boxes.

  “Now then, my dear, we are going to go through the dances once more. We are ready to go,” Mr de Lisle declared later that day.

  The back room at the rectory had been cleared of everything except for a piano several weeks ago. Although the room was small, there was enough space for her and Mr de Lisle to move through the dances they needed to practice, but it was a squeeze.

  Eloisa swirled her skirts as she waited for Mr de Lisle to nod to Mrs Jackman, who had agreed to be their musician. Eloisa studied her neighbour’s crooked fingers waiting on the ivory keys. She wondered, not for the first time, whether she would have been better off learning to play the piano instead.

  “Stop it, Eloisa,” she whispered. “You made the right choice.”

  “What was that?” Mr de Lisle asked.

  Eloisa was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear him.

  “Are you listening to me, Eloisa?” Mr de Lisle’s voice was loud and impatient.