My mother waited until the morning to give me the thorough tongue lashing I had known was coming. I braced myself for the worst and that it was when my mother appeared in my room that morning with my breakfast, claiming that I could not be trusted to eat at the table with our distinguished guests if I did not know how to behave like a lady. Then the Countess was off on the usual tirade of how difficult this all was for her and she would have two spinsters for daughters: one unpleasant and one headstrong. She made me feel guilty, reminding me that I was supposed to be the "easy" one. By the time she left, I felt frustration but not regret.

An hour after breakfast, Elijah made his appearance, entering quietly with a grin on his face that indicated he too was not sorry at all.

"Are you imprisoned here?" He asked jokingly as he sat on the edge of my bed. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the mirror in which I was applying my makeup for the day.

"For a time, I imagine," I answered. "But I'm likely free to do as I please so long as I don't encounter mother until she's had time to calm herself."

"Perfect!"

Elijah leapt from the bed then. My brow creased as I turned to look at him.

"How so?" I asked.

"You need to avoid mother and I've come to ask you if you'd fancy a trip to town," he explained. I smiled.

"Really?"

"Yes, really. The Duke's got errands and Benthem is unavailable so the duty has fallen to me to show him around town. I felt bad about your having to endure mother's rage when all I got from father was do not touch my sabres again," he said and I laughed at the imitation. "So? Do you want to come?"

I considered the offer. A trip in a carriage to town with my brother and the Duke. If nothing else, it promised to be diverting and I was trying to avoid my mother. Besides, I had errands of my own to attend to.

"Could we stop at Madame Francis'?" I asked and Elijah smiled. I capped my lipstick and leapt to my feet. "When do we leave?"

As it turned out, the answer to that question was immediately. Elijah had left the Duke waiting in the foyer to come and invite me on their excursion. He smiled up at me when I entered but I kept my head held high and tried to ignore how near he was to laughter given the latest antics of mine he'd witnessed only the evening before.

"Lady Harrington," he nodded in greeting as Elijah and I approached and passed him to leave through the front doors. He followed.

"Your Grace," I responded as coldly as I could manage.

A carriage was waiting for us just outside. Elijah helped me inside before getting in himself and sitting next to me. The Duke followed, sitting across from us on the opposite bench. I ignored his gaze, turning my own out of the small window as the carriage lurched forward and we were off toward town.

"So, what are these errands we're off on, Victor?" Elijah asked and I fought the urge to look over in surprise. Since when had my brother become close enough with the Duke to call him by his first name? Then again, hadn't the Duke advised me to do the same? Call me Victor.

I cleared my throat at the thought of the moment which had occurred between us just the night before in the Redmond family gardens. With everything that had happened since, I'd hardly the time to think of it. Now that I did, I wondered how I'd ever avoided the subject in the first place.

"I've a few correspondences to answer and an associate of mine is visiting from London. It seems Benthem has boasted of the place's quaintness to him as well and he's eager to see the town for himself. I imagine we will have to show him around too. He may wish to stay for an event or two but I would never impede upon your family's hospitality again in such a way so-"

"He's more than welcome to stay with us as well if he has need of lodgings," Elijah offered as expected of polite society. I frowned. The Harrington family estate was slowly becoming an all expenses paid resort for the wealthy and titled. The Duke had stirred up enough of a commotion with his visit. What more could this other gentleman do?

"That is kind of you, Elijah but, to be frank, he's more of an old friend of my father's and one in which I'm not hoping to continue the association with. I have a duty to him, of course, but if I can convince him to leave town sooner rather than later the better it will be for all of us."

I finally looked over at him then, interested in the company he seemed to keep for the first time and intrigued by this nameless visitor for the first time as well. Just then, the carriage came to a stop.

"Madame Francis'," Elijah announced and I blinked back to reality to see the small, fine shop outside of my window. "We'll leave you here to take care of your business, sister. We will pick you up again when ours has concluded?"

I nodded at Elijah as he slid from the carriage to help me out to the street beyond.

"If I'm not inside, I'll be at the cafe across the street," I told him and he nodded as he climbed back into the carriage, shutting the door behind him. The Duke glanced down at me as the carriage rode away. I turned and entered the shop behind me, hit at once by the obscene amount of French perfume that always scented the air here in Madame Francis' shop.

"Ella Harrington, if it's been a day!" the familiar shopkeep called as I entered and I smiled at the young woman who had come back from Paris with a dream and had begun the most beautiful shop turning out the most incredible dresses that England had ever seen. Her dark, unruly curls fell into her face as she leaned across the counter, smiling my way. I glanced at two young girls in the corner giggling over a piece of silk as they held it in front of their chests as I approached the counter.

"Madame," I greeted back and she grinned.

"How have you been, dear? I was beginning to think I was only ever going to take your orders from your mother from now on!"

"Ah, yes. Well, with Emily in such desperate straits, she seems to believe it best that she personally see to the details until the desperation has passed."

"I see. And has it?"

I just raised a brow and she chuckled.

"Well, it's better that you're here anyway," she said, diving behind the counter as if in search of something while she spoke. "I never would have been able to convince your mother."

"Convince her of what?" I asked, standing on tiptoes to see what she was doing behind the counter. But, before I could get a good look, she stood back up, slamming a bolt of fabric to the top of the counter between us. I gazed down at it, running a finger over the smooth surface.

"Silk?" I asked. She nodded.

"French silk."

"It's beautiful."

"I'm just dying to make a gown out of it and you would be the perfect specimen."

My lips parted in surprise.

"Me?" I asked. She nodded. "For what?"

"The Bolton's ball is coming up."

"The ball?" I stared at her in awe but she did not budge. So I'd have to point out the obvious then. "It's black."

"So?"

"So you don't wear black to a ball. You wear black to funerals or sober church services. Not balls. Not lively festivities."

"The men wear black. Nearly all of them."

"That's different."

"Why?"

I cocked my head to the side and raised a brow.

"Listen," she tried again, leaning in close and lowering her voice to a whisper. "It's gotten around town that this Duke visiting is looking for a wife."

"It has?" I asked, surprised, wondering which member of my family had let that little bit of information slip and willing to bet I knew exactly who it had been.

"It has. I've gotten twenty requests for white gowns in the last week. Twenty. It seems all these girls think that the key to becoming a bride is looking like one."

I snorted. She smiled.

"Do they know they aren't the first with this original idea?" I queried.

"I don't tell a single one of them about the others," she answered with a grin and I chuckled again. "Point is, dear, each and every one of them is going to be wearing white. All white. So, it's the perfect time for an unavailable girl with nothing to lose to stand out of the crowd in a stunning black silk gown elegantly crafted by the best dressmaker this side of the country."

"Modest, too."

"Modesty is for mediocrity," she replied effortlessly. "Please. I have this gorgeous silk just sitting back here waiting to be wasted on some old toff's death. Let me give it a better life. Let me make something they'll never forget. Be my muse."

I considered the offer for a moment, eying the black silk lying on the counter between us. It was beautiful.

"It will be the most beautiful dress you've ever worn," she swore. I relented with a sigh.

"It had better be the most beautiful price as well."

She grinned at my agreement and snatched the silk back, storing it again beneath the counter as she did a little jump for joy. I laughed along with her until I heard someone else speak my name nearby.

"Ella?"

I turned to see Nora Greenbaum standing beside me at the counter. I smiled in polite greeting as she threw her arms around me in an overexcited hug.

"Oh, it's so good to see you!" she cried. "No one has since you disappeared from the Redmond ball after that stunning entrance. I hope everything is well?"

Ah, so that's what she was after. Gossip.

"Of course," I answered with a smile so fake my cheeks ached at the effort. "I was simply feeling a bit under the weather but I'm all better now."

"Oh dear. I hope Emily did not catch it as well. She seemed so cross last night after you'd left."

I opened my mouth to answer, feeling my patience slipping away as I did, but was interrupted by Madame Francis who handed a gown across the counter to Nora Greenbaum who had apparently come to collect it. I couldn't help but notice the color as she pulled out her coin purse to pay. White. I glanced over to the Madame who grinned broadly and wriggled her eyebrows. I suppressed a laugh as Nora paid for her gown and wished me well, bouncing out of the shop as quickly as she'd come in.

"I told you," the Madame said when she'd left.

"I never doubted you," I assured her.

"Pick it up in two days."

"That's-"

"The day of the ball, I know. Don't want to give you any time to find a backup, do I?"

With that, she winked and headed off to the back so that no argument could be had. I simply shook my head with a smile and headed for the door of the shop myself.