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Chapter 7
The moment that Lydia escaped from Edmund, she raced through the crowd to try and find Marianne. She figured that she would be talking with one handsome man or another, but not spying her anywhere inside, thought that perhaps she’d gone for a walk outside. She walked past all of the delighted looking men and women dressed in their finest to make it to the French doors that led out to the garden.
But when she arrived outside, the only person that she saw in the garden was Percy. He was sitting on the edge of a fountain, looking very forlorn and generally miserable.
Lydia didn’t want to give him the time of day after what he had done for the second time at this party, and yet there was something inexplicable that drew her to him. She knew that he couldn’t be so rude as to abandon their conversation without reason twice, and she was determined to discover the answer.
And so, Lydia quietly approached Percy.
She thought that he had heard her coming, and so she didn’t make herself known until she was practically beside him, at which point she said, “Why are you out here looking miserable, Your Grace?”
Or rather, that’s what she would have said if Percy hadn’t yelped at the sound of her voice and went pitching forwards into the fountain. Lydia gasped as he hit the water.
“Percy!” she cried, leaning into the fountain to help him out. It was a very shallow basin of water, thankfully, but he had gone face-first, and so when he got himself righted, he was rather drenched.
He looked at Lydia for the first time and growled, “Why did you scare me like that?”
Lydia was taken aback. “I did not mean to do that,” she rebutted. “I thought that you had heard me coming and so I started speaking to you. I do not deserve to be spoken to like that.”
Lydia let go of Percy’s jacket that she had been holding to assist him out of the water and started walking away from him.
Maybe he is just that rude!
But then, she heard some very watery footsteps following behind her, and Percy cried from behind her, “Wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to speak to you like that; I had water in my eyes and thought you were my sister!”
Lydia froze.
His sister?
She turned around and looked at Percy, soaking wet and looking even more miserable than before. “Your sister?” she asked in disbelief. “We don’t even have the same hair colour, how could you …”
“I ... I don’t know,” Percy interrupted her. “It was a combination of the shock of hearing someone out here and the blurriness of the water in my eyes, and I’m sorry. You are certainly not my sister and thus did not deserve to be spoken to like that.”
Lydia relaxed a little, but when she did, the hilarity of the situation started to creep in. She looked at Percy in front of her with his sopping wet clothes, thought about the way he had fallen into the fountain, and she couldn’t help herself. She started laughing.
At first, Percy just stared at her blankly, but then, without having to ask her what was so funny, he started chuckling too. Before they knew it, they were both doubled over guffawing, and only after a few minutes were they able to catch their breaths.
“I believe that it is finally my turn to apologize,” Lydia commented. “I am sorry for laughing at you, and for accidentally scaring you. I sincerely thought you had heard me coming.”
Percy gave her a dreamy smile that made Lydia’s heart skip a beat. “I’m afraid I must refuse both of those apologies because you have nothing to say sorry for. You were not laughing at me, you were laughing with me, and you did not accidentally scare me. It is I who should have been paying better attention to my surroundings, but I was not as I was deep in thought.
“What were you thinking about?” Lydia asked. The couple began walking back towards the fountain, where they could be further away from the party. Lydia hoped that she wouldn’t be scolded too severely by Mabel for disappearing like this, but she thought that it was worth it to be talking with Percy.
They sat on the bench near the fountain, and Lydia was glad that it was a warmer night so that Percy wouldn’t be absolutely freezing in his soaking wet clothes. He did remove his jacket and place it on the bench beside him, and when it hit the wood, it made a resoundingsquelch.
“It has to do with what I was beginning to explain to you before I was called away again,” Percy expressed. “And for having to be interrupted once again, as well as being rather rude to you once more, I am very sorry.” Percy leaned forwards with his hands curled around the edge of the bench and looked down at his soggy shoes. “I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me once again, even though I may not deserve it.”
Lydia wanted to reach out and rub Percy’s back, but she knew how improper that was and so she stopped herself.
“I forgive you, Your Grace,” she said quietly. “And this time, I forgive you with all my heart. I know that there is something more going on that you have not informed me of yet, for I can see it in your face. I understand that you are not that rude, and would not abandon a conversation in such a manner ordinarily.”
Percy turned his head to the side to look at Lydia, and the corner of his mouth turned upwards ever so slightly.
“I very much appreciate you knowing all of that about me without me having to say anything, and you are quite right,” he confirmed for her. “I had to abandon you so abruptly both times because ... my selfish younger sister won’t heed my advice regarding an older gentleman.”
Lydia looked away from Percy and processed what he had just told her. She was saddened to hear that he had to deal with anyone being recalcitrant in his life, but even more so when it was his sister.
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” she empathized. “What man is it who is causing the problems with her?”
