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Chapter 10
Two more weeks went by before Lydia and Percy were to see each other again. This time, they were both attending a ball at Charles Lucas’ estate, and as soon as they arrived, Lydia was practically vibrating with nerves. She remembered the dance that she had promised Percy and hoped that an opportunity would arise for that promise to come true.
However, she also had a pretty good feeling that Edmund would also be in attendance that night and was unsure how to feel about him. She knew that she had told Marianne that she had far more interest in Percy, but if there were also the option of Edmund, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, now would it?
But as soon as they arrived at the dance, Edmund appeared in front of Lydia. “Miss Seymour,” he greeted her happily, “what a delight it is to find you here this evening. Might I whisk you away to partake in some of the abhorrent dancing?”
Lydia was stunned by Edmund’s sudden appearance, as well as his proposal to dance with her. She had not been expecting that, considering the fact that they had spent so much time talking about how they both hated dancing the last time they had been together.
Lydia looked frantically to Marianne, who knew exactly what was going on. Marianne gave her a look that said,Do you want me to get you out of this situation? But because Lydia was so conflicted about her feelings for Edmund, she shook her head and decided to accept him. She turned back to him and said quietly, “That would be lovely, thank you, Your Grace.”
Edmund couldn’t have looked happier. He offered his hand to Lydia, and the pair walked across the hall together. Right as they were about to join the dance, Lydia could feel a pair of eyes upon her, and when she looked up to see who it was, she saw Percy for the first time that evening.
He was looking devilishly handsome by firelight. He wore a navy suit jacket with a maroon cravat, and he had done something different with his hair, but Lydia couldn’t quite tell what it was. And when she saw the look upon his face, Lydia’s heart positively broke. He looked utterly disappointed.
While this discovery upset Lydia, she did have to remind herself that she and Percy were not officially courting, and there was a chance they never might. He was a duke, and she was not of the same class, and so perhaps he did not wish to get involved in any scandal when it came to being with her.
She knew Edmund was a duke as well, but the fact that he was publicly being seen with her and dancing with her made her feel more reassured that he might ask to court her any time now.
And then, Lydia and Edmund were whisked into the dance. The music moved so quickly that Lydia had a hard time keeping up, but Edmund didn’t seem to mind. In fact, quite the opposite. He seemed to take great delight in watching her make errors while she was dancing.
He was having similar difficulties, and so perhaps her foolishness when it came to dancing made him feel more at ease around her. Lydia looked to the other dancers at one point to see if anyone else was struggling, and to her embarrassment, no one was. However, she didn’t much mind, as she and Edmund were having such a wonderful time.
When the dance was over, she and Edmund escaped the dance and scurried over to a corner where Mabel could clearly see them. Lydia knew that she had deeply offended her chaperone the other night by disappearing with Percy, and so she did not mean to repeat her offence a second time.
“I am very glad that we were finally able to get out of there!” Edmund cried, still laughing. “Frankly, I was very nervous to ask you to dance, as I know we both hate it, but I thought it might be a comedic way to begin our evening together.”
Lydia quickly took note of the way he had ended his comment. “Begin our evening together?” she repeated with a mixture of disbelief and delight.
Edmund turned away, and Lydia could see the colour flooding his cheeks. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that, I just meant …”
“No, no,” Lydia reassured him, “it’s quite all right. I enjoyed that suggestion.”
And then, Edmund gave her a smile that made her heart melt. She was no longer certain of what she had informed Marianne regarding her choice between the two men and so decided not to swear off Edmund just yet. She began by asking him to tell her more about himself, and when he launched into introducing her to all of the animals he kept at his estate, she was delighted.
It seemed that Edmund was quite the animal enthusiast. He collected rare and exotic animals but gave them all the very best of care. He explained all of the strange and wonderful creatures that he had currently in his collection, and Lydia couldn’t help being entranced by them.
He then told her about his family, who seemed quite ordinary but very lovely, and his few friends outside of his estate. He did not mention Arthur in his list of friends, Lydia noted, and so she kept that in the back of her mind. She wondered what Edmund’s opinion of him was, especially as he had come to town with him.
“That is all I shall tell you for now,” Edmund said, suddenly shy, “for I feel that I have been blabbering on for far too long. I would very much like to know more about you if you would allow me such joy?”
Lydia nodded and smiled delightedly at Edmund. She began telling him about her family and friends, as well as some of her interesting hobbies. She noticed that as she spoke, he did not take his eyes off of her once, and she realized that no one had listened to her so intently in quite some time. She relished in the delightful feeling that came along with it.
However, as she spoke with Edmund more, she realized that her feelings towards him were more of the friendly variety. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why exactly she thought this, but then her mind drifted back to Percy. She wondered if she would feel differently about Edmund if she hadn’t already been introduced to Percy. The types of passionate feelings that she harboured for Percy were so new to her that she felt drawn to them instantly. She felt very badly that the way she felt about Percy was clouding her view of Edmund.
“Miss Seymour,” Edmund said sadly when a lull in their conversation occurred, “I am very sorry to have to do this to you, but I am afraid that I must depart from you. I forgot that I promised my valet that I would care for my injured parrot later this evening to give him the night off. I would love nothing more than to continue speaking with you, but I’m afraid I must take my leave of you.”
“That is absolutely no problem, Your Grace,” Lydia said graciously, secretly happy that she now had a chance to go and speak with Percy. “I understand that duty calls, and I do hope that your parrot recovers as quickly as possible!”
Edmund thanked her for being so understanding, and then bid her farewell and left the great hall. Lydia was left standing along for a grand total of about thirty seconds before she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. When she turned around, Percy was standing there, and Lydia almost fainted with excitement.
“Miss Seymour,” he greeted her rather gruffly. Lydia was immediately worried that he might be jealous of Edmund and what he had just witnessed between him and Lydia. However, his unhappiness quickly faded, and he continued rather pleasantly, “Might you ask your chaperone to accompany us to the next room? I was hoping that I might have a word with you somewhere that I might actually be able to hear you.”
Lydia smiled gleefully, nodded, and then ran to get Mabel to tell her where she was going. Mabel followed behind her, and Lydia and Percy went off into the next room to speak somewhere quieter.
The room next door happened to be the sitting room, and while there were still a few guests milling about, there were far less than in the great hall. Mabel took a spot in the corner and picked up a book, a signal to Lydia that she trusted her, but would still passively be watching.
“What did you wish to speak with me about, Your Grace?” Lydia asked.
Percy smirked. “You don’t need to call me that anymore,” he said in a deep, sexy voice. “You have my permission to refer to me as Percy.”
Lydia’s heart was so happy that it very nearly stopped beating entirely. “Percy. In that case, I would enjoy it if you referred to me as Lydia.”
A warm, happy smile spread across Percy’s lips. “I’m very happy that we cleared that up. Now, I wished to speak to you about …”
But Percy stopped mid-sentence and looked just behind Lydia, horrified. This time, Lydia was smart and immediately turned around to see who it was. She saw an older, but quite an attractive man talking with a young, vibrant-looking woman, and she assumed that this must have been Georgiana and Arthur.
She turned right back around to Percy and said, “Go to her, Percy. Do not worry about our conversation.” She felt her heart sinking as she knew she was about to lose him once again to the pursuit of his rebellious sister.
