AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But as Lydia thought about who the young woman could have possibly been, she could not figure it out for the life of her. She thought back to the crowd of people who had been standing in front of her and Percy when they had been talking, and there were almost no young women around his age or of the correct social status. She was positively perplexed but figured there must have been someone who she hadn’t seen.
“Thank you, Mr Dorrington,” Percy said sheepishly, awkwardly trying to hold and hide the box. “You always do such fine work that I am sure she will love it.”
Mr Dorrington nodded curtly and then disappeared into the back of his shop, leaving Marianne, Mabel, and Lydia staring at Percy. He looked at each of them one by one and generally appeared very uncomfortable.
“Well,” he said quietly. “I shall say once more that I feel positively awful for my behaviour the other night, and I very much appreciate you accepting my apology.”
Lydia nodded absent-mindedly and gave him a hollow smile.
“Of course, Your Grace,” she replied. As she watched Percy’s face, she saw that he went from looking relieved to unsettled. It seemed that he did not buy her acceptance of his apology, but Lydia did not want to continue talking to him, especially not with Marianne and Mabel around. “Well, good day then,” Lydia said abruptly and pulled Marianne further into the shop, away from Percy.
“You can let go of me now,” Marianne said once they were out of earshot. Lydia let go of the vice grip that she had on her friend’s arm and flexed her hands a few times. “We both know that hat was for a woman, don’t we?”
Lydia nodded emphatically.
“What a venomous man,” she growled. “I would bet that he only apologized to me because he bumped into us here today. Had that not happened, I don’t believe I ever would have heard from him again. That was such a hollow apology; he didn’t even explain why he had to go! And then that hat, oh that hat! It is obviously for the woman he is courting, and so that means he had absolutely no interest in talking with me at the ball! He just keeps getting worse and worse!”
Marianne rubbed her upper shoulder. “Do I ever understand that! When he was so vague about what had drawn him away from you, I knew something had to be up. Do you think that he is courting a woman in secret? Is that why he did not say exactly what had happened?”
Lydia glanced around to make doubly sure that Percy was no longer in the shop, which he was not. Mabel was presently engaged with Mr Dorrington, and so Lydia felt safe continuing talking with Marianne.
“That makes complete sense,” she whispered to Marianne. “He’s been seeing someone in secret, and so he could have also started talking to me to make it look to everyone around us that there was a young woman he was courting ... it just wasn’t the right one.”
Marianne’s eyes widened. “You think he might have been using the conversation with you to make people think he was courting you instead of the mystery woman? I cannot imagine how a man could get any worse!”
Lydia sighed.
“This has only succeeded in proving to me that I should continue to forget about Percy and replace him with someone, anyone, who is better than he is!” she cried a little too loudly. She felt eyes upon her, and when she turned to look at Mabel and Mr Dorrington, they were both looking back at her. Both she and Marianne smiled and waved at them, and then picked out a hat each to pretend to admire.
“That shall not be a difficult challenge, my dear,” Marianne responded. “Percy has set the bar so low for your future husband that I am afraid you will accept the first reasonable man who comes along!”
Lydia laughed. “Don’t fret, my friend,” she reassured her. “After this experience, I shall be looking for a man who checks off all of my boxes when it comes to a future husband. I will be very, very picky.”
Marianne seemed happy with that response, and the two young women ceased their gossip about Percy. They proceeded to have a lovely time in the haberdashery, and Lydia placed an order on a very beautiful yellow hat that suited her quite well.
