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“Oh, Sophia, you need to stop fussing so much.” Lady Westbury crossed the room and swatted Sophia’s hand as she reached up to check her hair in the mirror again. “You’re going to make it fall down, and then it’ll have to be done again.”
“Forgive me, Mother,” Sophia mumbled, staring at her pale expression in the mirror.
She wondered why so many pins were needed to keep her hair in place. Several of them seemed to have scraped her scalp, and now it was making her head throb. It was really uncomfortable, and Sophia just wanted to take all the pins out.
Why couldn’t she just have her hair curled and left a little looser on her head? That was still fashionable. Why did her mother insist on having her hair so tight to her head?
“I must say, you look really good tonight,” Lady Westbury commented, placing her hands on Sophia’s shoulders as she met her daughter’s eyes in the mirror. “You’re certainly going to help our reputation with your current appearance. If only we could keep you like this all the time.”
“I don’t change from day to day, Mother. I’ve always been the same.”
Her mother didn’t respond. She just squeezed Sophia’s shoulders and stepped back, heading across the drawing room to the window. The sun was low on the horizon, stretching shadows across the room. Sophia sighed and looked down at herself. She didn’t look any different from normal apart from a nicer gown. That was it. It felt like Lady Westbury had made a comment towards her that wasn’t meant to be a compliment.
She didn’t have the strength to figure out the meaning behind all the words thrown at her. It was relatively easy with her sisters – they were less subtle – but Sophia never understood what her mother was truly saying. It felt like an offhand remark every now and then.
Tonight, she didn’t want her mood to sour any further. This was a ball her parents were throwing to welcome Mister Thomas Ford and his parents. Sophia didn’t know if it meant they were going to announce their engagement tonight or if it was to wait until the banns were read out. Either way, it would be their first outing together since things were arranged between them.
Normally, Sophia would not really care about this. She was just expected to look nice, turn up and smile while her sister got to have the attention of her suitor. Aimee did love a lot of attention, especially from gentlemen. Sophia always saw how everyone fawned over her, almost like they thought she was the most attractive being in the room.
Sophia knew better, but she also knew better than publicly saying anything about it. It was best just to keep quiet and leave Aimee to do her own thing. If she brought it up later to make comments towards Sophia, it would be a different matter, but not on an important evening like this.
“Oh, good, the first guests are arriving!” Lady Westbury almost bumped her head as she leaned towards the window. “Everything will be started soon!”
“It’s a bit early, isn’t it?” Sophia asked. “The ball doesn’t start until seven-thirty, does it?”
“If the guests want to turn up early, they can arrive when they want. We can accommodate everyone.” The viscountess sighed as she pulled back. “It’s Miss Hales and her chaperone. Do you want to go and meet her, Sophia? She is your friend, after all.”
“Of course, Mother.”
Sophia left the room and headed towards the front doors as they were opened, and Christiana came in with her chaperone, Antonia. Her friend gave her a big smile as she gave her shawl to the footman.
“We’re a little early, aren’t we? My apologies, but I was too excited to stay at home until the time to leave.” She came over and clasped Sophia’s hands. “After you’ve spoken about this Mister Ford, I wanted to be here to get a proper first look at him.”
“Anyone else would say you were too nosy, Christiana.”
“Well, it is an interesting time. After all, someone’s been found who is going to marry Aimee.”
“Quiet!” Sophia hissed, looking around to ensure none of her family were nearby. “You mustn’t say things like that, or you might be asked to leave.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I doubt anyone cares what we say, anyway.” Christiana took Sophia’s arm. “Let’s go onto the front terrace and watch the guests coming in. It’s perfect for seeing who’s coming.”
Sophia wasn’t about to argue with that. She didn’t want to be part of a receiving line to greet all the guests as they came in. With the number of sisters and her parents, that was too much, and it got very boring. Thankfully, they barely noticed if she was present or not, so Sophia was, for the most part, able to sneak away and do her own thing.
At moments like that, she felt a little put out that her own family didn’t even notice where she was or what she was doing. Maybe she wouldn’t be sneaking off to go for walks alone all the time if they actually cared. She was used to it, but it didn’t mean she liked being the forgotten daughter.
At least Christiana had been permitted to come as well. Sophia could converse with other people but having her friend there did make it a bit more bearable. Being part of a crowd left her feeling like she couldn’t breathe properly, especially if so many people were stuck in the same room. Her parents did have a habit of inviting too many people.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case tonight.
Heading out of the side door, Christiana and Sophia walked to the steps onto the front terrace wrapped around one corner of the house. It was an odd part of architecture, something Sophia had wondered about, but she wasn’t about to argue. Standing there gave her a perfect view of the drive and the landscape in front of her.
While the county wasn’t exactly full of hills, it certainly made up for it with the view. Sophia had spent many days sitting out on the front terrace sketching when the weather was good. It was ideal for her.
“I must say, this is going to be an interesting ball,” Christiana said as she leaned against the wall, a slight breeze ruffling the curls on her head. “Everyone will be keen to see who has been chosen to be Aimee’s groom.”
“Everyone in the area should know about it by now,” Sophia commented. “I’m sure Mister Ford’s name has been mentioned quite a few times already.”
