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“Well…” Ellie took a deep breath. “I could be your chaperone. You two go to the ball and enjoy yourselves, and I go in cousin Emma’s place.”
Regina arched an eyebrow. Dorothea looked confused.
“But Emma won’t allow it. You have to have a chaperone as well. Even at your age, you are still unmarried.”
“Oh, that’s nice, Dorothea,” Ellie said tartly. “Thank you for reminding me how old I am.”
“Forgive me, but—”
“I know what you meant. And I didn’t mean I’d go as myself.”
Dorothea looked even more confused.
Regina was peering at Ellie. “What… are you saying you’ll go as Emma?”
“Why not? Well, not exactly. I’ll just dress down, look a little frumpy and make myself up to appear older, and then I can pass as someone else.” Ellie held up her hands hurriedly as a light came on in Regina’s eyes. “But that was just a suggestion! I don’t think it would—”
“It’s a great idea!” Regina bounced to her feet, beaming. “We get to go to the ball!”
“Quiet!” Ellie waved her into silence, pointing towards the door as she lowered her voice to a whisper. “We might be across the house from Emma, but she can still hear us. If she finds out, she’ll be unhappy with us.”
“I think we’ll be fine.” Regina giggled and twirled around the room. “And I was beginning to think that our first ball in London was going to fail before it started.”
“You’ve had balls in London before, Regina,” Dorothea reminded her.
“But not since Mother died. And this is a bit more… important.” Regina clapped her hands, looking like a little girl getting ready for Christmas. “I can’t wait to dress you up tomorrow, Ellie! This is so exciting!”
Now she was seeing one sister looking delighted and the other looking hopeful, Ellie prayed she had made the right decision and they weren’t going to get into serious trouble. Now that she had suggested it, she couldn’t take it back. Regina and Dorothea had run with it almost immediately, both of them still giggling as they went to bed. Ellie could see this getting out of control.
But she couldn’t take it back. Her sisters were so eager to go to this ball and meet people, and they would be so disappointed if Ellie backed out and said they should stay at home. They would not be happy with her, and Ellie wanted to do what she could for her sisters. Besides, they would find a way to go on their own if Ellie said no; it was better that Ellie was with them to make sure they didn’t get into too much trouble.
Throughout the day, Ellie kept sneaking glances at her sisters. They were giggling a lot, looking very mischievous. Emma looked like she wanted to ask what was going on, but she decided against it, concentrating on her mother instead. Ellie was half-hoping that their cousin would ask and the truth would come out. But that didn’t happen.
By the time Emma came downstairs, dressed handsomely for the theatre, Ellie had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to end up dressing up herself. Her cousin looked in on them in the drawing room.
“Have a good evening, girls. I don’t know what time we’ll be back, so you have the evening for yourselves.”
Regina looked up from her book and smiled. “Have a good time, Emma.”
“I’ll pretend you genuinely mean that, Regina.” Emma glanced at Ellie, who was sitting at the desk while she wrote in her diary. “I’ll make it up to you three, I promise. Mother isn’t going to get in the way all the time.”
“I wish you would just tell her no, Emma,” Dorothea said, lowering her embroidery with a sigh. “She shouldn’t have to bully you into this. Hasn’t she got another child to bother?”
“They, very wisely, don’t come to London. They live as far away as they can without leaving the country so their mother isn’t able to travel comfortably. I must take the brunt of her…behaviour.” Emma shrugged and waved a hand. “I’ll be off. See you in the morning.”
“Good night,” Ellie said.
The older woman left the room. A short while later, they heard the door open and close, along with Lady Mansford’s growling fading away. Dorothea put her embroidery aside and went to the window, peering out into the street.
“She’s getting into the carriage. Now she’s going!” She skipped away from the window. “Come on! Let’s get ready! The ball is due to start in an hour.”
Ellie sighed and put her pen down. “Dorothea…”
“You’re not going to back out on us now, Ellie!” Regina gasped. “We were promised a ball, and we’re going. We can’t stay home, not when we have to find husbands.”
She did have a point, but Ellie was still having second thoughts. It wouldn’t hurt to miss one ball. After all, there were so many social engagements in London, so it wasn’t like they were going to one soiree and then nothing for months. Emma hadn’t said anything about their social diary yet, other than it was going to be rather full. They could afford to miss one, especially if they weren’t going to be properly chaperoned.
But you don’t want to get married like this. If you go as the chaperone, you’ve got a good chance of being left alone. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?
