Page 27 of Ever After End
CHAPTER 26
M ary wandered from the music room to find Miss Abernathy and Lady Millicent in the drawing room. “Oh, Miss Mary! Do say you will hide with me; Miss Penfield has tired of the game and gone to her rooms. I am the odd woman out!” Miss Abernathy rushed over and grasped Mary’s hand the moment she entered the room.
“Go along, the pair of you, and mind, do not find yourself alone with a man!” Lady Millicent sniffed. “Theodosia says these games break the ice, but I say they are a terrible snub to propriety.”
The young ladies rendered their solemn promise to stay together, and departed to the first floor, where they found what appeared to be an abandoned parlour. “We have split up; ladies versus the gentlemen,” Miss Abernathy whispered loudly. “The ladies are currently hiding, and the gentlemen are seeking them.”
The two ladies quickly found hiding places, Mary under a small table covered with a tablecloth, Miss Abernathy in a large cabinet. They waited for ten minutes, mostly in silence other than Miss Abernathy’s occasional nervous giggle. Less than a quarter hour passed before they heard the voices of two gentlemen approaching the parlour .
“This is terribly snug, I cannot imagine a pair of ladies passing by this delightful little room.” Mary heard Captain Lytton’s voice as he entered the parlour.
“Well spotted, Lytton, a search of this parlour is bound to find success.” Lord Chesley’s voice followed the first man into the room. He passed close by the little table beneath which Mary was hiding. Her heart pounded. It was no wonder hide and seek was a popular activity with Mrs Darlington’s guests. She felt slightly ridiculous, but at the same time, she had never felt so exhilarated.
“Do you suppose? No, it is impossible that anyone would consider this very obvious cabinet, it cannot be so easy,” Captain Lytton said. Mary heard the cabinet door open, followed by a shrill scream of excitement from Miss Abernathy upon being discovered.
“Now where there is one of you, there are bound to be more,” growled Lord Chesley good-naturedly as he prowled the room. “Where is your friend, Miss Abernathy? We have ways of making you talk.”
“Oh no, my lord! I will never betray my companion, not if you boil me in oil!” Miss Abernathy tittered excitedly. “Oh, Miss Mary, your feet are showing under the tablecloth!”
“Caught!” Lord Chesley cried as he raised the other side of the cloth and handed Mary out. “I see that you joined us after all, Miss Mary.”
The little group returned to the drawing room to find the other ladies and gentlemen waiting to start another round.
“Now ‘tis the ladies turn to seek!” Miss Dutton chortled. “You gentlemen don’t stand a chance!”
“Who is missing?” Mary asked, looking about. “It seems like there are fewer ladies than there ought to be.
“Only your sisters.” Miss Dutton pointed at the clock. “You men have a ten minute head start, and then we gals will have you on the run.” The men left while the young ladies waited and made conversation amongst each other.
Ten minutes later, Miss Dutton linked arms with Miss Ashworth and announced, “Now we’ll show ‘em who’s best at seeking! I’m surprised when a man finds anything! My Ma always said Pa would lose his head if it wasn’t stuck on by God himself.”
Mary and Miss Abernathy followed Miss Crawford and Miss Bertram into the library. From behind a curtain they could hear Mr Mercer talking to himself.
“I do believe this is an excellent hiding place. Quite ingenious, if I do say so myself. Though perhaps too obvious? No, no, the ladies will never suspect me here!”
“Shut up, Mercer! You’ll bring the whole lot of them down on us!” hissed Mr Whittaker from behind a bookcase.
Mary and Miss Abernathy left the library as Miss Crawford and Miss Bertram exposed their prey to a great deal of laughter, Mr Mercer declaring that the ladies were blessed with exceptional strategic genius. Next, they entered the ball room, which was mostly empty, aside from some furniture that was stored there when the room was not in use.
Miss Ashford and Miss Dutton entered behind them and began an energetic search of the stored furniture, behind curtains, and in cupboards. Miss Dutton grasped the lid of an impossibly small trunk.
“A man could not possibly hide in there!” Miss Abernathy trilled.
“I beg to differ!” Miss Dutton lifted the lid and all of the ladies burst into giggles to find Mr Fletcher cramped in an undignified position in the trunk.
Mr Fletcher struggled out of the trunk amid the peals of laughter from the ladies. “I said from this very morning that this stupid game is a ridiculous waste of time!”
“Who could possibly be hiding here!” exclaimed Miss Ashworth as she pulled open the door of a cupboard near a servants’ entrance, revealing Colonel Gordon, nearly doubled over in his attempt not to laugh.
“How is one possibly to engage in the serious business of finding a wife when one must demean oneself in such a fashion?” Mr Fletcher said in frustration as he quit the room in a fit of vexation.
“Come on, Fletcher! Do not be like that!” laughed Colonel Gordon. “It is only a bit of fun!”
Mary and Miss Abernathy moved on and returned to the ground floor. They wished to find Lord Chesley and Captain Lytton, and repay them for capturing them earlier. They ran into Mrs Higglebottom who was wandering in a hallway.
“Oh Prudence, you are a dear,” the older lady said to Miss Abernathy, mistaking her for Miss Larkspur. “I promised Theodosia to keep an eye on the hide and seek, but I have lost my spectacles again.”
“I am Miss Abernathy, but we will help you, Mrs Higglebottom,” promised Miss Abernathy, gesturing to the two servants down the hall. “Let us ask one of the footmen for assistance.”
“Oh thank heavens, Thomas always knows where to find them.” Mrs Higglebottom headed towards the footmen standing across from one another in the hall. “Thomas, do run above stairs and see if my spectacles are beside my bed.”
The footman’s lips curled slightly, and it looked as if he was attempting desperately not to laugh. Mary noticed that the buttons on his livery were done up wrong, and then made eye contact with Lord Chesley, who could hold in his hilarity no longer, and burst into hearty laughter. The footman across the hall turned out to be none other than Captain Lytton, who was now holding desperately onto a side table as he indulged in his mirth.
“Whatever is so funny?” Mrs Higglebottom asked as the young ladies joined in the laughter. Once she looked properly and realized even without her spectacles that the footman was indeed a guest, she joined in their amusement. At length, the footman Thomas was located, who reminded Mrs Higglebottom that her spectacles were in her pocket, and they all parted eventually to return to their rooms.
That evening, Miss Winslow and Miss Blackwood refused to come down for dinner, taking trays in their rooms. They were offended by having missed lunch; they had been hiding since the very first round of hide and seek, and no one had bothered to find them or notice they were missing, even at the noon meal. Mrs Darlington thought it was unfortunate, but said nothing else about the two ladies that none of the men wished to court.