Page 7 of Just Think of the Scandal (The Fairplace Family Novellas #2)

A ll Eliska wanted was to fall back into bed and sleep. When she woke up, perhaps she’d find this was all a strange, demented dream. She didn’t want to face the rest of the guests. She did not need to hear all their thoughts on the fast, loose ways of Continental women.

But she freshened up, then went to the breakfast room with her head high. She hated how nervous and frightened she was. It was only social censure. She’d survived her family’s household catching cholera, for goodness’ sake.

Heart thumping, Eliska entered the breakfast room.

People at the table froze, conversation screeching to a halt. Eyes stared at her. They felt like ants crawling all over her skin.

Eliska resisted the urge to fidget. She demurely clasped her hands before her wide, lavender skirts rather than fisting them in the folds like she wanted. As gracefully as she could, Eliska drifted to the sideboard to load a plate with toast, eggs, and marmalade. The spot between her shoulder blades itched.

Slowly conversation resumed, stuttering onward.

Eliska found an empty seat between one of the matrons and one of the Cowper twins. She made to sit, but the matron looked up and frowned at her.

“This spot is taken, I’m afraid.”

“I beg your pardon.” For a few seconds Eliska thought the woman had been honest. But then as she reached a seat at the far end of the table with a floral arrangement blocking her view, she realized she was being shunned.

She burned with embarrassment but kept her expression calm, suddenly thankful for her mother’s etiquette lessons.

The girls she’d played parlor games with last night glanced at her with wide eyes and scandalized expressions. The men, all old enough to be her father, leered between taking bites of toast and drinking their coffee. The young men, the ones Theo had been so worried about, were nowhere to be found. Likely still sleeping off the excess of last night.

Eliska gestured for a footman to get her coffee. Maybe that would clear her head and make everything better.

Quickly, before she’d finished her meal, the table emptied. Some hurried away with scornful looks. The rest ignored her completely. Eliska sat at the end of the table by herself, drinking the rest of her coffee and pretending it didn’t hurt.

Maybe I can catch a train back to London, she mused. And on to the Bohemian Lands. The cholera that had taken half the household and her mother had also cut through Prague, killing the common Czech people and the German-Austrian nobility alike. Several of her mother’s friends had perished, and the rest were still likely hiding in their country estates in Moravia. Eliska could probably go find someone who’d been friends with either her mother or father. There had been too much chaos at the time she’d decided to travel to England. But perhaps if she journeyed back they could take her in.

My reputation won’t be damaged there, she reasoned. News shan’t travel that quickly. But then again, it might. The telegraph was quick, and newspapers were only a few weeks delayed. She didn’t think many in Bohemian society would read the British scandal sheets. But…if they did…

She didn’t have any relatives to claim the Czernin title, able to protect or shun her. Her mother would be horrified, but she’d also never made Eliska do anything she hated. Her father would’ve spun some clever tale and then called in a favor from another Habsburg courtier to squash the rumor.

The magistrate ruling in Eliska’s inheritance case was hostile toward German and Austrian nobility, as he was Moravian and fought his way into the upper echelons of power. He conducted his courtroom in Czech, not German, and was also religiously conservative. If he caught wind of Eliska’s comprised reputation, he’d delay the hearings as long as he could to keep the money out of the hands of frivolous nobles and make interest for the local Czech government off her court fees.

She wished to return to Prague to discuss better arguments, though she knew it was likely pointless.

No, she had to go through with the marriage. Probably.

Maybe the magistrate would take a liking to Theo, as a non-aristocratic British man of business. Hopefully. He seemed like a good man, not prone to drink or gambling from what she’d witnessed already. He was the most principled and sober of the party’s young men, and she liked that. Eliska drank the last of her coffee, now cold, and sighed. She’d take this one day at a time.

∞∞∞

By supper Eliska was tired, so tired, of smiling and pretending all was well. She’d told anyone who would listen that a romance had blossomed between Mr. Fairplace and herself. She’d been just as surprised as everyone else, but love comes on its own timetable. Yes, he’d already asked the baron for her hand in marriage and they’d gotten carried away in celebration. What did she like best about him? His honorable spirit, of course. And those deep brown eyes.

The young men had kept their distance from the ladies today, as if compromise was catching. Their eyes followed her through the garden and on the lawn, expressions inscrutable. Eliska hated it. She’d been mostly ignored the previous days, and it was unnerving to suddenly be the center of attention. Especially when everyone pretended she wasn’t.

Her uncle and Mr. Fairplace—Theo, she corrected herself—returned just as the dinner bell gonged. Eliska’s heart skipped a beat. Finally . He could take some attention off her.

Lord Erswich blundered in, his presence filling the parlor. He was still wearing his traveling jacket and smelled faintly of coal smoke. Theo strolled in behind him.

Eliska’s body prickled with awareness. Which annoyed her. Was she so attuned to his presence because she was attracted to him, or because of the strange, uncomfortable situation?

His eyes scanned the room until they lit upon her. His eyes sharpened and his mouth curved—not quite in a smile, but at least recognition.

Her heart skipped another beat. She hadn’t expected to bear the weight of his full attention. She struggled to breathe, trying not to falter under his gaze. She wouldn’t shy away like a blushing violet. Shrinking violet? However the English saying went.

“We’ve just returned,” her uncle was telling someone nearby. “My cousin’s boy is head over heels, you see, and begged me to go with him to get a special license. Seems he just can’t wait, ho! Young bucks in love.”

Eliska watched Theo’s face to see how he felt at being cast as a fool for Cupid.

“He’s worried she’ll be snapped up when we go to London for the Season,” the baron declared loudly and with a wink. “Best grab her up now, y’see.”

Theo’s half-smile never wavered, nor did his eyes upon hers. His hair was windswept from the ride in from the station, and though his clothing was crumpled and travel-worn, he was still handsome.

Her cousin Evelyn strode over and shook his hand. “Welcome back, Theo. Just in time for the parson’s noose.”

Theo broke his eye contact with Eliska to speak to Evelyn. The group began to pair up, men escorting women across the hall into the dining room by order of rank. Normally Eliska would be somewhere in the middle as a count’s daughter. But England didn’t give much weight to foreign titles, she’d learned, and so she’d fallen to the back. So had Theo.

The past nights he’d escorted Mrs. Baker the companion. But she’d retired early with a megrim and so tonight he was hers.

Eliska gulped as she drifted to his side. He held out an elbow and she tucked her hand through. The warmth of his body nearly made her shiver.

“Good evening.” He glanced sidelong at her.

“Good evening,” Eliska replied. She hunted for something to say. In the past they’d exchanged pleasantries about the weather, favorite books, even a bit of fashion. She knew his younger sister loved fashion. But now, with the betrothal looming between them, everything was fraught with her nerves.

“How have they been treating you?” Theo asked quietly as they followed the crowd.

Eliska shrugged. “Not too badly.”

Theo made a sound in the back of his throat. “I’m sorry I left you to deal with it alone.”

“You couldn’t have helped it,” Eliska said.

“But Evelyn was kind and made sure you weren’t left out?”

“Evelyn and I didn’t speak all day,” Eliska admitted.

Theo snorted derisively. “He’s your cousin. They didn’t snub you?”

Eliska shook her head. “I’m not going to rub myself in somewhere.”

Theo choked. “You’re what ?”

Eliska looked at him curiously. “They do not want me there. Do you English not have a saying for this?”

His brows furrowed as he tried to understand. “Ah, you won’t force yourself somewhere you’re not wanted.”

She smiled. “Precisely.” They entered the dining room and he left her at her seat, which was several places away from him.

∞∞∞

Theo had spent the whole trip to London trying to ignore his glowering cousin the baron. He’d let Lord Erswich force his way through the Doctors Commons to get the special license, made a quick stop to a jeweler, and climbed back aboard the train. His cousin glowered some more, then even began to give a speech about treating Miss Czerninová well. Theo had given his elder cousin an incredulous look— he wasn’t the one pushing for this marriage—and they’d sat in silence the rest of the way. At the station he found a telegram reply from his mother, promising to do her best to be at Blatherwycke by eleven o’clock in the morning, just in time for the ceremony at the village church.

That telegram, those stark words in black and white, made it all too real. Theo crumpled the paper in his hands and hyperventilated most of the trip back to Blatherwycke in the curricle the baron drove. Everything is about to change. Whether I like it or not.

His breathing didn’t ease until he entered the parlor and saw her. Eliska stood behind a settee, a little separate from the guests. Had she been mistreated? Why was she so alone? A fierce protectiveness welled up inside, surprising him. Even more so when he realized the tightness in his chest had eased at the sight of her.

She was beautiful, he realized. No, he’d already known that. But this was the first time he’d walked into a room and seen her as his betrothed, the woman he’d wed tomorrow. The woman he’d bed.

His blood heated at the thought of her under him, dawn streaking against the silk sheets and her pale limbs twined around him. His breath caught at the vision. He wanted her. Oh, how he wanted her.

At the end of supper the women stood to withdraw. Eliska shot to her feet a second after the others. Few had spoken to her. She wasn’t a usually talkative person—at least, he didn’t think so—but she enjoyed good conversation and he thought she had an original perspective as she was not wholly British.

The older women didn’t glance Eliska’s way as they filed out of the room. The young women did, though, clearly torn between wanting to snub her and wanting to bask in her infamy.

Eliska’s chin rose and she began to follow the women. She was so composed that Theo almost missed how her hands trembled, nearly hidden by her skirts.

No. She deserved better than this. It was all his fault they thought she was wanton. He threw his serviette on his dessert plate and stood, the chair legs scraping the wooden floor.

“Pardon me, gentlemen, but I wish to join my betrothed tonight.” He bowed slightly to the baron, who nodded in return.

Eliska paused on the threshold of the dining room. “Oh.” She paused. “That’s unnecessary. I do not wish…” Her voice trailed off as his long strides rounded the table and ate up the space between them. She didn’t glance at the table.

Theo did, and found all the men wearing knowing smirks. Lord William said something, which made the young men guffaw. Anger expanded in his chest, making it tight. These men were part of the reason Eliska and he were trapped in this mess, and they viewed it as a spectacle. No, a farce.

He reached Eliska and took her hand in his. The warm, soft fingers spasmed at his touch, then settled in his grasp. Her hand fit perfectly in his. A wave of tenderness and sexual longing washed over him suddenly, sending his mind reeling. He tightened his grip on her hand, using it as an anchor for the present. “Shall we?” he managed to get out.

She nodded, and they left the room together.