Page 10 of The Duke’s Second Bride (Regency Second Chances #4)
D espite her experience at the garden party, Ava found herself at a ball just a few days later. Edith could never be persuaded not to drag her friend out of the house, claiming it was bad for a young widow’s complexion to stay shut in all day.
As Ava and Edith entered the ballroom, Ava could not help but feel as though all the eyes in the room turned to them.
“I feel as though we are being watched,” she murmured to Edith.
Edith laughed, tossing back her head as though Ava had made some impossibly witty comment.
“Well, of course,” she said, wrapping her arm through Ava’s and pulling her in conspiratorially. “We are two fetching young widows, surrounded by the most delicious controversy. Why shouldn’t people want to watch? It’s the best entertainment their small minds can imagine.”
Ava didn’t point out that, while they were both widows, Edith certainly was not surrounded by the sorts of rumors that had followed the Dunfairs around.
If people were watching Edith, it may have been due to her fetching looks.
She was wearing a lovely new gold gown, and it shimmered with each step she took.
Ava did not feel nearly as glamorous, though she did like the gown she was wearing more than her usual.
True to his word, Brandon had sent over more funds with her allowance. There had not been enough time to commission a new gown from scratch, but she used some of the money to have one of her older dresses amended to a newer mode of fashion.
She pushed out of her mind Brandon’s suggestive comments that she lower the neckline or otherwise flaunt her figure.
But she did like what the modiste had done with the gown, taking away some of the frills and adding a small train to the back, as well as dying the entire garment, previously gray, a most beautiful deep shade of green.
“If you say so,” she acquiesced, not wanting to bicker so soon after they arrived at the event.
“I do,” Edith said, giving her arm a reassuring pat. “Don’t be so nervous! People always watch the new arrivals to the ballroom. In a few moments, there will be a horde of eighteen-year-old debutantes for them to gawk at, and then you and I shall find ourselves entirely and promptly upstaged.”
Ava couldn’t help but smile. “I only pray that moment comes sooner, rather than later,” she teased, and Edith gave a little fake gasp and playful smack to the elbow.
The jest did make her feel better; however, her anxiety returned twofold in just a few moments when, as they did another loop around the ballroom, she began to hear more whispers.
“Goodness, she really has been making the rounds as of late, hasn’t she?” came one voice. “And so brazenly, too.”
Perhaps they weren’t talking about her, Ava thought. She straightened her spine, poised to keep walking. But then:
“Do you know, I heard that she stepped out on the late Lord Dunfair before they were even married?” It was Lady Southington. “Really! From the time they were engaged. By the time he found out she no longer had her virtue, it was too late, and they were already married.”
Edith didn’t seem to have heard any of this. Ava cleared her throat, squeezing her friend’s hand.
“I am in need of a moment alone,” she said apologetically.
Edith nodded, understanding, and quickly found another conversation partner over by the refreshments table.
Ava grabbed a cup of lemonade off the table and then took advantage of her sudden solitude by drifting towards the gossiping group, trying to get close enough to hear without drawing their attention to her nearness.
She settled on a spot behind a pillar. Luckily, nobody approached her; she tried to look as un-suspicious as possible, keeping her ears peeled to the chatter on the other side of the pillar behind her as she sipped delicately at her lemonade.
Even though she didn’t like it, her curiosity had a stronger pull than the urge to avoid the gossip entirely; she wanted to know what was being said, even if it wasn’t flattering.
“What bad luck,” a man at her side mused. “There’s no undoing a wedding.”
“I’m sure after something like that, he could barely stand to look at her,” Lady Southington continued to confide.
“I can hardly stand to look at her now,” another voice sneered, and Ava recognized it as Lady Reginald. “No wonder he sought comfort in the arms of others.”
“And I heard that isn’t even the worst of it!” cried Lady Southington.
“Oh?” said another woman in their circle. “Pray tell.”
“Well. Believe it or not, I heard that they had scarcely been married before she began entertaining the new Lord Dunfair. Her husband’s own brother!”
This time, the gasps were significantly louder.
“No!’
“It can’t be!”
“It is,” said the man from before, an elderly fellow, speaking in solemn tones. “You do know he has kept her in house and board now that she has no husband to speak of.”
“Oh, pish posh,” said another gentleman dismissively. “That is a terrible rumor to spread just on hearsay. Surely any halfway decent gentleman would do the same thing to look after the widow of his brother? It’s only common goodness.”
“If you knew the new Lord Dunfair,” Lady Southington said, a snide tone in their voice, “I hardly think goodness would be an apt descriptor. He is a most repugnant man. I’d place my bets that if he had no interest in keeping the widowed Lady Dunfair as his mistress in sin, he would have put her out on the streets. ”
“I must say, I would not be surprised to hear of such an affair,” Lady Reginald said. “The two of them are always disappearing off together during quiet events such as these. It is a sickening disgrace to the memory of poor William.”
“But if they were to be seeing each other in an illicit manner, wouldn’t such an affair be best conducted in the shadows?
” pointed out the younger gentleman in their circle.
“They have several estates between them. Why not disappear to the country for a bit, rather than stealing away to corners at public parties?”
“One must assume that is part of the appeal for them,” said the elderly gentleman. “They get to flaunt their indiscretions here, in our faces, and relish in the fact that nobody dares confront them.”
“Such bold-faced lies!” a voice said just next to Ava. She turned to see Edith, returned from the refreshment table, and was practically red-faced with fury. “It would almost be laughable, were it not so cruel!”
“Come, Edith,” Ava said, feeling her own cheeks heat with embarrassment at being caught eavesdropping. “You’re right. It’s ridiculous. There is simply no sense in listening to them even a second longer.”
“But it’s not right!” Edith cried.
Reluctantly, she let Ava pull her away.
However, they had made it barely ten or twenty steps away before they ran into another group. These were ladies Ava didn’t even recognize, and yet, from the burning hatred in their eyes, they certainly seemed to recognize her.
“How dare you show your face in public!” one of them, a tall brunette, practically snapped at Ava. “You and your dreadful lover. Flaunting your affair in front of the memory of your poor husband—and his brother!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Edith fired back. “Do you listen to every piece of unfounded gossip some half-wit whispers into your ear, Vanessa?”
The brunette—Vanessa—sniffed. “I haven’t just heard it once,” she said primly. “Everyone in the ton is talking about it, practically. And it isn’t as though they are doing much to dissuade people from talking about it. Look at him, staring at her from across the room! It is so uncouth.”
Ava’s blood ran cold. She turned her head to look in the direction indicated by Vanessa. Sure enough, Brandon was there, staring at her with a look in his eyes like a wolf circling its cornered prey.
“How dare you—” Edith began, until Ava grabbed her arm.
Ava shook her head. “Don’t bother, Edith.” Her fear of Brandon put a new urgency in her voice. “Let’s go.”
Perhaps hearing the note of terror in Ava’s voice, Edith closed her mouth, nodded, and walked with her friend away from Vanessa and the other mean ladies.
As they walked on, they continued in silence for a moment. Such unpleasant encounters back-to-back seemed to have drained even Edith’s capacity for pleasant chit-chat.
“You needn’t stay with me,” Ava said after a moment.
Edith looked up, as though surprised. “What do you mean?”
“You have a perfectly good reputation, Edith,” Ava said, trying not to choke up as she spoke. “I don’t wish to sully your place in society by associating with you. It isn’t fair. You are sociable, well-liked, and active in the ton. It isn’t right that a friendship with me should be your downfall.”
Edith clucked her tongue sympathetically.
“Don’t be silly.” She looked at Ava with empathy shining in her eyes.
“A friendship with you is worth more to me than the approval of the entire ton. I swear it. And,” she said, with a light, teasing tone, “if you leave me alone again at this party any time soon, I promise I will have such sharp words for you, it will make everyone else’s rumors seem pleasant by comparison. ”
Ava couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Well, with a threat such as that awaiting me …” She sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m sorry society can be so cruel. But you won’t help your cause by bowing your head down and disappearing, so chin up! Time for another turn about the room.”
They continued to walk.
As they neared the entrance again, the footman at the front of the room began announcing the new arrivals with a loud, proud voice that echoed through the ballroom.
“His Grace, The Duke of Richmond!”
Ava could not help but turn to look at the entrance alongside the rest of the room. She barely even had a chance to experience the relief of all the eyes no longer weighing on her. Instead, she was roundly distracted by the sight of the duke as he strode into the ballroom.