Page 48 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

DOROTHEE

Clapping could be heard around us, coming from our families joining tonight’s event.

I grinned at Jesse, whose arm lay around my waist, and we waited another moment before we unfroze from our finishing position. Turning to the faces of our families standing on the sides of the ballroom. The place was truly packed.

Our dance group started separating, taking off to join their families for the welcoming speech of Headmaster Shaw.

“Since the age of twelve, I dreamed of being in one of the top classes to open tonight’s ball. And it felt spectacular,” Maisie grinned beside me, breathing heavily from dancing.

“It was fun, and Jesse didn’t even step on my foot this time,” I teased, feeling the mentioned person poking me in the side with his finger.

“I heard that,” he shot back.

As I searched for my parents in the crowd, I noticed two girls running towards Maisie with their arms already open to embrace her.

“Mai!” The brunette and blonde girls called before they both slammed into her, all three of the girls laughing.

“You look like a princess,” the taller, blonde one of the two girls, who looked one or two years younger than us, said. She turned to look at Nathaniel standing by their side. “And you weren’t too bad, either.”

“He was definitely better than at Aunt Helena’s wedding,” the brunette agreed with her.

The blonde girl gasped excitedly, “He truly was, we should call him Twinkle Toes from now on. That’s better than Grumpy Bear.”

Nathaniel smiled tightly at the two. “I’d prefer if you two would simply use my name instead.”

The two girls shared a look before both of them shook their heads in synchrony. “Not a chance, Twinkle Toes.”

Maisie suddenly laughed, earning a look from Nathaniel. She leaned in to press a quick kiss to his jaw. “Well, your fate is sealed, my love.”

She turned and grabbed the girls’ hands, pulling them in my direction. “This is my roommate and dear friend, Dorothee, but everyone calls her Doe.”

The blue eyes of the beautiful blonde girl widened, “she does look like a doe.”

Maisie pressed between the girls and hooked an arm around each, affectionately. “Doe, these are my two lovely sisters, Daniela and Valantina. Dani is the one who shares my beautiful blonde hair, and Val is the only person in our family who’s even shorter than I am.”

Valantina pressed her elbow into her older sister’s side. “Well, the difference is that, in comparison to you, I’m still growing.”

Nathaniel appeared behind Maisie, placing a gentle kiss on her temple, hugging her swiftly from behind. “I’m saying hi to my parents, see you in a bit,” he told her.

“Say hello to your mum from me,” Maisie replied, smiling. The love she had for her boyfriend’s family was as clear as day.

“And he really doesn’t have a younger brother?” Daniela asked dreamily after Nathaniel walked off into the crowd, towards a gorgeous woman that I assumed was his mother, who pulled him into a tight hug.

“Brothers,” Valantina corrected her sister.

“Nope, but he has plenty of cousins,” Maisie answered, looking over to where the woman waved at her, smiling from ear to ear.

“Really?” Her sisters asked hopefully.

Maisie turned back around. “Uh huh, but they live in Italy, and they only speak broken English.”

The both of them groaned in disappointment. “Don’t give us hope if there is none.”

Valantina turned to me with a sweet smile. “Do you have any attractive younger brothers, Dorothee?”

“Valantina, sweetheart, that’s really inappropriate to ask.” A woman who looked almost identical to the three girls appeared behind them with pursed lips. She held out a hand to me. “Amelia Alderidge. I apologise for my daughter’s very forward question.” Oh, so that’s Maisie’s mother.

I shook her hand with a friendly smile on my lips, which was difficult to maintain when I thought about my friends’ stories of this woman.

“Dorothee De Loughrey. It’s a pleasure to meet you. And no worries, your daughter’s question was more than fine.” I looked past her to Maisie’s younger sister. “But sadly, I don’t have brothers, I’m an only child.”

Amelia let go of my hand, taking a step back with a broken laugh. “Thank the lord for that, I wouldn’t want one of my daughters marrying a De Loughrey.”

My smile suddenly dropped. “I’m sorry?”

“Mum!” Maisie scolded her, thrown off by the statement as well.

Amelia waved her daughter off, taking a glass of champagne from a waiter that walked by with a tray of glasses. “It’s nothing against you, my child. I’m sure you’re a sweet girl if you’re friends with my Mairead. But I’m certainly not a fan of your mother, and I’m sure you’ll understand. She’s a poor excuse for a woman with that temperament of hers.”

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of my mother, I surprisingly felt anger boiling in my blood. But instead of defending her, I smiled sweetly at the woman. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll search for the poor excuse for a woman to join her company for Headmaster Shaw’s speech,” I said, hoping she heard the sarcasm in my voice. “I’ll see you later, Maisie.”

Maisie looked at me apologetically as I walked away, but I shook my head to let her know it wasn’t her fault. And perhaps she was right with what she said, but it was still very forward. That’s precisely why Maisie struggles to have a relationship with her mother.

I noticed my mum standing next to one of the tables, looking around with a glass of champagne in her hand. Her golden hair was up in a sleek bun, and she wore a tight black dress combined with a silver belt, trying to fit the motto of tonight somewhat.

“Hi Mum, you look good,” I greeted her with a small smile, looking around to find my father somewhere.

Mum eyed my dress and then returned my smile politely. “Thank you, Dorothee. Your dress is…”

“Pretty,” my father finished for her, returning to the standing table. He wore a black suit, and for once, I noticed that he had no phone in hand.

“Thank you, Dad.” He pulled me into a hug, and I tried not to let my surprise show too much. When I was younger, I vividly remember that he did that often, but then he moved to America and the hugs and cuddles were no more.

“Welcome to the ball of Aquila,” the voice of my headmaster echoed through the room. We broke our embrace and turned to look at Headmaster Shaw, who stood in the middle of the room with a microphone in hand.

Light shone on him from the ceiling, which was decorated with lights that resembled the Aquila constellation, seemingly making someone feel as if they were right beneath the stars.

“It’s an honour to welcome you to the three hundredth Ball of Aquila Hall.” Everyone started clapping at that. “Thank you to our students for this beautiful opening dance. As you may know, this year’s ball is celestial themed to honour the star constellation the academy was named after. Now, I won’t hold you up for long. I hope you’ll enjoy tonight beneath the stars of Aquila.” Headmaster Shaw stepped back, and everyone applauded again before they returned to their conversations.

I turned to my parents. “Thank you for coming.”

“We didn’t really have a choice, did we? I mean, the invitation was pretty forward. Basically telling us we’d be terrible parents if we didn’t come to watch our child twirl around in some ridiculous glittery dress,” Mum shot back, sounding annoyed, looking around as if she searched for something or someone.

“I think if you decided to come just so others wouldn’t think I’m irrelevant to you and assume you’re terrible parents, then this indeed makes you look even more terrible,” I muttered to myself, but my mother must have seemingly heard me because she gaped at me in anger.

Dad opened his mouth before she could, “can you, for once in your life, actually care for your daughter, than just pretend like you do, so others won’t think some daft thoughts about you, Cordelia?”

Mum slammed her glass down on the table, answering in a low voice, “I care about my daughter, but you wouldn’t know, so don’t think you can talk on this topic.”

Care is a big word.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dad frowned at her.

“Oh, don’t act so innocent, you know exactly what I mean. You’re never even there to know anything about her. You’re basically a deadbeat, Aaron.”

He pointed at her, anger crossing his features, but their fight was entertainingly quiet. “I’m away because of work, not because I want to. I care about Dorothee. I’m the polar opposite of a deadbeat.”

Mum lifted her eyebrows, looking at him challengingly. “Is that so? What’s our daughter’s favourite colour then?”

Dad was quiet for a moment. “Then tell me, Cordelia, what is our daughter’s favourite colour?”

“Green,” she said so confidently that it was almost funny.

My favourite colour is lavender.

I kept my mouth shut, just listening a little longer before I decided to let them fight about me and walk off without their notice. It was truly hilarious that they fought about who cares more about me, but won’t even note my disappearance for another ten minutes while they continued to let their inner lawyer hang out.

The orchestra was playing a slow melody, and several people danced while others talked about family, work, or just life in general. It was nice watching everyone. Even Jesse’s family had come. A little girl was riding piggyback while a boy around her age ran around him in circles. I assumed the girl with curly brown hair must be Ximena, his youngest sister, and the boy wearing glasses held in place by a band around his head must be Emiliano.

I knew that he had five siblings in total. Two of whom were his biological siblings and three, the younger ones, were his half-siblings.

Jesse waved at me, trying to stay steady as Ximena pulled on his shoulders like he was a horse. I laughed, waving back, but I wouldn’t join him in this mess by any means. Especially not when his little brother had cake all over his hands and face. My dress was too precious to me, and the night was too young to ruin it.

“Doe!” Someone called for me, and I turned towards the voice to find Naomi standing by one of the windows, facing the front of the school, which was equally decorated with fairy lights, golden stars, and celestial bodies hanging from the building.

“Have you seen any spirits tonight?” she asked when I reached her, and I hushed her despite the fact that probably no one could hear us over their own conversations. “Oh, please, they’re all too invested in talking about their bullshit business. I could tell you about my drug dealer, and no one would listen,” she waved me off.

I raised an eyebrow and frowned at her. “You have a drug dealer?”

Naomi snorted, sipping on her glass of champagne. “Don’t be ridiculous. I think nothing of drugs. If I need a kick, I’ll have Maisie run around my room with her incense sticks, and I’m high above the clouds.”

“Those incense sticks of hers are truly something else. I’m sure one of these herbs she makes them with is not meant to be burned,” I joked, grabbing a glass of champagne from a passing waiter.

“I’m advised to only serve alcohol to adults,” he said almost apologetically.

I demonstratively took a sip of the drink. “It’s fine, I’m overage.”

“My apologies,” he nodded and walked away.

“That was surprisingly easy,” I muttered to myself, but Naomi leaned over to me, having heard what I said.

“If I were to serve a good-looking girl like you, I wouldn’t ask questions either.”

I smiled at her. “It’s the dress. Thank you again, Naomi. If I can ever repay you for that, just let me know.”

“The best payment for a designer is to see their work worn by people who can perfectly embody the art. Besides, I don’t need money. I’ve got enough of it, and still, none of my problems are solved,” she shrugged, groaning quietly as a boy a few years younger than us approached her.

“Mama’s only talking about work stuff, it’s boring here,” the boy complained to Naomi. He wore a black suit that was nothing but neat. His shirt hung out of his trousers, and he wore neither a tie nor a fly. Messy was a description that sounded like it had been made for him.

Naomi sighed, annoyed, emptying her glass in one swing. “It’s one evening, Kenji. Sneak into the corridors and play a game on your phone or something. You’re twelve, not two.”

Kenji rolled his eyes at his sister, noticing me standing next to them. “Is this one of your quirky friends?”

“Yeah, the quirkiest of them all,” she snorted, hooking her arm with mine and patting it gently. “Kenji, this is Doe. Doe, that’s my annoying little brother, Kenji.”

Kenji gave me a tight smile, then turned back to look at his sister. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll search for something edible that doesn’t taste like soap,” he said, walking away towards the tables with the little appetisers.

“I love my brother, but he’s a pain in the arse,” she groaned when Kenji was out of sight. “He’s like a mini version of Rodrick from Diary of a Wimpy Kid . Now, back to my question—have you seen any spirits tonight? I feel like they are…”

“Hiding,” I finished for her, looking around the room for only one familiar face to appear between the living.

Gwyneth was staring back at me from across the room. Even from this distance, I could tell that she was sad.

I’m sorry , she mouthed before she disappeared behind people dancing. Sadness tugged at my heart when I thought about how alone she must be—spending eternity searching for someone to give her company. But she had to face the fact that I couldn’t be that person.

I shrugged, emptying my glass of champagne. “Too many people, perhaps.”

“Could be. They usually hide during the ball,” Naomi agreed.

“Nao, Mama wants to speak to you. Something about the holidays,” Kenji informed his sister, with a muffin shoved half into his mouth. The midnight blue icing stuck to his nose.

“Will you be alright?” Naomi asked me, and I nodded in answer.

“I’m not some damsel in distress. It’s fine, Naomi.”

She squeezed my arm, and I smiled at her warmly before she grabbed her brother’s arm and dragged him with her.

I stood by the standing table for a little while, waving at Anwir, who nodded to me mid-conversation with some other parents.

The orchestra played some covers of recently released music while the dance floor faded into the colours of blue, gold, and black.

People-watching isn’t as boring as some might think. It’s actually really fun. I don’t know most of these people, but I could rhyme together a story about how the waiter and the girl dressed in a white, moon-like dress knew each other by the way their hands touched for a moment too long when they passed each other.

Perhaps it was delusions I fed myself as entertainment, but I had nothing to do, really.

My eyes caught Kane standing in one corner, deep in conversation with Headmaster Shaw. But his eyes constantly swayed over the dance floor, and I swore his gaze lingered the longest on my friends, and as our gazes met, my heart jackhammered.

“Oh no.” I blinked, looking at a girl kneeling on the floor next to me.

I walked up to her, kneeling down by her side. “Hi, is everything alright?”

She looked up, her eyes filling with tears, but she managed to let out a small laugh. “Yeah, it’s just my heel broke, and my parents won’t be happy about that.” She pressed the broken heel against her ballerina shoe as if she hoped the issue would resolve itself just like that.

“Come on, kneeling on a dance floor is terribly dangerous,” I chuckled lightly, helping her up. We walked to the side of the room, and I could have sworn she looked familiar in this light.

“What shoe size do you wear?” I asked her, noticing the fear crossing her eyes when she kept looking down at the broken shoe in her hand. It was familiar—the tears that came whenever something went wrong that your parents wouldn’t approve of.

“Six, I think,” she frowned, checking her answer by looking at the sole of the shoe she held in her hand.

“What a coincidence, I wear a six too!” I grinned, taking off my golden shoes. “The heel is a little higher by one centimetre, I believe, but I’m sure they’ll look gorgeous with your dress.”

I bent down, switching her shoes with mine, and while she let me, she shook her head. “I can’t accept that. Why would you help me like this? Now you don’t have any shoes,” she sounded so amazed and thankful in one breath that I knew this was the right thing to do.

I smiled at her, taking the shoes she’d just worn. “I know that look in your eyes. It’s alright. I’ve got another pair in my room.”

Before I knew it, she threw her arms around me. “Thank you…”

“Dorothee. And you’re welcome.”

She pulled back to look at me. “Oh, how rude of me, I’m Elsie.”

Elsie .

“As in Archer’s sister, Elsie?” I asked, surprised, already knowing the answer.

The eyes.

That’s why she looked so familiar. She and her brother had the exact same pair of eyes.

Elsie’s eyes lit up. “You know my brother?”

I nodded. “He’s a really good friend of mine.”

“That’s wonderful! Mum was hoping to see him making new friends, particularly new girlfriends since Mai is taken, and he shows no romantic interest in Naomi. Oh! You should talk to her, she’ll be delighted to meet you,” she babbled, taking my hand and dragging me with her through the crowded room. My bare feet hitting the icy marble floor. “While I adore how delighted you are that I’m friends with your brother, I don’t think he’d appreciate me meeting his—” Elsie stopped abruptly, and I ran straight into someone’s back as I tripped over my own feet.

“Ouch,” I breathed, tapping my nose to see if it had started bleeding from the impact. It wasn’t particularly hard, but I’ve always been an easy nose bleeder, and I’d do anything to avoid splattering my dress with blood tonight.

The person I ran into turned around, and I released a breath of relief. It was less embarrassing running into him now that I saw his face.

“Missed me that much, huh?” Archer teased with a sideways smile.

Taking my fingers away from under my nose, I inspected and saw, to my luck, no blood. “Terribly. Had to run into you to make sure you weren’t just a pretty imagination of my desperate mind,” I snorted.

Someone cleared their throat behind Archer, and when I looked past him, I was greeted by a man who was the spitting image of the boy in front of me. He was older, though. His face was hard, and he didn’t look amused in the slightest, while the woman who must be Archer’s mother looked rather surprised.

“Mum, Dad, this is Dorothee. She’s Archer’s friend. Isn’t she pretty?” Elsie could talk a lot at a very concerning speed. She seemed like the total opposite of her brother.

Archer’s mother smiled at me, which looked like it took a slight bit of effort. “Very pretty, indeed.” She held out her hand, and I took it. “I’m Bridget Kingstone. It’s lovely to meet you, Dorothee.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, too, Mrs Kingstone.”

She laughed softly, “Oh, please, any friends of my son can call me Bridget.”

I let go of her hand, expecting to take his father’s next, but he made no effort to hold his out or take mine. “Is footwear old-fashioned these days, or what’s the reason behind attending a ball barefoot?” He asked instead.

Looking at Elsie standing beside her father, who gave me a pleading look, and down at my bare feet, I thought about a reasonable lie when suddenly I was reminded that I was still holding Elsie’s broken shoes in the hand that was hidden by Archer.

I held them out to him and showed the heel that hung loose on the delicate shoe. “It’s such a shame I’m so clumsy. I was just about to find my room and return with some new shoes when I stumbled upon your daughter, who so kindly tried to help me fix my shoe. Sadly, I’m afraid, no fixing could save them now.”

Father Kingstone eyed his daughter’s shoes in my hand, and I prayed he didn’t notice that it was Elsie who came to the ball in these exact shoes since the ones I gave her and these looked really similar.

“My daughter’s too kind. A woman should be able to walk properly in such footwear by your age. Clumsiness is only an excuse for failure, but I’m not your father, so who am I to judge.” Now I know why Elsie’s eyes had filled with tears when she kneeled on the floor with her broken shoe.

I gave him a sugar-sweet smile. “And I’m gladly not your daughter, so who am I to feel judged,” I repeated his words to him, and from the scowl on his face, I assumed he didn’t expect nor like that.

Perhaps it was the wrong thing to say. I intended to spend the rest of my life with their son; making them dislike me won’t do us any favours. But at the same time, his father was insulting me in the first place, and I wouldn’t let some old man I didn’t know run his mouth about me. Not when I knew he would have probably lashed out worse if it was his daughter walking up to him barefoot.

Archer’s mother muffled a polite laugh, “You remind me of his friend Naomi. May I ask how you two met?”

Yeah, I’m sure that Naomi wouldn’t let Father Kingstone talk badly about her either.

“Dorothee is Mai’s roommate and transferred at the beginning of October of last year. She knew no one here, and we invited her to spend some time with us. Who would have guessed that she’d be the missing piece in our circle?” Archer answered his mother, taking a step away from me. I turned my head in Kane’s direction, feeling his eyes burning into us. It was better for tonight.

“How lovely,” Bridget looked between me and her son, almost as if she were searching for something to let her know we were more than friends. Elsie certainly sounded like her mother hoped for Archer to find some sort of significant other. “What was your surname, love?”

“De Loughrey,” I answered, silently pleading with the stars for his parents to not have a personal hatred against my mother.

“The De Loughrey’s and Kingstone’s stand under a bad star, girl. I hope you haven’t made up some delusional scenario about you and my son,” his father added to the conversation, causing his wife to inspect the bottom of her glass of liquor.

“The De Loughrey’s are an honourable family, though,” Bridget told her husband, looking from him to me. “You’re Cordelia’s daughter, right, love?”

I nodded, making her eyes light up. “Isn’t that lovely, Griffin?”

She’s apparently very fond of the word lovely.

Archer’s father Griffin cleared his throat. “My uncle lost his life because he loved a De Loughrey. We wouldn’t want that happening to our dear son, would we, Bridget?”

She narrowed her gaze, “Of course not, love. But Dorothee seems like such a lovely girl, she could do our Archer good, it’s a mother’s intuition.”

I swallowed hard, feeling uncomfortable with his parents discussing us as if we weren’t really here, and the worst part was that Archer didn’t say a single thing. He just let them.

“Archer is promised to a lovely girl already. While I respect the De Loughrey Dynasty, I wouldn’t want my heir to waste his position on someone that’ll bring us no advantage.” My heart beat wildly in my chest at Griffin’s words.

Promised…?

My gaze searched for Archer’s, but he didn’t look at me.

Why wouldn’t he look at me?

Why didn’t he look surprised?

Why wasn’t he saying anything?

“We talked about this, Griffin. Not tonight,” his wife spoke, her hand clinging to the glass with such a grip that I saw the glass shattering in my head. Or perhaps it was my heart I heard falling into shards on the marble floor.

My eyes stung as I waited for him to say something. Argue with them. Say they can’t decide that for you.

Say. Something. Archer.

“I didn’t intend to do so tonight, but it would have been incredibly cruel to not let this lovely girl know that the boy she clearly fancies is to marry another girl.” Griffin looked sadistically satisfied by my shocked reaction.

Some little voice inside my head told me that he didn’t need to inform me that he was basically engaged. We weren’t together. If I hadn’t begged him to kiss me that night, perhaps we wouldn’t have ever touched like lovers.

He didn’t owe me anything.

How could I have been so naive to believe he could love me?

“If you’ll excuse me, my parents are waiting for me,” I said, nodding towards his mother in goodbye.

“Doe, wait,” Archer called after me, but I didn’t slow down. The room seemed to carve in on me, and everything was moving so slowly as I tried to hurry outside. Anywhere. Just away from here.

I bit my lip, trying to hold back this bleeding pain that rippled through me, but the tears spilled over, unstoppable.

He was a coward. A pathetic coward.

Finally, I made it to the grand entrance doors of the ballroom, where someone caught me in strong arms. I let out a yelp until I realised it was just Anwir who had caught me.

He eyed my face in concern. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, aware that I looked everything but alright. “I just need to get some air,” I sniffed, freeing myself from his arms and brushing the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“You should stay inside, it’s not safe tonight,” he said, but I shook my head, searching the room for Kane, who was still standing in the corner, where he hadn’t moved for the past hour.

“Please, Kane is still here, and I need… please ,” I begged, starting to sob even harder as more and more realisation hit me.

I needed to get out of here before Archer caught up to me. I couldn’t talk to him right now, or perhaps ever again.

Anwir gave me an empathetic look and nodded slowly. “Alright, should I get someone to join you–”

“I want to be alone,” I answered and pushed past him, hurrying outside into the backyard of the school where no other guests lingered.

The summer breeze stroked my skin, almost as if nature were trying to comfort me. I looked up into the clear night sky, where the Altair star shone brighter than I had ever seen it before.

“You cruel arseholes! I hate you! I hate every shining one of you until the end of time!” I screamed at the sky as if they could hear me. As if they were at fault.

Throwing Elsie’s broken shoes to the side, I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes, letting the pain ripple through me as I cried about what could have been but never will be.

I was just a figure in this cruel game the stars played with us. And it seemed that I was their least favourite player on the board.