Meet Me at Dawn

Chapter Eleven

All right, here it is, the next chapter! Enjoy reading :) Comments and votes are very much welcomed and appreciated. Especially since I shall now be gone away on a much needed vacation!

It takes two flints to make a fire.

                                                                                       Louisa May Alcott

The days prior to the masquerade proved to be quite strenuous on my part. It was required that I sneak from the town house in Grosvenor Square in the dead of night for gown fittings in Reggie’s quarters. Both her husband and Sutherland frequented their club each night since our arrival in London, remaining absent until the early hours of the morning.

However, the smells brought home with the earl were not only of cigar smoke and brandied alcohol. There was a distinct odor emanating from his presence each time he returned from his evening activities, one that I knew had no place in a gentlemen’s club, leaving no doubt in my mind that he had ventured elsewhere. I wondered where he had been going off to with Westover, but I had not the chance to inquire. Sutherland had been recluse in his habits, not straying far from his study during the daylight hours.

Though left to my own devices without probing questions as to how I spent my days, that freedom was lost at night when I visited with Reggie. I believed my voice grew hoarse from the constant chatter we engaged in to satisfy her curiosity as to where I had run off to for the past three years.

We were good friends, but I did not wish to tarnish myself in her eyes. I therefore left out many of the horrid details pertaining to my dreadful experience during my weeks prior to making the earl’s acquaintance. She knew inherently that I excluded certain details, but she did not push the matter. And for her undying friendship and understanding, I was grateful. She was however, not as relentless when it came to my appearance.

“And your hair!” she exclaimed the night before the designated masquerade, “Whatever are we going to do with it. It will indeed be quite a task for Tess.” She stood behind me as we both glanced at my reflection in her vanity.

I reached up to smooth my cropped locks, embarrassed that she should be so horrified at the sight. She saw my motion and took on a sympathetic tone. “Do not worry, hair will grow. But, for now, we will supply you with a more…decorated domino, to ensure that you will not be recognized.”

Still, I was ever more hesitant to attend the ball, for fear of recognition—not by Sutherland as the boy he knew as Kit, but by the rest of the ton, as a scandalous lady. My acknowledged presence as such would bring further shame to my family, and quite possibly give Mama a conniption were she to receive word. I would be a social pariah, and cast aside, too scandalous to be acknowledged by even the lowest ranks of society.

But to see Abigail’s face as I stole him away from her, following Reggie’s scheme for revenge, was reason enough for me to put aside my fears. I would turn them against each other, and cause the scandal of the Season, but this time, my name would not be the one whispered with scorn. Not one would be the wiser, for I would disappear into the night once my deed was concluded and be forgotten by the coming of the dawn.

A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts.

The door opened to reveal one of the housemaids. “Apologies your ladyship, his lordship has returned.” She curtsied neatly and turned to take leave, while Reggie and I gaped at each other.

“Wait,” Reggie called, “where is his lordship currently?”

“In his study my lady.” The maid then turned and left, while I continued to stare at Reggie in disbelief.