𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

Chapter 14

"SO I'M SURE YOU MUST BE aware that the business is run by Lord Edward Buxton and Lord Isaac Algernon," Mr Frank Templemore pressed further, as he and his cousin, Lady Diana Beaumont, strolled through the gardens of the Brockenhurst estate.

He had, somehow managed to convince his mother to give up Diana's company for a while, and after The Countess's minimal protests, she had decided to agree on the grounds of her assumption that her niece had probably forgotten the look of nature all the weeks she was cramped up in the hectic part of Portsmouth.

Diana smiled and nodded, without saying anything else. It was frustrating how she and Alicia could not seem to escape these names.

"It's admirable, is it not?" Frank gushed then, his arms pinned at his back and an excited smile on his face. "They have got all the wealth and prestige from their parentage, yet they insist on doing business to create an independent name for themselves."

Diana's smile dissipated quietly. She had thought that too once, admired the gentleman for these very qualities, but now she had come to realize that you cannot really assume to know a person by what they choose to show or tell you about themselves.

"That is what I want to do," Her cousin continued in the same excited voice, not caring that she hadn't really replied. "Make a name for myself, not to be known as merely Count Brockenhurst's son and heir."

Diana observed him silently; he was ambitious, but never in a bad way. He always had this bubbly look about him when he used to dream of things far beyond his reach when they were little, he had that same look now, as if he was listing all the endless possibilities of such an endeavor in his head.

"What do you think? You haven't really said much," Mr Frank Templemore added after a pause, suddenly cautious that his endless ranting had discomforted her.

"I think it is great that you think like that," Diana spoke carefully, before halting in her steps and turning to face him, as he too stopped. "Just don't let ambition make you forget who you truly are. Don't let it make you forget about things and people who matter the most in life."

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"Aunt Agnes especially asked us to come," Diana sighed as she sunk into her bed.

They had returned from the Brockenhurst estate about an hour ago and after making sure their little cousins had eaten and were alright and that Aunt Frederica's health was fine, the ladies retired to Diana's room to discuss the events of the day. It was a terrible feeling Diana had felt as the carriage had driven away from the estate, it had felt like leaving Bellevue Hall all over again. The Brockenhurst estate, her Aunt and Frank, reminded her so much of home. They were family, they were home.

Her only consolation was that The Countess of Brockenhurst had invited them to stay at the estate for three days the coming weekend, and had extended the invitation over to Mr Arthur Fleming and his family as well. She had insisted that the estate gardens would be good for his wife's health, and had emphasized that she was in an urgent need of company if she were to be prevented from going mad with all of Frank's propositions and no one but the butler to listen to her own.

Lady Diana Beaumont and Lady Alicia Kirkpatrick had been glad the invitation was extended to their uncle's family as well, because they would certainly not have left off for a whole weekend without them. 

"I'm tired," Diana spoke softly, her voice coming out muffled as she pressed her face into a pillow.

She was not physically tired, it was just that her spirit felt heavy and her heart felt empty. A sudden wave of homesickness she couldn't place.