Daughter of the Rebellion

Chapter 29

I thought I'd been nervous before the ball two months ago, but that was nothing compared to how I felt just before the Christmas party.

Every detail was planned down to the precise color of the berries in the table centerpieces, but I just knew something would go wrong. And when it did, everyone would comment on what an awful mistake Richard made by choosing me as his wife.

If all of the pressure of throwing together the perfect Christmas party wasn't enough, I still didn't know even half of the guests very well. I could identify more of them, but I didn't remember the names of more than twenty or so. And I would be expected to converse with every one of them at some point in the evening.

Basically, I was a nervous wreck when the guests began to arrive. Richard, as always, knew what I was thinking. He slipped his arms around my waist from behind.

"You've done a wonderful job and you look beautiful," he said. "Just relax and enjoy the party."

"I just know something will go wrong," I said. "I'm going to embarrass you somehow."

Richard laughed. "Impossible." He released me and took my hand. "Come on," he said. "We need to start greeting them."

Taking a deep breath, I allowed myself to be led across the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To my great relief, it really wasn't so bad. People were clearly in the best of moods due to the holiday and everything was going smoothly. The music was soft enough to allow comfortable conversation, but not so quiet as to make people feel uncomfortable to start them.

There was no actual dinning table. Rather, there were small tables spread throughout the room to allow people a rest from mingling. The food was brought out on platters at various times and people could eat standing up or they could momentarily take advantage of one of the tables. I worried that people wouldn't like eating that way, but Amelia assured me it was perfectly acceptable during a Christmas party and that people enjoyed the novelty of it just as long as it wasn't done more than once a year or so.

Of course, then I'd had the headache of trying to determine exactly how many trays would be needed and specifically at what times they should be sent out. I wasn't sure I'd made the right decisions, despite Amelia's advice. But thankfully everything seemed timed perfectly. People were free to enjoy one thing and then when they were finished, the servants had the next item ready.

I wondered about the fact that there was to be no dancing at this party - what would people do for three hours with no dancing? Even the designated smoking and game rooms wouldn't entertain very many people for very long. But before I knew it, the evening was half over and no one seemed even slightly bored. And I still had scores of people to talk to.

Surprisingly, that was the easiest part. I mostly stayed by Richard's side and he directed the conversations, making it very easy for me to join in. More often than not, he found ways of letting me know the names of the people we spoke to, so I never even felt awkward for my ignorance.

"You should eat something," Richard said, once we finished speaking with the Fischers, an older couple who'd known Richard's father when he was very young.

Still feeling nervous, I put my hand to my stomach. "I don't think I could eat much of anything."

"Here," Richard turned and took something from the tray of the servant beside him. "At least have this." He held out one of the heavenly cream-filled pastries.

His mother had warned me that she thought they were too messy to eat at this sort of function, but when I sampled it, I just had to have it. Besides they were small.