The Debutante (Season Series #2)

Chapter 37: An Unwelcome Arrangement

Exactly fifteen minutes later, I was escorted into my parents' Highcastle home by a maid I didn't recognize. I blinked as I took in the house in all of its former splendour. Gone were the empty rooms and walls devoid of paintings, the lavish furnishings and plush decor re-installed by the small army of servants bustling about.

"Oh good, you've arrived," my mother said, appearing from the front parlour. She looked exactly as I remembered her, her brown hair shot through with grey and coiled into a tight knot at the base of her skull. She stood ramrod straight, as always, with a stillness so complete it was almost eerie. She was everything my finishing school mistresses had hoped to transform me into, yet none of them had come close to succeeding.

"I thought you'd closed the house," I said, blurting out the first words that came to mind as she advanced towards me, her sharp eyes taking in my day dress. Ever since Millie had stopped dressing me, I'd chosen to dress only in the Parisian clothes Andrew had bought for me in a form of silent rebellion against the queen and her influence. My mother's lips pursed at my words, but she dismissed them with a wave of her slender hand.

"I must say, whatever they've done at the palace seems to have done a much better job than Hargrove," she replied, still looking me over, "You really could pass for a lady. Follow me, Elizabeth."

I pursed my own lips at her mention of my expulsion and followed her obediently down the hallway towards my father's study. Clearly my mother was in no mood to explain why they'd decided to reopen the city house despite the family debt.

"Is father home?" I asked when she closed the door behind us. His books had been returned, lining the walls along with the many trinkets I'd so loved to toy with when I was a child. I picked up a miniature jade bird from his desk as I looked around at all the possessions I never thought I'd see again.

"The prince, Elizabeth?"

My mother's words had me whirling around to face her. Now that we were safely in the privacy of the study, the rage was apparent in her hazel eyes. But despite the anger quivering in her words, the rest of her body language was just as reserved as it had been in the hallway. I clasped my hands behind my back, forcing them not to shake.

"Pardon me?" I said, attempting to gauge the level of her wrath. Her jaw muscle pulsed.

"You rejected Prince Andrew," she managed through gritted teeth. My heart plummeted. I'd faced my mother when she was angry before, but this was by far the worst she'd ever been.

"No, mother, I didn't," I said flatly, "And frankly I thought you were wise enough to disregard unkind rumours spewed by the gossip mill."

She rushed towards me so quickly that I took a step back, banging into the bookshelf as she loomed before me. I could tell that she was straining to maintain her veneer of calm, but my belligerence was wearing it thin.

"You do realize that a family like ours does not have luxury of declining the title of queen? Have you any idea what you've done?" she demanded, her voice rising now, "You could have freed us all from this debt!"

"What debt!" I fired back, thrusting the jade figurine towards her, "Because it certainly seems like our money troubles have vanished!"

"They haven't, you foolish girl!" she snapped, "But we couldn't appear to be country paupers if our daughter was to be queen!"

"So once again this is all my fault?" I demanded, "Because the last I checked, I'm the one who secured myself a place in the Season to attempt to placate your need for a good marriage!"

"Yes, Elizabeth, this is your fault! Do you have any idea the expense we incurred to reopen this house?" my mother said, her voice dropping into a deadly calm as she gestured to the bookshelves surrounding us, "And now that you've gone and ruined your chances-"