𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒

Chapter 3

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU DANCED with Lord Edward Buxton. Did he make for an absolutely tiresome company? Is he as made of stone as they say he is?" Lady Alicia Kirkpatrick pressed her cousin in equal parts amusement and curiosity the next morning over breakfast.

Lady Margaret Seymour had let her sisters, nieces and nephews and brother in laws, all stay over at the Mansfield estate after the ball. She had insisted upon it. The other guests were bid farewell at eleven am sharp, and the family got comfortable at the estate right after, with some of the staff being sent on errands to some estates and being made to fetch this thing or that.

Alicia had been overly excited to discuss Lord Edward Buxton with Diana, but she had to wait until the morning to have Diana all alone. Lady Kirkpatrick would decidedly lose her marbles if she heard her daughter discussing an unmarried gentleman, so would Lady Beaumont. It was considered most improper for young ladies to be discussing a man so, and after all, Diana and Alicia weren't one of those fortune hunting middle class ladies that Southampton seemed to be bursting at the seams with. They were ladies of rich and respectable families, and thus they had a time limit of only discussing a gentleman for an hour maximum, before he was never to be mentioned again. 

"I don't know, he was alright, I suppose. He talked very little. Let us not speak about him please," Lady Diana Beaumont whispered anxiously as she looked around to make sure none of her cousins or aunts, who were all sitting around the big circular breakfast table chatting, had heard what Alicia had just mused.

Alicia chuckled and rolled her eyes a little, "Alright. You should be prepared however, because soon you'll hear all of Southampton discussing this."

She took a bite off a scone as she smiled at Diana, who seemed quite struck with her words. It was quite strange how a man such as Lord Edward Buxton had only danced with her at the ball and left soon after, without even considering a second lady to dance with. The scene probably seemed very suspicious or even scandalous to people looking at it from the outside. Thinking about it made something flutter inside her belly, as though she had accidentally swallowed a butterfly and it was now trying to be free. It was a distinctly pleasing feeling, but she couldn't quite place it. 

"Oh, Mr Ashbrook could not take his eyes off my daughter, I tell you," Their aunt and hostess, Lady Margaret Seymour's loud and excited cry suddenly interrupted them.

"He did engage her for two dances; I take that as a sign," Lady Kirkpatrick chimed in with a raised brow as she sipped her tea.

"He really is quite the gentleman for Rebecca, they seemed to fit together perfectly at the ball and he has an equally considerable income as well," Lady Beaumont added, earning a hearty sigh from Lady Seymour.

Then Lady Seymour glanced at her daughter, who sat opposite to Miles and Henrietta at the breakfast table, buttering her toast with a butter knife slowly.

"Rebecca dear, did Mr Ashbrook say something?" She inquired at her daughter, her tone full of hope.

Rebecca looked up from the toast and found out that not only her mother, but her aunts and cousins too, were curious of her response, for they all were now looking intently at her hoping for an answer in a look of her eye or turn of her smile. Diana, instantly catching herself, turned her eyes away and focused on her plate. 

"Of course he did mother, he isn't a statue you know," Rebecca uttered, frustrated at being cornered like that. It was no secret that the lady found herself to be a spectacle in her family at times; with everybody stressed out about her private life. Any man she'd so much as speak to, would make the hopes of Lady Seymour and her sisters soar. 

Nobody ever did worry about Diana, Alicia or Henrietta in that regard. Oscar, Miles and Adam were not even bothered on that matter. That kind of scrutiny was reserved solely for Lady Rebecca Seymour, just because she was almost embracing spinsterhood and all the ladies other cousins were undoubtedly more capable of securing matches for themselves than she was.