Evelyn sang quietly to herself as she neared the library where she heard Robert and Mary talking. She had looked through most of the house for her Aunt, but could not find her, assuming she was in the library. She leaned against the archway of the room and saw Mary with a semi-distressed expression.
"Does this mean I'll have to go into full mourning?"
Rober stared at her in shock. "My first cousin and his son are almost certainly dead. We will all be in mourning."
Mary's face softened. "No. I mean, with the other thing. After all, it wasn't official."
"If you're saying you do not wish to mourn Patrick as a fiance, that is up to you."
"Well, no one knew about it outside of the family."
"I repeat, it is up to you."
"Well, that's a relief." Mary quickly realized how hateful that sounded by her father's hurt face, but instead of apologizing and making it worse, she dropped the issue. Turning her attention to the doorway, she saw Evelyn waiting patiently. "Oh...hello Evie. I apologize for your wait." She smiled sadly as she passed by her and left the library.
Robert regained his composure and turned to Evelyn. "Did you need me, dear?"
Evelyn's eyes looked sadly at him. "I was looking for Aunt Cora, William told me she was looking for me...I am so sorry about your cousin."
"Thank you...it was quite a shock. But, we will get through it. And yes Cora wanted to inform you of the...current situation. She and I agreed that you will not have to go into mourning if you do not wish since he was of no blood relation to you."
"No, I will join you all. I did not know him, though I did meet Patrick. I do mourn for your loss as you are still my family."
Robert nodded with a sad smile. "Thank you, dear. I'll let Cora know we spoke."
Evelyn nodded and went to her room to begin going through her closet. She couldn't find anything black, the darkest thing she had was a gray dress. She figured the other girls would have the same problem considering black was not a frequently used color in their fashion. She strolled down the hall to Mary's room to ask her if she knew what they were to do about clothing.
Knocking gently on her door, she heard a faint 'come in' so she pushed the door open and closed it behind her. Mary sat at her vanity as she fixed a few pieces of hair that had fallen from her updo. She smiled dolefully at her cousin. "Can't find anything to wear?"
"No, the last time I wore black for mourning was when I was six." She sat on Mary's bed, looking in the mirror.
"You know you do not have to mourn with us. Did you even know them?" She did not speak harshly, only curiously.
"I met Patrick a few years ago at the fundraising event I believe, but not his father." Mary nodded as she remembered that event. "But you all are my family and I will mourn your losses with you. Besides, it would look a bit silly if you all are in black and I am in bright yellow." Mary smiled and looked down at her hands with a gentle sigh. "It is probably not my place to ask, but did you want to marry Patrick? I mean...no disrespect for the dead, or the presumed dead, and he seemed lovely, but was he special to you?"
Mary stared at her hands for a moment before looking into the mirror at Evelyn. "I do not know. And I do not say that to be dismissive or impertinent...but I do not know. I feel sad but I will honestly tell you I don't know if it is sadness for the loss of his life or the fact that now I will have to continue my search for a husband. Sounds awful I know."
Before Evelyn had a chance to respond, Anna walked into the room with a black dress in her arms. "I've found one of your black dresses, Lady Mary. It's the most recent one so it should still fit." Anna laid it out on the bed next to Evelyn.
Mary rose from her seat to look over the dress, she ran her hand over the dark fabric. "It will do for now."
Anna looked at Evelyn. "The only black dress I could find for you was the one you wore at the New Years Gala..."
Mary began to chuckle to herself at the mention of the Gala, Evelyn grimaced and grinned. "Oh yeah...I forgot that was black."
Anna grinned. "Yes, the color was the least memorable thing about that dress."
Mary leaned against her bed frame and stared at her. "Evelyn will you please tell us the story of the New Year's Gala? It's so romantic." She said in a dreamy and sarcastic tone. Anna laughed.
Evelyn sighed with a smile. "It was New Year's Eve in the year 1910...I was but a mere seventeen years of age." Both women smiled at Evelyn's suddenly dramatic tone.
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~ Yorkshire, England 1910 ~
The Crawley family, accompanied by Evelyn, mingled with various families of high society at the Jefferson's New Years Gala. The families that attended filled the entire mansion. The men smoked cigars and talked about money while the women sat around the couches and talked about the men. The younger attendees weaved through the house looking for either their friends or a bit of trouble. The Crawley girls and Evelyn gathered in the ballroom as the dancing began. The men and women of all ages gathered when the music signified it was time to dance. A few songs had played as the girls watched the couples gracefully strut on the ballroom floor.
The girl's stood with their mother as they mapped out where they were to go. Cora looked over the girls and smiled. "You all look lovely!" Her eyes scanned Evelyn's beautiful black dress as her eyes zeroed in on something. "Oh no, Evelyn." She walked closer and gently grabbed her skirt. "There is a tear in the skirt dear, how did that happen?"
Evelyn looked at the tear she was referring to. It was a very small tear, midway up the skirt in the seam. "Oh...hm. I must have snagged it on the car door. I'm sorry, Aunt Cora."
Cora smiled amusedly. "Of course you did. Don't apologize. What should we do?"
Sybil rounded them to look for herself. "Oh, it's fine. It's barely noticeable! I don't want you to go home just because of a small tear."
Cora nodded. "I agree, I'd hate for you to leave for that." Mary just watched the interaction while Edith rolled her eyes.
"No Sybil's right, it's barely noticeable. I don't think I plan to dance anyway so I should be fine."
Sybil and Cora nodded. "Ok then, everyone's well. You four have fun, I'm going to find Mrs. Jefferson." They all nodded and parted ways.
Mary, of course, was asked to dance. Sybil spoke with some of her younger friends and a few boys her age. Edith watched longingly at the dancers, hoping to get asked. Evelyn simply watched as well; however, she mostly watched Edith sadly. Evelyn also hoped someone would ask Edith to dance. Her heart often felt for Edith as she knew she had low self-esteem on top of having a romantic mindset.
Leaning on a sofa off to the side of the dancing, Evelyn watched peacefully with the full intent on only watching the dancing and not being asked - despite already being asked by five young men, all of whom she graciously turned down. Though she loved to dance, so usually enjoyed dancing with those that she knew as to not make a fool of herself - though, making a fool of herself was a common practice.
A group of young men, around seventeen or eighteen, stood not too far from Evelyn and chatted among themselves. One of the young men, however, took notice of the pretty young girl standing alone. He would sneak glances at her in between his inputs to the conversation with his friends. The boy's friends took notice of his half-hearted responses.
"She's pretty, isn't she?" One of the boys with black hair nudged his interested friend.
The boy, blond-haired and blue-eyed, smiled. "She is, yes. I wonder why she's all alone. Surely someone would have asked her to dance by now."
Another friend swirled his drink in his hand. "Oh someone has, several someones. She turned them all down, watched the poor blokes walk away like scolded dogs." He and his friends chuckled.
"I believe that's Robert Crawley's niece, the one whose parents were killed in that fire in America." The black-haired boy spoke again.
"Oh yeah!" The one with the drink raised furrowed his brows. "What's her name...I knew it once upon a time."
"Evelyn, I believe." A red-headed boy finally spoke up.
"That's it!"
The blond boy watched her curiously. "Evelyn..." he let her name roll off his tongue before smiling. "Suits her."
"Mhm...And! She's American. Americans are fascinating." The black-haired boy said while wiggling his eyebrows.
"Go talk to her, Washer. What's the worst she could do...turn you down? You've been rejected before you'll be fine."
"You sound certain she'll turn me down." He challenged his friends. The boys just smirked at him before the blond parted from his group and casually made his way over to the girl.
Evelyn watched Edith, who was currently talking to an older gentleman...a much older gentleman. Evelyn hoped it was only a simple conversation but given Edith's batting eyelashes she wasn't too sure. She was so engaged in watching her cousin's odd exchange that she didn't notice the handsome young man who approached her. The boy looked in the direction Evelyn was to see her point of interest.
"Someone you know?" He inquired with a smile. Evelyn jumped slightly and looked at the boy with wide eyes. "Oh, I'm so sorry I did not mean to startle you."
Evelyn laughed and stood up straight from her leaning position. "No, it's alright. And yes, she's my cousin."
"Ah, I see. I know the man, figured you might have also."
"No I don't...what do you know about him?"
"That's General Harold Nettleton. He was a, well, general in the military. His wife recently passed if I remember correctly. He's old as dirt but he was a great general in his day from what my father told me. That's about all I know."
Evelyn crossed her arms and furrowed her brows. "Hm..." she glanced back to see Harold and Edith were both gone.
"I didn't catch your name." The boy brought her attention back to him.
"Oh! Forgive my easily distracted brain. I'm Evelyn Levinson." She held out her hand to him, expecting him to shake it.
He took her hand gently and kissed it, she looked a bit shocked but blushed anyway. "I'm Harry Washington. Pleasure, Miss Evelyn." He released her hand and tucked his back behind his back. "If you don't mind me asking, why aren't dancing? I know it is not because you haven't been asked. If I may be so bold as to say, I don't think your beauty would allow you to not have a dance partner at all times."
Evelyn stood stunned for a moment, blinking to process his flattering words. "Bold is one way to put it." She smiled. "I have been asked, yes. I just...wasn't feeling up to it, I suppose."
"Do you, by any chance, feel up to it now?" He extended his hand to her.
She hesitated for moment before extending her hand to place in his, Harry grinned and led her to the ballroom floor. He gentley swung her out before pulling her back to stand in front of him. The couples around them prepared for the dance to start. Placing a hand on her waist, he held her other hand in his. Evelyn put her unoccupied hand on his shoulder and looked up at him. His blue eyes looked into her green ones with sweet admiration as he winked cheekily, she blushed. Suddenly, the song started and off they went.
She had not had this much fun in a while, nor did she have much practice with dancing so not making a fool of herself was out of the question. She laughed and growled to herself as she frequently misstepped, Harry laughed along with her and helped her get back into rhythm. She was twirled a few times and dipped here and there. Eventually, she found her rhythm and was actually quite good.
Evelyn glanced into his eyes as she yet again laughed at herself, him doing the same. The moment seemed like something out of a fairytale in dim lights and elegant ballroom. Harry leaned his head down to her slightly to see if she would meet him half-way, and she fully intended to. She rose to her toes and was mere inches from his lips until...
A passing dancer had somehow managed to catch the tear in her skirt and tug, causing the entire left seam to tear from her ankle to the crest of her hip bone. Gasping, Evelyn's hands flew to bunch her skirt together as she stared at him in shock. He shared a similar expression. She looked at him apologetically and paniched before quickly moving off the ballroom floor with both of her hands clamped at her skirt. As she stumbled out of the room, Evelyn glanced around to see that the only person that seemed to notice was Harry...somehow that relieved her stress a bit.
Mary, who stood to the side talking to her dance partner, had caught a glimpse of Evelyn hobbling out of the ballroom at an exceedingly fast pace. "What on earth..." She looked back to the man and smiled. "Do excuse me for a moment, I think I need to check on my deranged cousin." She followed the path she had seen Evelyn take and saw her rounding a corner down a hallway before she whipped into a lady's room.
Sybil caught up to Mary out of breath. "Did you see Evelyn?"
"I did that's, where I'm headed." She responded annoyedly.
Suddenly another figure joined the sisters as Edith seemed confused. "What in the heavens was Evelyn doing." Both girls shook their heads before they all entered the lady's room.
Standing in front of the wall of mirrors, stood Evelyn with her entire leg, thigh, and hip exposed from her dress. She looked panicedly at the door until she saw her cousins staring at her in shock and amusement.
"That's a look." Edith sniggered.
Sybil looked extremely upset. "Evie I'm so sorry I shouldn't have advised you against leaving!"
"It's not your fault Sybil. What are the odds someone managed to actually snag the tear? Freak accident is all. It's ok. I dont think anyone actually saw it happen."
"Besides the handsome boy you were dancing with," Mary smirked.
Evelyn groaned and looked back into the mirror. "Yes, besides him."
Suddenly, the door burst open as Cora walked in questioningly. "What is with all of the -" her eyes caught sight of Evelyn which resulted in laughter. "Evelyn, dear. How did you manage to do that?"
Evelyn finally laughed a bit. "I dont know."
"Ok well, luckily we're right by the door so how about I take you back home and we can change. Hm?"
"I think I'll stay home, if that's ok. I'll go by myself and send the car back."
The three women walked Evelyn out and hid her best they could until she could get to the car. Once down at the Abbey, Anna assisted Evelyn with getting inside and getting changed while she laughed almost the entire time.
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Evelyn had fallen back on Mary's bed while she told the story and laughed, Sybil had joined them about halfway through and stayed to listen. The women laughed at the memories.
"And I never heard from Harry Washington again. Never got my first kiss either." Evelyn propped herself on her elbow with a pout.
"He was probably shocked by how white your thigh was." Mary teased.
"Sadly, you're probably right."
"So, Miss Evelyn, would you like for me to try to mend the dress? It might still be salvageable." Anna asked.
"Heavens no! And ruin the memory? No, no. I suppose I'll go into the village and see what I can find. Aunt Cora ordered some to be made I heard?" Anna nodded. "I'll wait for those then, I'll find something to do in the meantime." Evelyn pushed herself off the bed and stood up, straightening out the duvet she had wrinkled a bit.
"Would you like company? I could use a walk I think." Mary asked.
"I would love company, yes. Sybil would you like to join?"
"I have some reading to catch up on, sadly." Sybil gasped a bit. "Oh! Would you be able to run by the bookstore while you're out, I should have something waiting for me."
"Of course." Evelyn smiled and began to leave the room. "I'll put on something a bit more decent and we can go, Mary. Do you want to see if Edith would like to go?"
"You can ask, chances are she won't," Mary replied blandly while returning to her seat at her vanity.
Evelyn nodded and left the room with Anna. "I don't think I'll bother her." Evelyn decided.
Anna nodded. "Probably for the best. Mises Patmore might have a few things she'd like for you to get for her if you would like."
"You know I will always help Mises Patmore if I can. Have her write me a list and I'll get it before I leave." Anna nodded and smiled before the two parted ways.