Annabeth was thankful for the lemon water with honey and ginger the maid had brought up to her room the night before.
Without it, she probably would have felt like her head was going to split open. She only had to suffer through a slight throbbing and a general feeling of grogginess.
A/N the Georgian era was a time of heavy drinking- even the prim and proper Jane Austen frequently wrote in her diary about being hung-over.
Breakfast consisted of greasy fried eggs, bacon, and sausages served with toasted French bread.
Annabeth noticed that Dona Reyna wasn't drinking coffee like everyone else but rather a special tea brewed from mashed ale-hoof, chopped ginger, and anise seeds. Served with honey, it was a remedy for the lingering symptoms of the cold Dona Reyna still suffered from.
I wonder if her secret rendezvous was worth it, Annabeth thought.
Piper entered the dinning room, dressed in a wine-colored gown with a white fichu tied across her chest.
She looked a little bit the worse for wear after the night before. Lord Skye poured a cup of coffee and handed it to her.
"Good Morning, Piper," he said.
"Thank you, Jason," she replied, taking a sip of coffee.
They had started calling each by their christian names when they became engaged. Piper stood up so that Lord Skye could kiss her. Dona Reyna lowered her eyes and turned away.
"I heard something last night which put me out of countenance," Annabeth said to Lord Skye. "Some were saying your sister shouldn't have danced last night since dancing is inappropriate for an old maid."
"What a cruel thing to say," Piper replied.
"They have a point," Dona Reyna added. "She's going to be four and twenty in December and she still hasn't found a husband. At this point, she should've even bother trying."
Dona Reyna only had the courage to say such a thing because Lady Thalia had not come down to breakfast. Annabeth knew that not even Dona Reyna was brave enough to call Lady Thalia an old maid within her hearing.
"I don't think she should ever give up. Love is never late, it comes precisely when it's meant to."
"I think you've read too many novels. Still, you're lucky to be marrying Lord Skye when you are. Young ladies are like spring flowers: they begin to fade as soon as they've bloomed. By the time we're four and twenty, we'll already have begun to wilt. No one wants a withered bloom."
A/N by the new you're reading this. I will have turned 24.
"A flower needs to be careful she's not plucked too soon," Lieutenant Jackson said.
The drawing room of the Chase family's townhouse in Olympus was done up in shades of chartreuse, rosy pink, and white. Gilded picture frames containing portraits of the previous duke and duchess hung on the walls. A cut glass chandelier was suspended in the middle of the ceiling.
Annabeth sat on the rosy pink sofa, working on her sampler depicting a sailor with a spyglass. When she reached the bottom of the pattern, she realized that she'd made yet another error. She'd placed the pattern too close to the edge of the fabric and the sailor was missing his backside. Another piece of fabric needed to be added so that the pattern could be continued.
It was a clumsy fix: the weave of the extra fabric was looser and the stitches which made up the sailor's backside were bigger.
While, Annabeth did her needlework, Piper, Lord Skye, Mr. Di Angelo, Miss Levesque, and Lady Thalia played faro at the card table. Dona Reyna sat at another table, bent over a bowl of steaming water and peppermint oil. A towel covered her head and shoulders and trapped in the steam coming off of the bowl. This steam bath helped treat the congestion and post-nasal drip caused by her cold.
Lieutenant Jackson sat by the fire crackling in the Carrara marble hearth. He smoked a pipe filled with an exotic, spicy-scented tobacco and leaned back in his chair.
"Are you feeling better this morning, Miss Chase?" He said. "You worried us all last night with your flight from the ballroom."
"I'm much improved," Annabeth replied. "That ballroom was terribly hot and close- I needed some air."
"Yes, and a cloak room is less hot and close."
Annabeth's cheeks turned bright pink.
"See how she blushes. You'd think she were a modest girl."
"Pray sir," Annabeth replied. "What do you mean by that?"
"Rachel saw you with Captain Castellan."
"The nosy ginger trollop!"
"You're one to call her a trollop."
Lord Skye put down his hand of cards and rose from the table.
"Miss Chase," he said. "Is all this true? Has that blackguard damaged your reputation?"
"Leave the poor girl alone," Lady Thalia cut in. "She only met with Captain Castellan because he had a message for me. I've been sending him letters through her."
Piper shrieked when a wine glass shattered at her feet.
"How could you, Thalia! First, you disobey our father and allow yourself to be seduced by a worthless wretch. Then you and your seducer drag poor Miss Chase into your schemes and expose her to ruin. You are never to see or hear from Captain Castellan ever again."
Lady Thalia sized up her brother.
"You might be grown, little brother, but I can still box your ears like I did when we were children."
Lieutenant Jackson and Dona Reyna swept in to separate the two siblings.
"When we return to Skye," Lieutenant Jackson said. "I'll go and challenge him. Castellan has to answer for his actions."
"You're right, Jackson," Lord Skye replied. "Will you be my second at the duel?"
Lieutenant Jackson put a hand on his shoulder.
"I will. I hate Castellan as much as you do."
Tears ran down Annabeth's cheeks and she fled from the room.
Piper found Annabeth weeping in their room. Her face was buried in a pillow; blonde curls falling over her face and shoulders and a cornflower blue skirt draped over the side of the bed.
"What a mess," Piper said as she sat down at Annabeth's side.
"Yes," Annabeth replied. "And it's all my fault."
As foolish as Annabeth had been, Piper wouldn't go as far as saying she was responsible for everything.
"You were right. When I get bored, that's when trouble starts."
Piper stroked Annabeth's hair.
"And now Lord Skye might be killed or hung for murder. If that happens, I could never forgive myself."
"I can't say I'd be that sorry to see a bullet in Captain Castellan but he's not worth Jason ruining his life over. I'll go see if I can talk some sense into him."
Annabeth rose from the bed, dried her eyes, and smoothed the skirt of her cornflower blue gown.
She readjusted the lace fichu worn around her shoulders.
Her hand gently stroked Piper's cheek.
"Lord Skye is a man of honor. He won't let such insults go unavenged."
"But still, it doesn't hurt to try."
Piper found Lord Skye alone in the drawing room, reading from a volume of Richard Lovelace's verses.
"Would you read aloud to me?" She said as she seated herself in the chair across from him.
"Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind," he read. "That from the nunnery of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, to war and arms I fly. True, a new mistress now I chase: the first foe in the field and, with a stronger faith, embrace a sword, horse, and shield..."
"Yet this inconsistency is such as thou too shall adore," Piper recalled from memory. "I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more."
Lord Skye put the book down on a table and rose from his seat. He paced back and forth across the carpet.
"It's still not too late, you know. You haven't yet challenged Captain Castellan, so it's not as though you're backing out like a coward. A duel will only create a bigger scandal and damage your reputation, as well as Annabeth and Lady Thalia's. No one else will know if we all keep quiet."
"But I would know and I can't let Castellan get away with what he has done. How could I live with myself if my sister's virtue were called into question and I did not stand up for her? How could I face Miss Chase's parents if I did not protect their daughter from the likes of Captain Castellan? How could I call myself my parents' son if I did not defend our family's honor. How could I ask you to love and honor me as your husband?"
"I see: I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more."
"Precisely."
He knelt down at Piper's feet and kissed the toe of her brown boot.
"I'm sorry, Piper, but I have to do this."
"Very well, very well."
"Could you forgive me? Would you still love me?
"All I can tell you is to be careful. I could love a deadman but I can't forgive a murderer."
Annabeth was anxious to hear about how the conversation had gone. She hovered outside of the drawing room and prayed that the duel would not go forward.
Piper returned with a solemn look on her face.
"How did it go?" Annabeth said.
"You were right," Piper replied.
She reached for a red cloak and bonnet which hung on hooks.
"Would you like to go for a walk?"
"Yes. There's a confectionary shop we could go to. Just let me grab my cloak and hat."
Annabeth wrapped herself in sea-green merino wool and tied the blue ribbon of a straw hat under her chin.
A white shawl thrown around her shoulders provided extra warmth.
"What's the name of this confectioner's shop?"
"Benvenuti's."
Benvenuti's Confectioner's Shop was situated in the esplanade along Olympus Harbor. A family of Neopolitan immigrants had opened it that summer.
When Annabeth and Piper arrived there, a pretty Italian lass served customers from behind the counter. A small crowd hovered around her as she dished out Parmesan ice cream for the two girls.
A/N I used to have a print of this picture in my room when I was a child.
"So the duel is still going to take place?" Annabeth said as she and Piper sat down at a near the window.
Piper nodded her head.
"Obstinate man!"
"You know how men are?" Piper said. "Once they get an idea in their heads, we women are helpless do to anything about it."
She put a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. Annabeth got a good look at her hand.
"You're not wearing your engagement ring."
Piper lowered her gaze away from Annabeth.
"I told him I would only put it back on when, or if, he comes back from the duel alive and without blood on his hands. I can't marry him if he's dead and I won't marry him if he kills Captain Castellan."
Having ice cream on such a cold day had not been a good idea. As they walked back to the Grace family's townhouse, icy winds from off of the harbor managed to creep under their cloaks. They had to wrap their cloaks closer to their bodies to keep warm. Luckily, the curved row of ochre-colored terraced houses where they were staying was not far away.
Servants carried baggage into waiting carriages out side of the Grace Family's townhouse. They would be leaving soon and be back at Skye Castle by dinner time.
Annabeth and Piper arrived in Olympus filled with excitement about the dance and joy at finally being out in society. Piper had been shown off in Praetor's Assembly rooms as Lord Skye's future bride. Less than twenty-four hours later, Piper was not sure who she was or what was going to happen to her. Annabeth had been giddy, carefree, and filled with mischief. Now that mischief had put her friend's happiness and the life of a good man at risk.