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Her Awakening
(A working title - Novel in progress)
© H. Cooper
Chapter Three
She stood just to the side of the huge window, wide
eyes peering through the heavy cloth to watch the cavalcade of coaches
beginning to line the long winding road that led up to the front of
Bale Hall. There were no less than fifty currently and her Aunt has
told her she expected no less than three hundred guests this evening,
and no less than one hundred who would fill Bale for the entire weekend.
She let the curtain drop and turned to watch Madeline
fussing over her gown, last minute adjustments to the delicate orchid
hued silk. She had to admit, she had never in all her days worn such
an extravagant garment. The gown flattered every curve and valley
of her body, the color was the perfect foil for the creamy fair paleness
of her skin and the red gold of thick curling hair. She could only
find one flaw with the elegant gown and that was it showed a ridiculous
amount of her breasts, her aunt assuring her that this was the rage.
Madeline, who had only just reached her twentieth year,
a bare year older than Bella herself stood and smiled at her new Lady.
She was pleased as pie to have been taken from the depths of the kitchen
to serve the younger woman. She enjoy her new Lady's fiery nature
and the intelligence that danced in those eyes that rivaled a bright
summer ocean. Bella was kind and generous and most days Madeline felt
severely under worked.
"It is all ready for you, m'Lady, just as soon as you
are ready to step into it."
Bella stirred from her reverie and smiled at Madeline.
"If you cannot simply call me Bella, Maddy, I think I will make it
an order."
The older girl flushed and laughed softly.
"I will try m'L...Bella.......to remember your preferences."
Hazel eyes sparkled happily and she whirled around to begin arranging
an assortment of pins and brushes on a small dressing table.
"Do you ever get angry Maddy? That you are a servant
to a girl your age just because you were born to whom you were?"
Maddy straightened, turning to see the curious cant
of Bella's head, a soft smile curving her lips.
"It is the way the world works, m..Bella. I know..no
other way of life, my mother has served in Bale Hall all of her days
and my father too. I know that I too, will most likely work out my
life here" she paused, looking down to pluck at her dress . "It is
not so terrible, there are many who suffer much worse fates than working
for your Aunt and to have been assigned to be your lady maid has been
a real boon to me'self."
Bella smiles and nodded. "You are a lovely person Maddy,
perhaps you won't have to spend your life washing someone else's garments.
Who knows maybe you are destined to have some wonderful young Duke
or Count fall in grand love with you"
Maddy balked at Bella's grinning face and busied herself
once more with arranging the toiletries for Bella's hair.
"You're a wicked tease m'Lady Bella, for no such hope
could a simple girl like me'self have" She muttered.
"You never know Maddy, life is nothing if not changeable."
****
"Oh Lady Bella, you are an angel come to life!" Maddy
exclaimed.
Bella stood before the full length mirror with a somewhat
stunned expression, blinking in disbelief at the creature staring
back at her. She half smiled at the name Maddy had finally come to
use that made her feel halfway respectful, and laughed softly.
The orchid gown had been created to lay like a second
skin, a mold for her body. The hue lent a pearlesque quality to ivory
flesh, and added a touch of lavender to eyes that usually mirrored
a calm summer sea. The masses of strawberry curls that fell to her
waist when left unbound had been intricately looped and twisted into
a chignon, errant tendrils strategically left loose to curl around
her cheeks and wind down to slide against the tops of creamy breasts
that were exposed by the low neckline of the gown. Maddy had carefully
used face tints to make her full pink lips shimmer with a nearly crimson
sheen, a subtle smudge of black at top and bottom eyelids as well
as her normally pale lashes. A smear of downy powder whispered over
her top lids, blended against the thin line of black created a most
wondrous effect, having been specially created to match the hue of
her dress. Her eyebrows had been plucked, something she had not enjoyed
arguing that her eyebrows were just fine on their own. Maddy assuring
her she was only enhancing the already natural arch of the delicate
brows.
The effect was mesmerizing. She looked like a fairy
angel though she had never exposed so much of her skin in public before.
She felt absolutely naked
"It is so low, you are sure this is the fashion?" She
questioned Maddy, hands hovering over firm mounds, the corset she
wore serving not only to cinch her waist to an abnormally small proportion,
but lift and nearly burst her breasts right over the neckline of her
gown.
"Lady Bella, it most certainly is, your Aunt would
never have you dressed less than appropriate for the occasion." Maddy
assured her, standing behind the taller girl to peer around her arm
and smile at her through the mirror. "You are the most beautiful creature
England's seen in some time, sure enough you are going to be the bella
of the ball"
Bella did not miss the tease on her name and laughed
softly, some of her anxiety alleviating. She turned and dropped a
surprising kiss to Maddy's cheek, her eyes dancing.
"Thank you Maddy, for helping me. I never would have
accomplished this effect on my own."
Maddy, flush with pleasure at her new Lady's happiness,
beamed as if it were Christmas morning and she had just received a
long dreamed of gift.
"Perhaps I can get my own on that Duke for you Maddy"
Bella grinned impishly, laughing at the pink that bloomed deep in
the other girls cheeks.
"Oh Lady Bella you are a horrible girl!" Maddy clucked
at her and turned away to laugh.
********************************
Raven was enjoying a quiet moment alone, leaning against
the wall at the far end of the huge ballroom. It amused him to watch
all the oh so proper courting and the very polite way everyone conversed
when he knew what many of these same people indulged in behind doors
in the deepest quiet of night. He enjoyed playing the very proper
Gentleman himself, though he was considered to be at the top of everyone's
"debaucher of maidens" list.
He chuckled low. He had actually never debauched a
maiden yet who did not want to be and usually it turned out
the maiden was not as pristine as originally thought. He met the gaze
of a sweet young woman over her dancing partners shoulder and smiled,
having caught the drift of her eyes over his body.
Ah yes, they were all so easily swayed. Not a one yet
who had held his interest much more than a months time and even his
latest was beginning to become routine, dull. Another who believed
because she submitted to his whims, she would find herself posting
bans of an engagement
"Another young lady to be added to the Raven's list
of conquests?"
He smiled at the very familiar voice just behind his
left shoulder and shrugged lightly. "No, but who knows, I might suddenly
discover a taste for very prim and proper young debutantes" He smile
as he inclined his head just slightly towards her. "Another smashing
turnout Christine"
She caught the smirk of his tone and laughed, slipping
her hand into the crook of his elbow. "No less deserved for such an
occasion, my dear friend."
"Oh yes, our little world weary changeling, when is
the wayward miss expected to put in an appearance."
Christine smile to herself, not bothering to note aloud
the hint of curiosity she heard running beneath that effected blase
tone of his. After knowing Raven practically all of her life, she
was quite certain she could read him.
"Anytime I should say. I've yet to see her, she insisted
I be ..surprised. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she came down
those stairs in a pair of Indian pantaloons or some such" She laughed.
"That much of a hellion, mm? Perhaps one is in need
of some..refinement" He suggested with the smallest turn of body,
jade eyes just catching the blue of her own.
"Don't even consider it Raven." She laughed gently
and looked up along with her friend as a collective quiet begin to
take hold of the room.
***************************
Bella stood poised at the very top of the stairs wondering
if the sea of people below could read her face, the absolute fear
inside; she tipped her chin up a little higher and begin to descend
the huge set of winding stairs. She had never felt so exposed, so
vulnerable. All eyes were on her.
Her gaze skittered here and there, registering small
details, as her gloved hand slid against the railing, thinking to
herself if she did not, she would surely tumble down and break her
neck in front of three hundred people.
There was no doubt about it. She was on trial. Set
to be judged as worthy enough to drift among these privileged few.
Everything her Aunt Christina had been teaching her in the last few
weeks rode on this evening. She smiled then, forcing herself to curve
the lips Maddy had so artfully colored.
Where was her Aunt?
She searched the throng of high fashioned men and women,
catching finally a hint of the royal blue her Aunt had chosen for
her own gown. She really was one of the most beautiful women, Bella
thought. So dainty, so blonde, looking far younger than her years.
Her gaze met her Aunts approving gaze and she relaxed a little as
she paused on the third to last step, eyes lifting from her Aunt to
the man she was standing beside.
And that is when her little bit of self-confidence
burst. She stiffened, frozen there to that step, eyes hued with the
colors of a storm tossed ocean colliding with emerald.
********************
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