Beyond Her Reach - A Bridgerton Story

Chapter 4: Ribbons

If Violet Bridgerton had heard anything about her daughter's public meeting with Lady Montgomery, she did not say a word to Eloise. The third ball of the season was fast approaching, and Lady Bridgerton had her hands full with her sour-tempered daughter without adding to it an inquisition.

When the night of the third ball came, Eloise found herself clothed in a beautiful dress of light periwinkle, silver beading laced with ribbon of the same color in complicated knots around the sleeves and waist. Eloise found that she rather liked the way she looked in it, though she would admit no such thing to her mother. She caught herself wondering what Lady Montgomery would have thought of her dress, if she would-have liked the way the silver beads flashed in the light, or if she would notice the color of the dress matching the ribbon Francesca had threaded into her hair. But of course, Eloise reminded herself, Lady Montgomery was quite finished with her, and she quite finished with Lady Montgomery, so it mattered not what the woman might think.

Tonight's party was held at the Walker estate, which meant firstly, that it was sure to be a perfectly planned evening and two, that Mr. George Walker would certainly be in attendance. After Lady Montgomery had tricked them into dancing, Eloise had felt rather bad for the young man. But he had come calling at the Bridgerton house thrice since then, every visit making Eloise like him less. Each time he visited, he seemed content to monologue on about himself, how he imagined his future with a wife, describing his grand plans to expand his father's estate and get into politics. All that was missing, he said, was a pretty little wife on his arm. Eloise felt rather sorry for whatever girl did end up marrying Mr. Walker; she was certain that whomever it was would be quite forgotten unless her husband needed to show her off at a party. As the Bridgerton carriage pulled up to the estate, Eloise made a mental note to warn anyone she saw dancing with him to evade future encounters with the aspiring politician.

As Eloise entered the large house, she noticed more eyes on her than usual, no doubt a result of her public conversation with the subject of London's current mystery. She found herself a glass of wine and took a turn around each room in search for corner in which to wait out the evening, growing increasingly frustrated with people's inability to be more subtle with their whispers. Eloise took comfort in the fact that no one directly spoke to her about seeing her with Lady Montgomery, and so there was no reason to believe people had anything interesting to say other than that they had chatted by a fruit cart. It would be news made old and dead by the passing of another week. Relatively speaking, Eloise considered that by all accounts, very little damage had been done. Still, she was relieved when the first dance begun and the partygoers were distracted by their own social engagements.

Halfway through that first minuet, Eloise spied George Walker looking around, almost certainly for her. Not tonight. Eloise managed to slip past several crowds of people until she found herself in an unoccupied hallway that seemed to be beyond the outer limits of the party. She followed the corridor until she reached its end, deciding she would hide in the room she found at there until the party was at least mostly over and Mr. Walker had found another girl to dance with. The room was bare except for several oddly placed tables and chairs that Eloise figured had been moved out of the rooms now filled with dancers to make more space. To Eloise's delight, other 'extras' from the party littered the spare room, including, it would seem, several unopened bottles of wine. She set herself in one of the spare settees, claiming a bottle she knew would not be missed and put her feet up on a table set close by. Eloise decided that this would not be such a terrible night after all, making herself comfortable before claiming the wine with a smile.

Eloise thought of George Walker as she drank, feeling guilty for hoping he had found another girl to pester with his grand ideas of himself. Perhaps there was a pretty girl dancing tonight who did not mind it, who would be excited of the idea of being on Mr. Walker's arm. Eloise comforted herself with this idea, ignoring the itching feeling that the wine was making it more plausible in her mind than in reality. Her mind wandered to Lady Montgomery despite the attempts she made to distract herself.