The Dollhouse Society Volume IV: Lucky (Includes Lady Luck, House of Dolls, The Reluctant Bride, A Woman on Top, plus a bonus story!) (11 page)

I held him, warmed him, until we both fell asleep.

***

The following Sunday, Stuart came round to court me once more. We took a carriage ride out to the woods surrounding the estate—properly chaperoned by Nellie, this time—and we had a pleasant picnic beneath a sprawling sycamore tree in the last days of an extended Indian summer. I listened, shivering excitedly in my muff, while he described New York City to me, the vast number of bustling people, the inns, taverns and shops on every street corner, the hawkers that sold almost anything you could think of, even the pickpockets scurrying about. I had been to the city a few times with my father, of course, but those times had been brief, and I’d seen little past what I could glimpse as he ushered me from our carriage to the bankers or whatever business office he was visiting. I had never strolled the streets! I had never seen the buttonwood tree that the traders and speculators gathered beneath on Wall Street to share securities.

A few weeks later, Stuart took us down into the city for a two-day holiday, which was both thrilling and exciting—though Nellie, who did not like the city, complained the whole stay about cutthroats and thieves lurking outside our inn window. The Sunday following that, which was the first week of December, Stuart invited me to the governor’s ball for Sinterklaas, a winter holiday normally reserved for children, where Saint Nicholas, the Good Holy Man, gave out gifts to those children who had obeyed their parents during the year. But our governor was known for his elaborate affairs, and he had chosen to make it a masked event just to scandal proper society. Stuart said the most important men and women in the village of Smithtown and the surrounding regions would be there.

I hadn’t had many occasions since my father’s death to attend a soiree, never mind a masked ball, so I thought how nice it would be to see the lighted candles, holly boughs, and costumes and watch my friends dance the minuet, though of course I would not. I had an ugly fantasy of somehow burning down the governor’s mansion should I attempt such a daring move with the witch’s curse hanging over me.

Nellie abhorred all such gatherings, claiming they were the devil’s playground and were full of mischief, so I took my cousin Rupert with me as my escort. Charlotte was there as well, along with her husband Darcy, who had received a personal invitation. I wore my blue velvet winter gown, trimmed in white fox fur. It was a very old gown, having belonged to my mother before me, but I was so delighted to find it fit me, I even refused the gown that Stuart had sent on from the dressmaker’s. I was so very pleased that I had, because once Rupert and I arrived at the ball, we quickly discovered that Stuart was dressed in a burgundy tailcoat. If I had worn the gown he had sent, a similar burgundy, it would have been an open insinuation to everyone present that I was his lover or finance, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Charlotte, Rupert and I sat on a fainting couch in one corner of the vast ballroom and watched everyone mingling and dancing. They seemed to float by in their swirling gowns and tailcoats, the candles and lighted paper lanterns in the room glinting off sequined tailcoats and the precious gems sewn right into the ladies’ ball gowns. The governor swished by in his long, befurred green-and-red coat and saintly crown, dressed as Saint Nicholas himself, and gave out gifts to all the pretty, unmarried girls.

Charlotte and I dutifully held up the masks over our faces as our friends approached to greet us. Charlotte’s was a smiling gold cat mask and mine a scary Chinese mask that someone had said was an Oni, or bad spirit. Rupert thought the whole thing ridiculous and simply sat between us ladies, fluttering a gold fan in front of his face as the room filled with so many heated bodies all doing the minuet.

“
Now I know why it’s call a crush,” Charlotte exclaimed, trying to find a familiar face—or rather, a familiar mask—in the swirl of dancers.

“
He’s quite handsome, your Stuart, isn’t he, Cousin?” Rupert said, zeroing in on Stuart, who was making his round of our friends without his mask.

“
Rupert,” I said patiently. “Please don’t get it in your head…”

Rupert laughed. “Don’t worry yourself, Cousin. He’s really not my type.”

“
What does that mean?”

“
That blond hair? Those good looks? Most definitely the signs of a shallow soul. And look how soft he looks! I bet he stubs his toe and has to stay abed for three days. I prefer a man I can mark with my teeth and a riding crop who won’t go hiding behind a woman’s skirts.”

Charlotte sighed. “You really can’t take him out, can you, Lucky?”

“
No,” I admitted sadly. “Cousin Rupert is a lost cause.”

Rupert laughed at that too. I wondered how I would tolerate his whinnying laugh for the duration of the evening. “Oh my,” he finally said, peeking around his fan. “And there, dear Cousin, is your ogre.”

I looked, and looked again. Tiberius and his valet had arrived fashionably late at the party. Tiberius, I realized, was dressed in a plush royal blue velvet tailcoat, though whether that was an accident or by design, I had no idea. I swore violently under my breath, drawing the disapproving glares of both Charlotte and Rupert. “I simply cannot believe his arrogance!” I said, standing up.

“
Dear, I’m sure it’s nothing but a happenstance,” Charlotte said, trying to calm me.

“
I’ll bet!”

I started making my way across the floor, toward Tiberius where he stood talking to the governor, when Stuart cut me off. “Would you like to dance, Lucille?”

I almost didn’t realize he was talking to me. There were so few people who called me that.

“
Lucille.”

I finally looked at him, at his blond, princely figure, and wondered why it was I could become so distracted and enraged by the very sight of Tiberius when he didn’t love me, when we had no relationship past what we could do to please each other physically. It was like La Belle picking the beast over the prince in the fairy tale. It made no sense. I wished I could convince my heart to see what my head already knew to be true. “Yes,” I said softly even as Tiberius looked up and focused his one good eye on me. “I would love to dance, Stuart.”

I slipped my gloved hand into his and we danced, he well, me less so. But to his credit, Stuart did not complain, even when I trampled his feet. Directly after, the governor wanted to dance with me, his eyes permanently fixed on my décolleté. After that, two more gentlemen requested a dance, and by the time they were finished, Tiberius was nowhere to be found.

Spotting Stuart talking to the governor, I tried to make a break for the balcony, hoping to find him there, but before I made it halfway across the room, I heard the tinkling sound of the governor striking a knife against his wineglass to gain everyone’s attention. I stopped abruptly, jabbing the heel of my slipper through the hem of my gown. “Attention, ladies and gentleman, my good friend, Mr. Stuart Brinkerhoff, has an announcement to make.” Then the governor stepped back to allow Stuart to take the floor.

Stuart stood there, wineglass in hand, looking positively radiant. He glanced at me and smiled. “Thank you, all of you, for being here tonight. Part of the reason we are here is, of course, to celebrate Sinterklaas, though I must admit I have another, covert, reason to be celebrating tonight.” Again he looked at me. Again he smiled.

The others in the room looked as well, and I immediately felt like some strange insect being pinned down and analyzed.

Stuart continued by saying, “For the past few weeks I have had the great honor to be in the company of a truly remarkable woman—a woman who has managed to turn the economy around in this town. Miss Lucille Van der Meer.” He paused and the others murmured among themselves. I dearly wanted to sink into the floor. “And tonight I wish to announce that I intend to have her hand in marriage…”

I squealed like a scalded cat and raced from the room.

***

“
Dear, it’s not that bad,” Charlotte said when she had succeeded in cornering me privately in the governor’s library.

“
Yes, it is…yes, it is!” I said as I paced back and forth across the governor’s fine Oriental carpeting, trying not to trample my ruined hem. I pulled at my hair. I pulled at my skirts. “How dare me? How dare he embarrass me like this?”

Charlotte put her hand on my shoulder as she dogged me. “It’s not so unusual for a man to make a public announcement of marriage.”

“
It is when he didn’t ask me first!” I cried to the ceiling. “He should have asked me privately before he went ahead and just assumed…” My voice trailed off and I sat down on the governor’s fainting couch in a puff of skirts as I began to cry.

“
Lucky,” said Charlotte, sitting beside me, “what did you think the outcome of Stuart’s courting would be? Did you think he would simply court you forever?”

“
I don’t know what I thought!” I said as I broke down into sobs on her shoulder. Things like this
never
happened to heroines in the book of romance I read! “I don’t want this, Charlotte! I don’t want to be Stuart’s wife!”

“
Why? Stuart is a simply lovely man. Successful, dedicated, handsome…”

I just cried harder so Charlotte was forced to find her handkerchief. “I thought…I thought he would be jealous. That he would care…oh, hell…!” I hiccupped.

“
Who…?” she began, and then she stopped and thought about that. Like Nellie, Charlotte too was an astute woman. “Oh dear God, Lucky…not Mr. Sloan?”

I sniffed as she dried my face. Slowly I started to relate my tale of woe to her, beginning when Tiberius first arrived at my father’s house, his proposal and our arrangement, and everything onward from there. I did not spare her and I did not spare myself. I thought if anyone would understand, it would be Charlotte. I knew she and Darcy were lovers long before they took their vows. Surely she would not hate me for giving my virtue away so easily?

She sighed when I had finished. “Really, Lucky, where is your sense? You’re as bad as…as Rupert!” she insisted. “Why must the two of you always pursue that which you’re not destined to have? It is something in the Van der Meer family?”

“
I can’t help it, Charlotte. I love him.”

“
Did you tell him that?”

“
Yes.”

“
And what did he say?”

“
He didn’t say anything. He doesn’t love me.” I started to cry myself into a fit again.

Charlotte patted my shoulder consolably. “Are you certain he doesn’t love you? Perhaps he simply thinks your love is pity, much like in
La Belle et la Bete
, when Beauty first merely pities the Beast.”

“
Do you think that could be so?” I asked, my voice nasally from the river of mucus pouring from my nose.

Charlotte eased me back and wiped at all the wetness on my face. “Well, you look horrible now, dear, red-face and miserable, and your makeup is a mess, so now is a good time to ask him directly. If he loves you in this state, he’ll love you forever.”

I smiled through my tears.

She gave me a stern look. “Tell him if he does love you, he’ll marry you. If he doesn’t, then you will simply have to marry Stuart. See how he responds.”

“
Give him an ultimatum.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Charlotte…how do you know so much about men?”

She gave me a wise smile and a hug. “Lucky, dear, I’m married to a solicitor. I
have
to know how to manipulate a man.”

***

I paced the library nervously while Charlotte went to inform Tiberius that I had something to say to him. My stomach quickly knotted up and I couldn’t seem to keep my hands from wringing together or clenching the Oni mask in a death grip. The third time I heard a slight thumping noise coming from the adjacent room, I finally went to the adjoining door and cracked it open an inch.

In the next room, the governor’s study, Tiberius’s valet was on his hands and knees while my cousin Rupert rode him like a horse and simultaneously swatted his bare backside with a riding crop. I quickly closed the door, put my back to it, and squeezed my eyes closed as I attempted—albeit unsuccessfully—to remove the image permanently burned into my brain.

To his credit, Tiberius didn’t keep me waiting very long. Within minutes, he let himself into the library and closed the door behind him. I looked him over. He looked, as always, amazing and soldiery in his blue tailcoat and white ruffled shirt. The coat was cut in a simple military style, as was so much of his clothing, so it stood out amidst all the flamboyant gentlemen’s coats. Every lady in the crush had done a double take when he’d passed—at least, until they’d seen his face. “Lucky,” he said in greeting.

“
Tiberius,” I answered, my fingers clenched around the frightening, fanged Oni mask. I held it in front of me like a shield. “Your valet and my cousin are in the next room, having very strange carnal relations.”

He thought about that a long moment. “Gavin and Rupert?”

“
Yes.”

“
Well, at least they’re happy.” He noticed the mask in my hands and said, “The Oni are creatures that figure prominently in Japanese folklore. They’re variously translated as demons, devils, ogres and trolls.”

“
You’re changing the subject.”

“
Would you prefer we discuss Gavin and Rupert’s strange carnal relations?”

“
Dear God, no.” His words had nearly derailed my thoughts. I took a deep breath and got to the issue at hand. “Why did you wear that blue tailcoat, Tiberius?”

He looked at me with an unreadable face, then glanced down at my mother’s blue velvet gown. His eyes lingered on the mounds of my breasts, but only briefly. “Because I happen to own a blue tailcoat?”

I let my breath out in a rattling sigh and closed my eyes. “Why are you lying?”