"What happened to your hair?!" the countess screeched when her daughter arrived ho with a lion's mane and no bonnet.
"The wind at the ocean side was very strong, Mother," I said calmly.
The only way to deal with her when she got hysterical was to remain absolutely calm. It had not taken long in this world to learn that much.
"Yes, very strong," Percy agreed while standing stoically beside . "Her bonnet flew right off and the pins with it."
The countess had no reason to doubt the word of her oldest son and let us off easily before going to order the cook to prepare dinner.
I turned to him suspiciously. "You just lied for ."
"Yes, I did."
"What do you want?"
He smiled. "The whole lemon tart. I think you owe that much."
Curse him, he was right. Percy had done a lot for today.
"Can I have one tiny nibble first?" I pleaded. I was the one who picked it out after all.
"One tiny nibble," he conceded.
After taking my tasteit was absolutely scrumptiousI regretfully handed it over. "We need to go back there again. These are divine."
"I heard a rumor they will not be this good for long. The palace is interested in hiring the pastry chef out from under the bakery owner in honor of the second prince's marriage. Apparently the new princess really loves that bakery."
I wasn't surprised about the rumor, since I knew this was roughly the ti Marcy headed to the palace anyway. I was surprised that my brotherwho hated the capital and most peoplehad listened to gossip.
"Where did you hear that?"
"Believe it or not, I do know so people in the capital. I have to forge my connections for when I take Father's place soday."
Huh. I guess his antisocial nature had a loophole. With that cryptic statent, he headed upstairs to go over the ledgers with Father before dinner.
I found myself with nothing to do so I sat in the sitting room with the curtain pulled back and watched people pass by until we were called to dinner.
As usual, it was a mostly silent affair, but my mother did make sure to give more advice about my debut tomorrow. All the daughters of nobility that were of age would go forward and introduce themselves to the king and queen in front of the full court in descending order of importance.
As an earl's daughter, I'd probably be within the first ten candidates. That happened in the morning. In the evening was the debutante ball, which was the best opportunity for newly-out-in-society ladies to network with the mothers and wives of other nobility and to dance with as many different partners as possible.
Part of dreaded the dancing. Sure, I'd practiced my feet off, but what if I still screwed up? The other part of was excited to be able to do physical activity without hurting myself.
You know those dance gas where you held the motion-sensor controller and tried to go along with the moves on the screen? I couldn't even play those because the repetitive arm motions hurt my shoulders too much.
Being physically able to dance was nice even if I didn't want to do it with a bunch of random noblen.
"Percy, will you dance with first?" I asked.
The first dance was usually reserved for a family mber or a lady's prospective fianc if she had one. It was done with soone the lady trusted to help calm her nerves before sending her off into the wolves' den. Not a terrible sentint, I guess.
"That would be most appropriate," the countess approved. "If you dance with Percival, I can dance with your father."
"Of course, Catherine. It would be my honor."
I smiled at him. I would be a lot less nervous dancing with him than with the earl. A sheltered lady like Catherine du Pont didn't know any other n well enough to dance with them first.
That night I lay awake for far too long, wondering what the next day had in store for . I had never slept well before tests in school. This was no different.
My rit as a noblewoman was being tested in front of the entire kingdom tomorrow. I couldn't bring sha to the earldomat least until I found a way to leave it. Because leaving would definitely sha them.
I assud they would do their best to keep things quiet for Adele's sake. If scandal tainted the du Pont na, she would have a hard ti finding a husband when she got older. No, they wouldn't launch a search for .
My brothers might look into things on their own but no one would dare go against the earl's edict. If he said not to incite a scandal, they wouldn't incite a scandal.
They would probably pretend they married off to a visiting dignitary from another country. That would explain why no one ever saw quite well and Adele's future wouldn't be affected. A perfect plan.
I had been in their house long enough to know what kind of people Lord and Lady du Pont were. They wouldn't miss their oldest daughter one bit. My siblings would though and that was the one thorn in my side.
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