“Now, smile, sister,” Margaret pleaded. “Pretend you are not looking at so many frightening faces.”
“It’s like looking at an aviary.”
Margaret had to admit, the illusion was really quite accurate as ladies’ heads turned to look at them, beady eyes wide.
“There is nothing to fear,” Theo whispered to Louisa, escorting her further into the room.
“Evelina said there were men to be wary of in the ton. Have you not just warned me of your own cousin?” Louisa hissed in a whisper, through a smile she was forcing to keep in place. “Clearly, there is plenty to fear!”
“Not whilst myself and Gabriel are watching over you. No man would dare hurt you then.”
Margaret looked at Theo, such pride in what a gentleman he was making her beam.
“Now, let us introduce you to some people tonight who aren’t going to make you run and hide in my library.”
“She is doing well, is she not?” Margaret whispered as Theodore appeared to take her hand, holding it tight in his own. He quickly raised it to his lips and kissed the back, making her smile and falter, as she forgot what she was asking.
“Distracted?” he teased her.
“More than a little.”
He laughed then nodded at Louisa across the room. She was surrounded by people, and though perhaps not fully enjoying herself, she showed no sign of running for the library, which was a great relief to Margaret.
“She is doing very well,” Theodore said with an eager nod. “Though it may never be her natural environment.”
“On that, I quite agree with you. Louisa infinitely prefers the life she lives reading her books.” Margaret sighed a little. She admired Louisa greatly, not only for her commitment to her books, but her scholarly ways. She had to wonder though ifsometimes it was Louisa’s way of escaping the real world, by living her life exclusively through her books.
“What do you say to escaping for a few short minutes?” Theo offered up his hand.
“Escaping?” Margaret glanced at Louisa nervously.
“She is well taken care of. Have you not seen?” Theo gestured to another in the room. Margaret smiled when she caught sight of Mrs. Lancaster hovering in the corner of the ballroom.
Though she was overseeing the staff arrangements of the evening, clearly, Mrs. Lancaster had taken it upon herself to look out for another in the room. She watched Louisa like a hawk, wringing her hands together nervously.
“If there is anything to worry about, Mrs. Lancaster will find us at once. Come, let us escape for just a couple of minutes.”
Unable to resist the temptation of him, Margaret gave him her hand. He led her out of the ballroom and toward a back door. Together, they slipped out into the garden.
Though spring had sprung, the nights still pulled in relatively early. The sky was black now, with a dappling of stars and a bright moon to guide their way. All around them in the borders, new shoots were starting to poke their heads through, flowers budding as the hellebores bloomed their last.
As they walked, Margaret looped her arm with Theo. They ambled further away from the ballroom, through the borders.
“Thank you,” Margaret said after some minutes of companionable silence.
“For what?” Theo asked, looking at her in surprise.
“For holding this ball. For escorting Louisa into the ball. For helping to calm her, too. You have done what another should have done tonight.” She smiled rather sadly.
“Your father…” Theodore sighed. “He is too lost to his addictions to be there for her. I am just sorry he could not come through for Louisa when she needed him, but I was very happy to step in and do what I could. Gabriel would have done the same, had Evelina not been so near her time.”
“You were the elder brother she needed tonight, and for that… I cannot thank you enough.” She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked. He slowed their pace a little, until they came to a stop in the middle of the formal gardens.
“For so long, I had never considered having a family of my own. Hardly surprising after my parents and what they showed me a family could be like.” He grimaced at the words, and Margaret looked up at him.
The matter with his mother had proceeded much as they expected. Though it had come to a trial, it was quickly dismissedwhen Catherine had started screaming to the rafters of the courtroom that she had given birth to the spawn of the devil. Rather swiftly, a bill of insanity was brought forward, and she had been placed in the Bedlam.
Theo had not once visited her, and Margaret had no wish to make him do so, though she knew Catherine’s sister sometimes went. She had her friend, and Margaret prayed that at least where she was now, she would get some help.
