Miss Fellingham's Rebellion Read Online Free Page A

his heels and was gone before anyone could bid him adieu.
    “Mama, I would like to come with you to lend you my support,” said Evelyn, who had been sitting on the settee quietly contemplating a future without balls, “but I think it is best if I go upstairs and lie down. I am feeling quite fatigued.”
    “I understand, my dear,” assured her mother. “You are of a delicate disposition just like your mama. Go rest.” She leaned down and kissed her daughter on her cheek. “A little rest will revive you. You need to be beautiful for Lady Sefton’s ball tonight.”
    “Lady Sefton’s ball?” Catherine wondered aloud. “Are we still going to that?”
    “What can she mean?” asked Evelyn nervously, the pitch of her voice unpleasantly high. “Why shouldn’t we go? If Mama is going to Newgate prison and I won’t be able to go to any more balls, then shouldn’t we go to all the ones we can while we are still eligible?”
    “Your mama is not going to Newgate,” Lady Fellingham insisted with little conviction and a forced smile. “And of course we are going to Lady Sefton’s ball. We bought that lovely ivory muslin for just this occasion. Now, dear, you go have a rest, and your sister and I will sort this whole thing out. Don’t tease yourself about it one more minute.”
    Evelyn sent Catherine a smug look and kissed her mother on the cheek before quitting the drawing room.
    “Freddy,” Catherine instructed, “please tell Caruthers to have the carriage brought around immediately. Mother and I shall be changed presently, and it’s best that we get this unpleasantness out of the way as quickly as possible.”
    “Really, Catherine, if that’s the attitude you are going to take, then I think it’s best that you stay right here. Arabella doesn’t need you upsetting her so on the morning of Lady Sefton’s ball,” she announced, calling for her maid to help her dress.
    Feeling drained, Catherine watched her mother leave the drawing room after Freddy, wondering what nonsense they would get up to next. Her family’s proclivity for histrionics was why she didn’t get involved in their day-to-day dramas. It was so much easier to read the paper as if nobody else was there and to simply walk out of the room when pretending became too difficult.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Getting Lady Fellingham to Arabella Courtland’s residence in Mount Street was not nearly as challenging as getting her out of the carriage once she arrived there.
    “Come, Mama, you can’t sit in that curricle all day with your back stiff and straight like that. The neighbors are going to start talking,” Catherine said, as her mother continued to refuse Higgins’s offer of help. “Why, look, there’s the Duke of Trent. Shall I wave hello to him? Perhaps he and I could have a little talk while you are deciding whether to come out.” In truth, she had no idea who the gentleman across the street was—she mentioned the duke only because he had recently made a scandalous marriage and his was the name on everyone’s lips—but she raised her hand in enthusiastic greeting.
    “Don’t you dare,” exclaimed her mother, who turned pink at the very thought of her daughter embarrassing her like that in front of such an esteemed personage. “I was merely gathering my wits. I am ready now. Please, Higgins, I’m ready to accept your hand.”
    When her ladyship’s dainty feet were on the ground, she accepted her daughter’s proffered elbow with great reluctance. “I don’t know why you’re trying to start a scandal, dear, but I do wish you wouldn’t. Think of your sister, please, if only for a moment. How is she going to find a husband if her family is in disgrace?”
    Catherine couldn’t find a reasonable answer to this unjust accusation, so she remained silent as they climbed the steps leading to the town house. Once at the door, Eliza grazed it lightly with her gloved knuckles. Her daughter watched this ridiculous display, which, of course, drew