"Still doesn't mean it is fair. I will miss you when you go." Trudy leaned over and hugged her tightly. Outside of that room, it would have appeared strange, even scandalous for a lady to hug her servant. Such behavior was not acceptable. But in Trudy's room, it was a friend hugging a friend.
For a brief few seconds, Emma did not worry about what the outside world thought of her. The only thing that mattered: Trudy, a girl she had shared dolls with and had pretend tea parties way past the age acceptable for young girls to play in such a way. A girl, who, late at night, after everyone else had gone to bed, had snuck into Emma's room and taught her the lessons Trudy's tutors had given her during the mornings. Emma wagered there wasn't another maid in Darenset as educated as she. A fact she cherished.
"I will miss you too." Emma pushed her friend back gently and studied her face. In the five years she had known her, Trudy had changed from a gangly child into a sophisticated woman. After a fortnight, she likely would never see her again, and it broke Emma's heart, but she was more than ready to begin a new time in her life. "But we have to finish getting you ready. You have a ball to attend."
Trudy took her handkerchief and dabbed the wetness under her eyes. "That I do."
"Let's get you ready, Gertrude Dodsworth. The world is waiting for you, and I shall want to hear every detail."
ALSO BY RACHEL VAN DYKEN
When Ash Falls
London Fairy Tales, Book 4
PROLOGUE
Ash didn't want to remember her this way. Her beautiful face, so often lit with a breathtaking smile, was now cold and dead.
The first time he'd seen her, he had thought she was an angel, and he'd said that very thing under his breath when she had made her debut that season…
"Beautiful," he murmured as Lucy took a turn about the room, gaining introductions to all the available gentlemen who came her way. Taking an earth-shattering breath, the kind that every man took when he was about to approach a beautiful woman, he made his way over to her.
Music faded into the background with each step. All Ash was aware of was the clicking of his boot against the floor as he progressed toward the beauty. One dance… if only she would give him one dance, he would secure her hand forever. He knew it in his heart, in his soul. She was meant to be his.
Heart beating out of his chest, he could barely contain his excitement as she lifted her eyes and met his gaze. Blue eyes twinkled in his direction, and then she lifted her hand in a wave. A wave? Something was wrong. Ash paused and then glanced self-consciously over his shoulder. There was no one but him, and then he gazed back at her. She crooked her finger, beckoning him forward.
Completely under her spell, he couldn't deny her any more than he could cease from taking his next breath. Finally, he stood before her, at least a foot taller than she.
"Where have you been, you rogue?" She swatted him on the arm and gave him a coy laugh. "I have been looking everywhere for you!"
"For me?" Ash questioned. "Are you certain we have met?"
"Must you always joke at such serious times?" The girl laughed again, and he was caught at the sight of her dimples as they danced along her cheeks. Carefree. She appeared so carefree, so perfect, un-weighted by the things of this world, by the responsibility and darkness, by disappointment. He tilted his head and then reached out to touch her — perhaps she truly was a dream. And then a voice broke out into the pounding in his ears.
"Ah, sweetheart, you've met my brother." Hunter stepped beside the girl and wrapped his arm around her.
Ash stepped back, his heart sinking down to his feet. She hadn't been looking for him at all, but his older brother, his twin, the duke. It was such a sad joke, a sad existence really. Would he ever be first in anything?
Months had progressed into a year as he'd watched his brother and Lucy fall into such a deep love all he had been able to do was be happy for them and try to spend as much time away as possible. After all, it was not done to want your brother's wife, to want to care for her and protect her. It was fate's final, cruel trick to allow Ash to feel something for another and then have that person ripped away by his brother. Though he loved his brother more than his own life, it seemed Ash was always left with nothing while his brother was given everything.
His name fit.
For he was the ash after the fire of Hunter burned out.
He was nothing but soot, darkness, and sand. One day, his ashes would trickle away into the wind, never to be remembered and never mourned, but forgotten.
"Ash! Do you hear me! I love you! I love you!" Hunter yelled at his brother as he shook his shoulders, and then his eyes widened with desperation as slapped him across the face.
Ash stared at the blood staining his hands. He tried to wipe it off. Tried but failed as it continued to drip down his wrists into his jacket. "I'm so sorry," he kept repeating over and over again, but it did not matter.
The carriage had come too fast. Lucy had thought Ash was Hunter and had run to him right into the street.