Bridget, in uncharacteristic silence, simply nodded her agreement.
After the greetings had finished and the catching up had been done, and tea had been taken, it was time to get ready.
Regina had never before actively participated in getting ready for a ball. She had always waited until the last moment in the hopes that she could get out of it. Then she had been quickly done up by her maid and by Bridget, and bundled into the carriage without ceremony.
Now, however, she was getting ready with the others. She was looking forward to this ball, although not for the reasons that her sisters knew.
“London has done you well, sister,” Elizabeth said as Regina helped her to do up her corset. “It has finally made you properly sociable.”
“When do you announce your engagement?” Regina asked, in order to change the subject.
“It shall be announced next week,” Elizabeth said. “We must then allow for some months of engagement before the actual wedding day. We do not want to seem too hasty.”
“But then everyone shall hear of our disgrace before you are married,” Regina pointed out.
“There is little than can be done about that,” Bridget said. “If they marry now everyone will either suspect that Elizabeth is in the family way, or they shall assume the marriage was only because of the loss of our fortune.”
“Which it is,” Natalie cut in.
“I should not marry a man I did not esteem, and I esteem Mr. Denny in the highest,” Elizabeth shot back. She was obviously ready to go to war with her sister over this matter.
“Natalie, do not let bitterness have a hold on you,” Bridget scolded. She turned back to Regina. “This way will only assure everyone that the marriage is done out of affection and mutual respect. It will do a credit to Mr. Denny to be seen as standing by Elizabeth in such trying times. It can only benefit everyone’s estimation of his character.”
Regina nodded. She trusted Bridget’s judgment in the matter. And it wasn’t as if Mr. Denny was going in blind. He had been there when their father had fallen.
Hopefully, however, none of this would matter. Hopefully by the end of tonight, their fortunes would be restored.
Everything was a flurry around her, sisters yelling and calling out to one another for help.
“Did you see my shoes?”
“Where on earth has my feather got to.”
“Elizabeth, darling, you must choose one of the three masks. You cannot use all three.”
“Would someone help me with my stays?”
“Natalie, can you do my corest up even tighter, please?”
It was all a whirlwind, but Regina found that she enjoyed it. It saddened her that she would not be able to enjoy it for much longer. Before long all of them would be married off. Or at the very least, Elizabeth and Bridget would be.
Once that happened, they would not all be together again, getting ready like this. Regina felt a pang of regret. She felt as though she had not appreciated her sisters as she should have. She could have had so many more of these moments if she had.
Louisa seemed to sense her inner distress, for she came over and helped Regina into her dress, her hands and face soft and loving.
“This is a lovely dress that you have chosen,” Louisa said kindly, helping Regina to do up her buttons.
“Thank you. Lady Cora and Aunt Jane—for that is how she instructed me to call her—were most kind in helping me to select the fabric and style.”
“It is a bit behind the times,” Louisa admitted, “But it suits you. The modest style is quite fitting to your character.”
If only her sister knew how immodest Regina was about to be.
“Thank you.”
Louisa turned her around, smiling at her. “You know, I fear that we have not appreciated you as we should have. Our baby sister. You do know that you are loved by us, don’t you?”
Regina nodded. She could feel it now as she never had before. She’d always known that Bridget loved her dearly. And she knew that Louisa loved her for Louisa was a gentle soul and incapable of disliking anybody.
Elizabeth and Natalie she had doubted. They loved her as family but Regina had not been sure of their affection for her as an individual.
But now she could feel it. Perhaps their being away from their sister had led them to appreciate her more, just as her being away from her sisters had led her to appreciate them.
Well, weddings or no weddings, she sensed that this was a new step in her relationships with her sisters. They were all crossing thresholds now, in their own ways. She felt certain that, in the future, they would all be closer.
She wished she could find it in her heart to be grateful for the calamity that had brought them together in sisterly affection. She couldn’t, but it was, at least, a silver lining.
Natalie had been the first ready and had vanished from the room at one point. Bridget, who had been helping everybody, was barely dressed. Regina and Louisa were helping Bridget to finish up when Natalie burst back into the room.
“The guests are arriving for dinner!” She announced. “We must put on our masks and hurry down!”
“Wait but a moment, I’m almost finished with the laces,” Louisa said, referring to Bridget’s dress.
Fear gripped Regina. She was to begin, now.
She steeled herself. What was the point of fear? It would do her no good. It could only hinder her and cause her to fail. No, she was better than this. She was going to walk down there, head held high, and she was going to establish her alibi so that she could enter the card room and defeat that rake that had destroyed her family.
Regina reached into herself and pulled on the anger that arose whenever she thought of Lord Pettifer. She held onto it and stoked it. It grew in her chest until she thought that she could feel it trembling inside every inch of her.
She was not a timid mouse. She was not a forgotten sister. She was more than anyone thought of her. She was a woman, and hell had no fury like that which burned inside of her.
She was Regina Hartfield. She was a gentleman’s daughter.
And she was going to take back what had been stolen from her family.
Chapter 31
Regina made her way downstairs with the rest of her sisters. Despite her mask, it was evident when the guests saw five redheaded sisters who all of them were.
Elizabeth wore a red dress, a daring color given her hair, but it worked for her. Louisa wore a soft yellow. Natalie was in green, her signature color. Bridget was in purple. It was Cora’s favorite color, perhaps because it was regal, and Regina had to agree it suited her most regal of sisters well.
Regina, of course, was in her dark blue.