Jillian Chantal

Welcome to Tuesday Tales. I missed last week due to the birth of my first grandchild. He was a Tuesday Tale for sure!!  So blessed to have him here safely.  This week’s TT word prompt is frozen. We are still in my Regency tale and here we have the two sisters and their mother off to a house party they’ve been invited to for a week. The heroine’s sister has it in her head that the host is going to ask her to marry him. I mean, why else invite them to his house, right?  🙂

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“Stop being a ninny and get in the carriage. You’re keeping us.” Charlotte leaned out the door. “I want to hurry and arrive. It’s a long journey and I’m so tired of always being late everywhere because you don’t want to go.”

“Will you promise me to at least try to be nice to your sister this week?” their father asked.

“If she stays out of my way, I will.”

“You don’t mean that,” he said with a smile. “You’re merely nervous about whether Cavanaugh will ask for your hand. Chances are, he won’t as he hasn’t approached me to ask permission.”

“He hasn’t?” Charlotte’s face reddened and she frowned.

“Maybe your father wants you to be surprised, so he’s not telling you,” their mother said.

“Is that right, Father?” Charlotte’s expression turned sly.

“Now, Cassandra, don’t say things like that. The young man hasn’t approached me and it’s unfair to get Charlotte’s hopes up that way. As we discussed, we hope this house party is a chance for him to offer to court her. That’s all.”

“I want it to be more and if Honora would come on, it might be.” Cassandra’s head and upper torso disappeared into the carriage.

Realizing she had no hope of a reprieve, Honora’s shoulders slumped and she allowed herself to be handed in. She sat on the opposite side of her sister and looked out the side window. Perhaps she could ignore her.

When their mother was settled, the driver urged the horses on and they were underway. Charlotte prattled on about Lord Cavanaugh, debating with their mother whether or not the man had been to see her father to ask for her hand.

Honora tuned them out as the question had already been answered by their father. He didn’t lie or prevaricate, so Honora believed him when he said the lord hadn’t called on him. Why debate a question that was already answered?

She thought back over that first night she’d seen Cavanaugh and Lockwood. After she made her escape, she’d hidden in the garden to the left of the veranda. It was cold out there but honestly, with the way she’d been ignored and then talked about as if she were one of the sideshows at Vauxhall, she decided she’d be better off outside under the stars. It was crisp and cool and since her face was so hot with embarrassment and humiliation as well as the exertion of running in her tight gown, she took the chance and found a small bench and sat in peace. She’d hoped they’d find her in the morning frozen to that bench. Alas, it didn’t happen.