Free Miss Fellingham's Rebellion by Lynn Messina - Miss Fellingham's Rebellion

cried.
    Lady Fellingham, who had enjoyed herself so much at the party that she was thoroughly exhausted now, smiled sleepily at her pretty daughter. “Evelyn dear, you have no cause to tease yourself over Deverill’s defection. Gentlemen from good families were tripping all over each other tonight to fill up your dance card. Deverill is the first man to show an interest in Catherine in, well, years. I don’t know why he chose to dance with your sister. Indeed, he did not apply to me for permission, and I am already somewhat put out with your sister for waltzing without my approval. Nevertheless, I don’t think we should question her good fortune. Clearly, the Lord works in inexplicable ways and it is not up to us to decipher them.”
    “But he was my beau, Mama, mine,” Evelyn whined, so distraught at this frightening turn of events that she stomped her foot on the carriage floor. “You know Deverill was my beau. Catherine hasn’t had a beau in six years, and I don’t think it’s fair that she be allowed to steal one of mine.”
    “That is precisely why your sister should proceed unencumbered by us in this courtship,” said her mother, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the cushions. “Evelyn, your beauty obligates you to act graciously in this matter.”
    “Courtship?” she screeched. “One dance does not a courtship make.” She turned to her sister. “The richest, most handsome peer of the realm who courts great beauties and Incomparables is not courting you . He…he probably lost a bet and was forced to dance with you. Or it was a dare from one of his friends. You know what fashionable gentlemen are like. They have their jokes.”
    “You know, brat,” said her brother Freddy, who had planned at the onset to remain silent rather than get involved in the petty ways of women but decided with this last jibe that the time had come to choose sides, “you can be a really mean person sometimes and I am devilishly glad that an out-and-outer like Deverill has the sense to pursue someone like Catherine rather than a spoilt cat like you. Now cease your screeching and allow us to ride home in silence.”
    Evelyn was so angered by this slight that tears welled up in her eyes. “Mama, tell Freddy he can’t talk to me like that.”
    “Freddy, gently bred daughters of peers do not screech,” his mother instructed calmly. “Apologize to your sister.”
    Evelyn smiled smugly at her brother, who made a face at her in return and refused to say he was sorry.
    It was a very long ride home indeed.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    When Catherine came down for breakfast the next morning, the parlor was empty, and a place setting had been laid out for her along with the morning paper. The staff knew quite well that after a ball, Catherine was the only family member who ever made it down for breakfast—the rest were sad layabouts who needed hours to recover after a night’s dissipation. This well-documented pattern explained why Catherine and Hawkins, who was pouring coffee at the time, were entirely shocked to see her mother enter the room.
    Lady Fellingham was attired in a Devonshire brown walking gown, just the sort she always wore for shopping expeditions with Evelyn. Catherine watched as her mother took the seat adjacent to hers and felt a tinge of fear at what this might mean. Nobody ever sat next to Catherine in the morning. They always left her at the far end of the table with her newspaper.
    “Hawkins,” said Lady Fellingham, sinking deeply into her seat, “I’ll have some juice please and an assortment of whatever you have there on the sideboard. What’s Catherine eating?”
    “Kippers, my lady.”
    “Then make sure I have some kippers, too,” she ordered pleasantly before turning her smile on Catherine.
    Examining her mother’s happy expression, Catherine felt an awful sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she had not experienced in almost six years. She was positively terrified of what would come