Free Finding Bliss by B L Bierley Page A

offer was tempting. Shrugging off the sense of
discomfort he felt in knowing the situation was deemed allowable however circuitously
by young Lady Bliss, Eric succumbed to the temptations of a willing woman for
the first time.

Chapter
Six
    Bliss, ages eighteen to twenty-one,
London, 1808-1811
    The season of Bliss’s debut was upon
her. The five years following her initial correspondence with Eric hadn’t
turned out quite as well as she hoped they would.
    Eric never once wrote back. Even on
his infrequent visits home, there was little contact between them other than
the usual civilities between a client and a surgeon called upon to avert some
medical emergency or crisis.
    Another year went by, and Eric’s
visits ended abruptly when he graduated and began a thriving practice in
Bristol with the town’s newest hospital. But worse than that was news received
on a morning in early February of 1809 that devastated her. It was the first
time in recorded history that her useful foresight ever failed her.
     
    Dr. Benchley, Eric’s esteemed father
and Bliss’s most esteemed friend, had been killed in a horrible accident. The
event took place on the bridge overlooking the bay. Two equipages, one a stage
and the other Dr. Benchley’s curricle, had collided when the horses pulling the
stage had been frightened by some unknown cause.
    The stage occupants were trapped, and Dr. Benchley, despite
his injuries, managed to help three of the people to safety before the carriage
dumped into the bay.
    The news was incredibly disturbing for Bliss, stemming from
the fact that she’d neither seen the event coming nor been able to divert her
beloved friend from his death. For several weeks he was utterly inconsolable. Her
father suggested at one point that they take a trip to Bath to restore her.
    Bliss declined and put on her best efforts to remain at Penwood
Manor Estate in order to see Eric when he arrived for the memorial and burial. But
the event came and went without giving her a chance to offer him any words of
comfort. Eric remained aloof and stalwart in his grief, barely acknowledging
any of the efforts that anyone made toward him.
    Too soon the Penwood household was abuzz with the upcoming St.
Patrick’s Day Ball Luxie held every year. Bliss’s debut was scheduled for the
week prior to the ball in London, after which she would receive guests and
potential suitors at home in Cardiff by invitation to the two-week party.
    The impending season held no charm for her. She navigated
the balls and parties that year with the stoic presence of a martyr. Bliss
never held on to her melancholy for very long, though. But she would never
completely get over the loss of her cherished friend who would have eventually
become her father-in-law.
     
    The next three years played out
exactly as expected. Bliss and her eldest sister had debuted the same year, but
no offers were made for either girl. Merryann suffered from painful shyness and
speech difficulties every season that rendered her literally mute when it came
to strangers. The fact that Merryann was older and still unmarried took some of
the pressure off of Bliss’s need to settle down. Not that their parents were
pushy about marriage.
    Lord and Lady Penwood had eloped to avoid Luxie’s father’s
harsh edict that she would have to marry her intended fiancé. The situation was
further complicated by the fact that Lady Luxie’s younger sisters were long
engaged and forced to wait for their older sister’s marriage before they
themselves could marry.
    Therefore, due to the unusual and unorthodox courtship of
her parents, it was not a condition for Bliss to wait for her older sister’s
matrimonial success in order to marry herself. Already knowing her fated path, Bliss
instead used interim time and took great pleasure in causing quite a stir among
the ton with her subtle matchmaking.
    Most of the time her antics were the direct result of her
uncanny ability to steer men into the path of