Free A Family Affair by Jennifer Wenn

girls hooked arms and strolled down the path, enjoying the warmth of the sun. The air was filled with the scent of thousands of wildflowers blooming everywhere in the green grass. Bumblebees buzzed and birds twittered. It was an amazingly beautiful day.
    Penelope hugged Fanny’s arm. “Oh, this is so exciting,” she breathed happily. “Everybody is talking about it, you know, you and your handsome duke.”
    “Handsome as one of Grand-Papa’s Roman statues,” Fanny joked, and they laughed, filled with the starry-eyed happiness only young women can feel the day after their first ball.
    “It must have been an amazing feeling to meet him again, after all this time. You have talked about him as long as I can remember, and my memory happens to be extremely good.” Penelope winked, and Fanny hugged her friend closer as they giggled.
    “It was amazing, and at the same time frightening. I knew immediately who he was when I saw him, even though he is now a grown man instead of the boy I remembered.”
    “Did he recognize you at once, too?”
    Fanny rolled her eyes.
    “Of course not. He is a man, after all.”
    “I’m not surrounded by men, as you are, so how men act and how they think are not a part of my knowledge.”
    Penelope sounded almost as if she were jealous, and Fanny kissed her friend’s rosy cheek.
    “Just because I have more manly relatives than I can count doesn’t mean I know how they think. But I did once overhear a friend of my mother’s say men were easy to read, as all they think about is eating, sleeping, and drinking.”
    “How utterly boring,” Penelope said with feigned horror, and they giggled again.
    “Enough about me. How was your first ball? I looked for you but couldn’t find you.”
    Penelope lost her smile. She bowed her head and sighed, which clearly told how her evening had been, and Fanny’s heart went out to her friend.
    Why couldn’t those horrible parents of Penelope’s see what a treasure they had? Their youngest daughter was a gem among lumps of coal, with her pure heart and a smile that could melt gold.
    But all they could see was Charmaine, and as she fulfilled their every dream, they didn’t look any farther.
    “It wasn’t as bad as you think,” Penelope said slowly, knowing all too well what her friend thought. “I still had to wear Charmaine’s old dress, and there was no time to alter it, so I had to lift it constantly, as she is quite taller than me. Father danced with my sister but forgot about me, which made me a little upset. However, what hurt most was how my mother noticed his forgetfulness but didn’t care. It was more important to her to stand beside Charmaine and be her mother than to drag my father from the gambling tables and force him to dance with me too.”
    “Oh, Penny!” Fanny stopped and gave her friend a tight hug, silently swearing a holy oath to revenge her friend. Someday she would make sure the other three members of the de Vere family would suffer immensely.
    Penelope reached for her handkerchief and used it to dry the tears trickling down her cheeks. “It feels better now that I can share it with you,” she sniffed, and they started to walk again toward the end of the walkway. “Everything feels so much better when I am with you.”
    “Of course it does,” Fanny joked. “I am, after all, the most perfect human being to ever set her feet on this earth.”
    “You are, indeed.” Penelope laughed, and with the fragility of the moment over, they continued arm-in-arm in a much better mood, now they had aired the hurtfulness of yesterday’s ball.
    “What did you think about the Easton Ball besides your family’s shortcomings?”
    “Oh, it was so grand! It felt like I was in a fairy tale, surrounded by all the elegance of the ballroom and the people in it.”
    “Wasn’t it? I have never seen so many exquisite ladies in my life. And the dresses! I could hardly believe how deep some of the necklines were.”
    “Did you see the lady