Entangled with the Duke - Preview
Lady Alexandra Woodley searched feverishly through the basket of freshly washed clothes. She knew she was rumpling the soft cotton fabrics but had little time to care about it.
She made a note to apologize later to Polly, the maid, for making her ironing twice as difficult this week, despite her frantic rush.
If her sister’s white evening gloves were not amongst the rest of the white fabric freshly removed from the line this morning, Lady Alexandra was sure she had no idea where else to look.
In frustration, she sifted through nightgowns, handkerchiefs, and cream-colored petticoats only to come up empty-handed.
She huffed, sitting back on her heels. The puff of air sent up a chestnut lock that had fallen in her face.
“I found them, miss!” Polly said bursting into the drawing room.
“Oh thank heaven, Polly. You’re an angel,” Lady Alexandra said taking the long evening gloves out of the young maid's hands.
“Where ever did you find them?” Lady Alexandra continued, coming off the freshly polished wooden floors to stand before the girl.
“They were under young Lady Sophia’s pillow,” Polly said with a cocked brow. “Going out of her way to make such trouble ain’t right if you ask me.”
Alexandra couldn’t have agreed with the maid more at that moment. Sophia Woodley was the youngest of the Woodley sisters, totaling four in all, and by far the most challenging one.
“I will make sure to speak with her and father sternly over the matter later tonight,” Alexandra informed Polly.
She was all too aware that Sophia’s little attempt to delay the three older girls from their departure this night had not only caused more work for Alexandra but for the entire house on the whole.
The Earl of Grebs had little to his name besides his four daughters. It made hired help a limited commodity, causing their two maids, one butler, and one cook to take on the task of several jobs throughout the day. Sophia’s stunt had robbed Polly of precious time that would have been used on other tasks.
Alexandra made a note to do her best to express that fact to her youngest and most carefree sister. Perhaps even make the child write a letter of apology to the maid.
It indeed wasn’t a proper act for a lady to write a note of remorse to one's servant, but Alexandra also knew how much Sophia despised her schoolwork and the added labor seemed a fitting punishment for the crime.
“Josephine,” Alexandra called down the hall as she made her way out of the one and only sitting room and up the stairs to the main bedrooms of the house.
She found her next eldest sister still sitting in front of the small vanity in the room the four girls shared.
“Josephine,” Alexandra said, a little winded for the second time from the hurried walk to her sister’s side. “Polly has found the missing gloves.”
Alexandra threw them on one of the two large beds that served as sleeping quarters for the four sisters. She sat down next to them feeling her body sink down in the freshly turned bed.
“Where were they?” Lady Josephine Woodley asked as she tried to delicately place one of her dark brown curls into its proper place.
Alexandra shifted in her spot, uncomfortable with the restriction of a corset before standing to help her sister with her hair.
“Sophia had them under her pillow,” Alexandra said going to work.
“That girl is rotten to the core,” Josephine said, scratching her nose.
“Nonsense, she is just upset that we are all going to the ball tonight and she cannot.”
Alexandra was used to playing the peacemaker between these two sisters. Josephine was only a year younger than Alexandra, and the two of them were by far the closest of all the Woodley girls.
Williamina was three years younger than Josephine, and Sophia rounded out the end of the line being four years under Williamina.
“We all had to wait to come of age. Sophia thinks just because she is the youngest she should get some sort of special treatment,” Josephine continued.
“She is fifteen. It is only a year away from when the rest of us came out. Perhaps it wouldn’t be too much to allow her to join us tonight,” Williamina said, stepping into the room and joining the conversation.
Honestly, the estate couldn’t afford all four sisters spending the season out with the ton. Alexandra knew this well, as she saw to all the estate finances by herself. It wasn’t something she had shared with her younger sisters as of yet.
She sincerely hoped she wouldn’t have to. She had two sisters already having spent a few seasons in society and well into their marrying age. If she could find a good match for either Williamina or Josephine, she wouldn’t have to consider having all four sisters out next year.
It wasn’t the first time that Alexandra had to carry a secret burden of the Earl Grebs’ estate. After her mother’s death bringing Sophia into the world, her father, the Earl Grebs John Woodley, had all but removed himself from reality. That left her at the mere age of eight with the weighted responsibility of seeing that the house was managed and her family taken care of.
At first, it had just been little things such as making sure her sisters had their Sunday best on for service when her father didn’t seem to notice otherwise. Over time she learned to take over more and more, and he never stopped her, happy to find more secluded time in his library with his precious books and specimens.
Alexandra never had a proper coming out as she made sure her three younger sisters did. Instead, she attended social events much as the other matronly members of the ton, seeing to the needs of the youthful and single relations.
It was true that Sophia was partly babied, only because her father did little to engage with his daughters, and Alexandra had no knowledge of how to be a good mother when still a child herself.
Sophia had been at a significant disadvantage compared to her sisters from the moment she was born; she had been without a memory of their dear mother, Lady Grebs. All had changed with their lady mother’s death. It left all of the Woodley girls needing to grow up faster than their peers and even a little resentful.
Sophia was the most rebellious and resentful of them all. In response, Josephine was always at odds with what she considered special treatment for the youngest of the sisters.
“It is certainly something I would be happy to bring to Father,” Alexandra said finishing placing the last piece of baby’s breath in Josephine’s hair, “But far too late for tonight. The carriage should be here in an hour.”
“Sir Hamilton’s spring ball is the first event of the season,” Sophia said, stomping into the room still in her soft blue morning dress. “Everyone is going to be there for it, and if I’m not, then I might as well stay locked up all year long.”
Sophia finished her rant by crossing her arms and sitting on the bed that Josephine and Alexandra shared.
“You are still too young,” Alexandra said trying to cool down the heat between her sisters before a full verbal fight began between them. “I don’t even know if I could convince Father to let you attend events this season,” she continued.
“It’s just not fair,” Sophia said tears pooling in her big brown eyes before she stomped back out of the room.
Alexandra sighed in disappointment.
“Don’t give in to her tantrum,” Josephine said noticing her elder sister crack in resolve. “Remember it was your gloves she hid. Now you have little time to get yourself ready.”
“Oh, I wasn’t planning to do much to get ready anyway.”
Alexandra had not only been mothering her three younger sisters her whole life; she had entirely taken on the mother role. That included shaving any personal time she might have for herself for the betterment of the younger Woodley girls.
“Alexandra, you could shine in that room tonight. Let us help you a bit,” Williamina said in encouragement.
“Oh, yes,” Josephine added. “It would be so much fun. We could make you sparkle like a diamond if you let us. Then perhaps you could finally find your beau.”
“I haven’t any time for beaus or diamonds, and I promise you nothing you could do would hide the fact that I am an old maid already,” Alexandra chastened her sisters. “Neither do you. It’s nearly time. Hurry up and finish getting ready. I must see that Polly gets Father his dinner,” she added hurrying out of the room.
“Twenty-three is not nearly that old,” Josephine said to Alexandra's fading figure. “If anything it shows your maturity in waiting to find a good match.”
She held her head up high as she studied her image in the looking glass. Of all the Woodley sisters Josephine was by far the vainest. The defense of Alexandra’s age had little to do with her older sister and much more with their proximity in age.
Alexandra paid no heed to her sister's enticements as she made a final walk of the house. The hired carriage that would take them to Sir Hamilton’s London house was to arrive at any minute.
She would need to see that her youngest sister was put to the task of apologizing for the night, that Polly was not too far behind in her evening chores to assist the cook, and above all to make sure her father got some food in him.
More often than not, John Woodley would get into fancies of fantasy and forget all about the necessities of life like eating or paying the servants their monthly wages.
He was currently in such an altered world. Last week a new specimen had been gifted to him from the new world across the sea. It looked nothing more than a giant pincushion to Alexandra and therefore, far too dangerous to be kept in a fine home, but her father was never one to see reason when it came to his hobby.
Earl Grebs had little assets when he took his father’s title, and very little by way of increase when he married the countess. They had cared dearly for each other, and money had mattered little.
The Earl did, however, have a very guilty habit of purchases and donations to a lifelong passion of his. He was an obsessive naturalist. He loved to collect every volume of books on anything from zoology to botany. Lady Grebs had rounded him out some and tempered his passion.
With her death, Lord Grebs had forgotten the world he lived in and chose to shut himself inside the make-believe natural world of his library.
For all his love of the outside world, he had a terribly fragile constitution. This left him to explore and discover the world from the confines of his sole property, 62 Garden Place, London which was dangerously close to the undesirable west end neighborhood of Covent Gardens.
The pincushion would keep him locked away for at least another fortnight as he studied his new stuffed specimen. Next, it would be donated to his one and only love outside of his wife, the London Museum of Natural Wonders.
After a quick stop to the kitchen to procure a tray from the cook, Alexandra found herself standing in front of the library door.
Outside of the sitting room, the breakfast room, and kitchen, this was the only space on the first level of the London townhome.
It was a tight squeeze to fit four girls and their father into such a small house for the season, let alone all year round as was the case for the Woodley’s.
“Father,” Alexandra called with a soft knock before entering with the tray of mutton stew with boiled potato in her hand.
She set the tray down on the desk with the high back chair spun around from her. She didn’t need to see the other side of the chair to know what was going on there. Her father was no doubt hunched over the small table against the wall that showed his latest in a string of stuffed prized possessions.
“I just can’t seem to find anything similar anywhere else,” Earl Grebs said softly to himself, and he stood from his chair, book in hand, to walk the small room.
“Father,” Alexandra repeated.
He blinked looking up from his work, “Oh, Alexandra dear. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I know,” Alexandra said with a sigh.
As much as she wanted to be dissatisfied with her father, or even resentful towards him, she couldn’t. He was a broken-hearted man, only half of the whole he once was.
His hair had greyed over the years to the white of a cloud tinged with yellow tips from the lack of regular bathing and the tobacco from his pipe that regularly filled the room.
His skin was so tight against his face it was almost as thin as the paper in the books he loved so dearly. There was a soft shine of silver prickling his chin in the glow of the fire that was nearly out.
Alexandra would have liked to blame her father for her hardship in life, and she certainly had a right to, but she didn’t. Instead, she only wished she could do better to take care of him.
“I brought you your dinner, Father. Please do take a moment’s pause to eat.”
Lord Grebs looked down at the silver tray.
“Yes, of course, thank you, dear,” he said setting his book to the side and turning his high back chair around.
“We will be leaving soon for Sir Hamilton’s ball.”
“Is it that time already? I feel as if we just celebrated the Yuletide. How can it possibly be April already?”
“The earth spins around the sun, days turn to weeks, and weeks to months,” Alexandra said with a soft smile.
He gave her a twinkled look back through his grey eyes. It was the same speech he had given her as a child with the model solar system he had in his study. She loved that model.
Lord Grebs was fascinated with the world and that which grew on it. His eldest daughter, however, had taken her passion to the skies. He had been more than happy to encourage her.
Lord Grebs was blessed with four beautiful daughters and no sons. It was unlike him to keep a conversation about ribbons or dolls and thus had little to connect to the women of the house. His Alexandra however, was much like him. She was passionate about exploration and fearless in ways he could never be.
“What would I do without you, my dear?” he said with a glisten to his grey eyes.
His words extended beyond the simple silver tray before him.
She touched his hand softly as he sat to take up his meal.