The Season (Season Series #1)

Chapter 17: Caught in a Lie

The next morning, Ella specifically summoned me to her bedchamber to help her set her hair. I yawned myself awake, looking longingly at the breakfast tray the maid had brought up. Emily tucked in greedily, shooing me to go attend to my cousin.

"Tell me, Libby, where exactly did you go when you said you had a fitting yesterday?" Ella said, once she'd sent Rosanna out of the room to enjoy her breakfast with Emily while I was left to brush her hair. I tried my best to keep my face studiously neutral as I met her gaze in the mirror.

"To the seamstress, of course," I lied. Ella reached back to lay a hand on the brush, pausing my motion as she sighed.

"Edward told me," she said, watching for my reaction in the mirror. I gulped.

"And what was it that my least favourite brother told you?" I asked. This time she turned around to face me in earnest.

"He told me that your family has forbidden you from commissioning or expensing anything else here at the palace," Ella said, "Which is why I find it so odd that you kept your seamstress' fitting yesterday,"

"I haven't ordered anything more," I said, dancing around the truth. Ella pursed her lips.

"I haven't quite finished," she snapped, "Because I was about to say that I'd found it so odd that I'd taken the liberty of sending word down to the seamstress. She didn't recall ever fitting you for a dress since the first night you arrived,"

I felt the color drain from my face as Ella stared at me.

"I was seeing the apprentice," I muttered, knowing full well that it sounded like a lie. Ella sighed once again.

"I will give you one more chance to tell me the truth," she said, "Where exactly did you go yesterday after breakfast?"

I wished I was as quick a thinker as Xavier, but every excuse I dreamed up was less plausible than the last. When too much silence had stretched between us, I inhaled to steel myself.

"I was meeting Lord Amberly in the painting gallery," I said, dancing around the truth that I'd really meant to meet the prince, "He was delivering my tickets to the ballet,"

"Lord Amberly gave you tickets to the ballet?" Ella asked, clearly not at all expecting my reply. Her blue eyes were still wide as she turned away to busy herself with the brushes and ribbons on her vanity table.

"He did," I said, hoping Ella wouldn't probe further. But instead of peppering me with questions, she was staring at her own reflection, her expression utterly unreadable.

"How did-" she started, before we were interrupted by a knock on the door. Rosanna poked her head into the room, keeping the door mostly closed.

"If you're decent, Ella, you have a caller," she whispered with a grin. Ella blinked at her a few times before standing and inspecting herself in the mirror.

"I suppose this will do," she said, tying her long blonde hair back into a knot with the first ribbon she could find. Rosanna ran her eyes over my cousin before she opened the door the whole way.

The brush I'd been holding clattered to the ground as Lord Amberly turned towards us, his hands clasped patiently behind his back.

"Good morning, Ella," he said, without even sparing me a glance, "I'd hoped to ask you to breakfast with me? Unless of course you've already eaten, in which case I'd very much enjoy taking a walk around the gardens with you,"

"A walk would be lovely," Ella said, dipping the slightest of curtseys, "Rosanna, fetch my parasol please. You and Emily may accompany us as chaperones,"