Midnight in Everwood(15)
Marietta sat herself in a wing-backed chair. The emerald velvet was worn but her French cashmere plum tea dress was thick and soft, her legs cosseted by a frothery of petticoats. ‘I was waylaid in my walk in the gardens by Dr Drosselmeier,’ she said, glancing up at Frederick. ‘He gave me a most peculiar feeling. And now I cannot help but wonder who he is and where he came from. Why has he refused to speak on anything that occurred before his arrival in Nottingham?’
Frederick frowned. He leant against the mantelpiece, his brandy alchemised to golden silk by the fire flickering in the grate.
‘How diverting; it has been some time since we’ve had a decent scandal to gossip over,’ Geoffrey said, his gaze soft against Frederick. He reached for the decanter on the walnut side table and poured himself a second snifter. ‘Tell us precisely what occurred and spare no details.’
Marietta relayed the events in the garden back to them. She flushed upon describing how Drosselmeier had caught her hand, trapping her in the conversation. How he had touched her without invitation. The jelly sweets squirmed inside her and she pressed her fingers to her lips.
Frederick rubbed the growing crease between his eyebrows. ‘Seriously, Marietta, you are allowing your imagination to descend into fantasy. Perhaps the man simply values his privacy, which he is well entitled to. He doesn’t owe us an inventory of his personal history; neither does that make him a nefarious character simply for failing to provide one.’
‘I’m telling you, Frederick, there is something about him. As if he is the proverbial wolf clad in sheepskin. I can feel the wrongness gnawing at my bones.’
‘Do you recall when the nanny read us fairy tales before we were put to bed?’ Frederick asked.
Marietta gave him a puzzled look. ‘Yes, what of it?’ Their nanny had been an affectionate older woman with the most beautiful book of bedtime fairy tales. Stories of fairies and elves, water nymphs and sprites, painting the dawn with violet petal-brushes, skimming over rivers on the backs of moths, dancing in the final wink of starlight. Marietta’s dreams had been swollen with longing and she’d embarked on boundless quests to uncover the creatures’ magical world, convinced there was a hidden glittering layer of enchantment buried beneath the dull veneer of everyday life.
Frederick laughed. ‘You became so infatuated with the notion of discovering those elusive fairies at the bottom of our garden that you tore all your hems and dirtied your finest satin slippers searching until Father put a stop to the bedtime stories.’
‘He sat me down and informed me that the stories were eating away my logic,’ Marietta remembered aloud. ‘It wasn’t until sometime later that I came to the realisation that he hadn’t meant literally. All those years I had been imagining the fairy tales nibbling at my mind like a parasite, feasting on old memories and facts as if there was only so much room inside my head.’ She smiled wryly.
‘You do have a tendency to let your imagination roam wild,’ Frederick said in a gentler tone. ‘But Drosselmeier is a decent and clever man; you have no reason to think ill of him.’ He loosened his emerald necktie and sat beside Geoffrey, who rested a hand on his leg. Both men were at ease in Marietta’s company since she had learnt of their relationship and it gladdened her to see evidence of this.
Marietta turned her attention to her brother’s beau. ‘And you, Geoffrey? Do you share Frederick’s opinion?’
‘Sorry, old girl, I do. It sounds rather as if the doctor was trying to muster up the courage for a proposal.’
Frederick held his arms out, a showman seeking recognition. Marietta gave him a cold stare. ‘Do you remember teaching me how to play chess?’
Frederick grinned. ‘Of course. I still maintain I was an excellent teacher; to this day you play like a woman possessed.’
‘Only once I had mastered the strategy of the game. As I sat behind the board for the first time, aware of the myriad pieces and moves at play, you instructed me to follow my instincts. It was the wisest counsel you’ve ever imparted to me.’
‘With such games, yes. You are prone to overthinking. Yet in the ways of men, you are painfully na?ve.’
The betrayal bit deep. ‘In that case, I shall leave you to your libations,’ Marietta said, standing.
‘If he truly intended anything nefarious, I would be the first to spring to your defence, Ets,’ Frederick said, a little gentler. ‘To me it merely sounds as if the man has taken an interest in you. Spare him a little compassion; it is not always easy to be bold on matters of the heart.’
Chapter Nine
‘I don’t suppose you’ve seen Miss Worthers this afternoon, Sally?’
‘You just missed her, miss. She had the carriage take her into town for a spot of shopping.’
Marietta went downstairs. Frederick stood in the hall, fiddling with the silver cufflinks his valet had fixed in his sleeves.
‘Frederick, I don’t suppose you would escort me to ballet? Miss Worthers seems to have forgotten her obligation and I fear I’m going to be terribly late.’
‘Sorry, Ets. You’ve caught me on my way out to reconvene with Geoffrey for a spot of billiards at the club. Why don’t you ask Mother?’
Marietta gave him a look. ‘Are you deliberately being insufferable? You know how Mother feels about ballet. Besides, she’s calling on a friend.’ She had yet to forgive Frederick for calling her painfully na?ve a few days earlier.