Chapter 21

The moment LadyGladys grasped one of the poisoned frogs, Bernadette feared for the woman's life. All she knew about the potency of the frogs was what Alden had told her, but that little knowledge rushed to her mind.

"Hurry, Lady Gladys," she said, lunging toward the woman and grabbing her arm. "You must flush the poison from your skin before it can sink deeper into your body."

Lady Gladys was too shocked as she stared at her hand, an expression of pain marring her otherwise handsome features, to resist Bernadette's manhandling.

"The stream," Alden said, joining Bernadette in her attempt to rescue Lady Gladys. "It's the best we have for now. Smythe! Fetch cool, clear water!"

Bernadette had not seen Mr. Smythe enter the terrarium with the rest of them. She did not pause to search for him, trusting that the enterprising young man would do his job, as she maneuvered Lady Gladys to the edge of the manufactured stream.

"There, Lady Gladys," Bernadette said, speaking as she would to a child who had burnt their hand on a stove and did not know how to make themself feel better. "Kneel down and thrust your hand into the water so that we might wash away the poison."

Lady Gladys did as she was bid, nearly falling to her knees. She blinked once, and the importance of washing her hand must have struck her. She thrust her hand into the cool, flowing water, despite the creatures within it, with a wail of pain.

Bernadette worked to swish water over Lady Gladys's hand as the woman began to moan and shake. It was impossible for Bernadette to tell whether the woman's distress was because of whatever pain or effects of the poison she was feeling or whether her anguish was emotional distress.

"It's an abomination," Lady Gladys wailed, but with decreasing strength and volume. "This entire madhouse. It is an abomination."

"Easy, Lady Gladys," Alden said, sinking to Lady Gladys's other side. He took the woman's hand from Bernadette, lifting it from the water to see if progress had been made in flushing the poison. "It looks as though we averted disaster, but we should fetch a doctor to see to this at once. You should stay here at Lyndhurst Grove tonight."

"No!" Lady Gladys said, pulling her hand away from Alden with a wince. "I will not stay here for another moment. You are a madman! I cannot believe that I ever harbored the least bit of affection for you, or that I deigned to believe you would make a worthy husband for me."

Bernadette frowned slightly, shocked by the unfairness of what Lady Gladys said. She stood when Lady Gladys wrenched herself to her feet, as did Alden, but she did not make any attempt to stop or soothe the woman as she went on.

"I want to leave this place at once, never to return again," she shouted, grasping her wrist and holding out her hand, which was shaking. "I might have died, and you would have cared more for the damnable frogs than me!"

"That is not true," Alden said with a frown. He took a step toward her, saying, "Lady Gladys, I must implore you?—"

"No!" Lady Gladys shouted again. "I wish to leave. I must get away from this den of death as swiftly as possible."

"Really," Kat sighed from where she had been watching the scene from the side. "Are these theatrics truly necessary?"

Bernadette sent her friend a censorious look. She was not helping matters.

"I will escort you home, Lady Gladys," Lord Cedric said, stepping forward.

"We both will," Muriel moved in, resting a hand on Lady Gladys's back. "But you must also allow us to send for the doctor."

Lady Gladys made a miserable, keening sound and nodded. She allowed herself to be led towards the terrarium's door, weeping as she went. As much as Bernadette wanted to stop the woman and implore her to stay, at least until a doctor could determine how desperate her injury was, she was glad to see the back of her rival at last.

"Well," Hethersett said, glancing around the terrarium at those who remained. "This is not what I expected to find here in Wessex."

Everything else that had made the evening so shocking flew back to Bernadette. She took a step toward Hethersett and said, "I am so terribly sorry for this strange welcome, my lord."

It felt odd to refer to the man she believed she had had such a close connection with for so long so distantly. Her mind was still grasping the idea that she had never been married to Hethersett, never known the man at all.

"It is I who feel as though I should apologize to you, Lady Bernadette," Hethersett said with a regal nod. "You must be in shock after learning your situation for the last ten years or more has not been what you've believed it to be."

"It is quite a bit to come to terms with," Bernadette admitted. She glanced to Alden, feeling a bit guilty, then back to Hethersett as she said, "I..I have valued our friendship, despite it's odd nature."

She blinked, then glanced to Lady Hethersett, who stood off to one side, her arms around her children, looking deeply anxious.

"But I suppose it has been your friendship that I have valued all this time," she said, glancing one last time at Hethersett and Alden before moving to stand in front of Lady Hethersett. "I should have guessed that my correspondent for all these years was a woman. Your attention to the details of the Norwegian court has always been magnificent."

Lady Hethersett let out a tight laugh of relief, then glanced down. "I have very much enjoyed our friendship as well," she said, then peeked up at Bernadette. "I have not always been accepted at court, even with Harold as my husband. There were times, especially in those early days, when you were my only friend."

"I am both happy that I could have provided that friendship and sad that you felt so isolated," Bernadette said, resting a hand on Lady Hethersett's arm.

"You see, that is why I could not reveal the truth, once I understood what I was doing," Lady Hethersett said. "I…I greatly feared that you would never write to me again, that you would never want anything to do with me. I did not think it would matter, until you wrote to me last month, telling me of your love for Lord Alden."

Both Bernadette and Lady Hethersett glanced back over their shoulders at Alden.

"You wrote of him with such passion and longing," Lady Hethersett went on. "I could not keep up my ruse any longer when I understood that. You deserve to be happy, and I knew the only way that was to happen was if I confessed all to my dearest Harold." She glanced bashfully to Hethersett.

"I do not blame you for wishing to have a friend," Hethersett said. He turned to find Lord Attleborough standing by the side of the small group and said, "I blame the man who perpetrated this falsehood for his own gain."

"I—" Lord Attleborough began to protest, but gave it up at once with a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders. The man knew he was defeated, and giving up without making everything worse was the best he could have done in the moment.

Bernadette stared at her father for a long while in silence. The man had, arguably, destroyed her life. At least, he'd changed the course of her life from what it otherwise could have been, and all for his own gain. But without the misunderstandings of the last ten years, the path of her life never would have led her to Alden.

"I forgive you, Papa," she said quietly. To do anything else would not have felt right.

Everyone else was shocked.

"You would forgive a man who turned your life into a series of lies?" Minerva asked, crossing her arms and staring murderously at Bernadette's father.

"It's quite magnanimous of her, actually," Lord Lawrence said with a proud smile for Bernadette.

Minerva sent him a dubious, sideways look. "That is a decidedly sunny way to view the situation."

Lord Lawrence shrugged. "Is it not better to live life in the sunshine and to assume the best of people than to dwell in gloom and distress all the time?"

Minerva looked as though the man had offered her one of the poison dart frogs as a snack.

Bernadette had to hide the sudden smile that came to her as she watched her friend and Alden's cousin with a cough. The two of them made a fascinating match of opposites.

"Perhaps we should return to the ball to see the rest of the evening through," she said, directing her suggestion to everyone, but mainly to Alden. "Quite a few people are watching us through the window as it is."

Indeed, the glass walls of the terrarium that looked out to the garden were lined with people, all of whom were watching what was taking place inside with particular interest.

"Yes," Alden said with a slightly sheepish look. "We have been the center of attention long enough. It is time to return this ball to its original purpose."

"Which is?" Bernadette asked, smiling as Alden stepped closer to her.

"Finding me a bride," he said, taking her hands.

Bernadette's heart leapt in her chest. She did not know precisely what Alden had in mind, but she let him lead her to the terrarium door and out to the garden once more.

The ball had come to a complete stop as everyone had clustered around the windows of the terrarium to see what was the matter. As Alden and Bernadette, along with their remaining friends, stepped across the lawn to the area of the marquees and dance floor, the guests parted wo let them through. They also leaned in a bit with expectation.

"Well?" Lady Laura asked, her daughter standing just behind her, looking equally curious. "Whatever has transpired?"

"Was Lady Gladys taken ill?" Lady Ursula asked as she stood in a cluster of younger ladies and gentlemen. "It looked as though she collapsed."

"Lady Gladys was unfortunate enough to handle one of the poison dart frogs in the terrarium," Alden said, addressing his guests once he made it to the center of the dance floor. "She has damaged her hand, but is in the care of friends now."

"I knew it," one of the younger ladies, who had kept her distance from Alden throughout the weekend, said. "This place is cursed."

Alden sent Bernadette a wry look. "Is that not what landed us in this predicament in the first place?" he asked. "Believing in curses?"

Bernadette's mouth wobbled into a smile, and she nearly laughed. "Oh, I do not know," she said. "One could argue that the entire thing has been a blessing in disguise."

"That it has," Alden said, taking her hand. He then faced the anxious, curious guests and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Lady Bernadette and I have an announcement to make."

The crowd of guests seemed to hold it's breath for a moment before Lady Wendine squealed, then burst out with, "The two of you are engaged!"

Bernadette's mouth dropped open, and she turned to stare at Alden for a moment, fighting the urge to laugh once more.

Alden gaped back at her, then laughed openly. He turned to Lady Wendine and the rest of the guests and asked, "How did you know?"

All together, the guests let out their breaths and turned to each other, making knowing faces, chuckling, and murmuring.

"It has been obvious from the start that the two of you are very much enamored of one another," Lady Bronwyn said.

"Yes," Lady Avril said, glancing to the young gentleman standing beside her, then looking at Bernadette. "And who else among is us better suited to be Lord Alden's bride than the only woman amongst us who does not run in fear at the very idea of his creatures?"

More of the assembled guests agreed with that.

"But the very purpose of the ball was so that Lord Alden could choose a bride from among Britannia's finest young, marriage-minded ladies," Bernadette said, feeling as if her reputation was on the line in one way or another. "I had no wish to deceive any of you by inviting you all here, then stealing the prize for myself."

"But you did not," Lady Laura said, shrugging slightly. "You invited us all to this lovely, if eccentric, estate for a weekend that has been far more interesting and enjoyable than I would have imagined. You have invited more than enough eligible young men to keep the young ladies entertained."

"And it has been lovely watching you and Lord Alden fall in love," Lady Alyce added with a wistful sign. "It has made me see that I should not settle for the conventional when an unconventional love awaits me."

"Alyce?" Lady Diana, Alyce's mother, asked worriedly from a different part of the dance floor.

Lady Alyce stood taller and turned to find her mother. "I love him, Mama," she declared. "I know he is not suitable, but I love Rupert, and we shall be together."

"You will not," Lady Diana said in shock, starting to push her way through the crowd.

"I must go," Lady Alyce said quickly to Bernadette, then peeled away from the rest of the crowd to dash toward the house.

"I believe my assistance is required," Kat said. She had been standing near Bernadette and Alden, Napoleon in a decorated basket over her arm, but she stepped away and walked swiftly after Lady Alyce.

"Well," Bernadette said breathlessly, glancing up at Alden, barely unable to contain her mirth. "It seems as though this ball has been filled with the unexpected."

"Agreed," Alden laughed. He turned to the guests and asked, "Would anyone else like to declare anything strange or shocking before we continue with the dancing?"

"Yes!" one of the young bucks called out, startling everyone. When he had the crowd's full attention, he said, "I wish to declare that Lady Vera is the prettiest young lady at this ball, and if she will have me, I would like to dance with her."

"No, no," another young gentleman called out. "Lady Wendine is the prettiest of the ladies assembled. If she would like, I should like much more than simply to dance with her."

Bernadette clapped a hand to her mouth, wondering how wicked the young man intended those words to be. Either way, it did not matter. The young gentlemen fell all over themselves to ingratiate themselves to the young ladies present, and as soon as the orchestra began to play once more, a great many couples made their way to the dance, including Bernadette and Alden.

"It would seem your ball is a great success, whether you have used it to choose a bride or not," Bernadette said as she began the first steps of the dance with her beloved.

"It is your ball," Alden said, gazing at her adoringly as they turned a circle around each other. "It always was your ball. If it is a success, it is because of you."

Bernadette blushed, feeling happier than she should have. The steps of the dance broke them apart for a moment, but when they were brought back together, with steps that allowed them to grasp and lock hands, she said, "To be fair, I think it was Lady Gladys that made the ball such a success. She was the one who invited all the young men."

Alden hummed judiciously. "I believe you are right," he said. "It would appear that bad motivations can produce wonderful results."

"Just, I suppose, as good motivations can produce problematic results," Bernadette said, glancing off to the side, where Lord and Lady Hethersett stood.

There was no question in Bernadette's mind that she would forgive Lady Hethersett for her duplicity, even though it had, arguably, kept her from learning the truth about her circumstances for a very long time. She considered the woman a friend and very much looked forward to knowing her better, openly and as a friend.

"You will invite Lord and Lady Hethersett and their children to stay for a bit after the ball, will you not?" Bernadette asked Alden as the dance ended and they were able to have a moment to themselves. "Even though the circumstances surrounding their arrival are awkward?"

"Of course," Alden said, taking both of Bernadette's hands and drawing her behind one of the flower decorations as another dance began. "I will grant you anything you wish, my darling. You have made my life richer and more beautiful just from being in it."

Bernadette smiled bashfully, her entire body pulsing with love. "You have given me more than I ever expected I would have," she told him in return. "And you have opened my eyes to a great many things in this world."

"What, do you mean lizards and snakes and poison frogs?" Alden laughed.

"Yes," Bernadette laughed with him. "But also hope and creativity and a never-ending sense that everything will work out for the best, no matter the obstacles set against us."

"But those are things that you taught me," Alden said, looking surprised. "And they are lessons that I have very much taken to heart."

"It would seem we truly are well-matched, then," Bernadette said, feeling as though everything had turned out exactly the way it should have. She was so confident in her and Alden's love that, despite the ball filled with guests around them, she dared to lift to her toes and kiss Alden scandalously. Let the gossips of the ton say what they would, she had never been so happy.