Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

“ G ood morning!” Lady Burton said, walking into the breakfast room the next day, her hands clasped in front of her. “Who is ready to decorate?”

It seemed this was when and where she presented the day’s itinerary.

The buffet spread that covered the table at the side of the room was likely enough to feed an entire village, and Noelle had wondered just what to expect for the day ahead as there was always something extravagant planned at Lady Burton’s house parties. It seemed she was about to find out.

“As you have all noticed, we have decorated the manor with the most beautiful evergreen trees. I am sure that if our queen visited, she and her husband would be most delighted!”

Lady Burton clapped her hands together eagerly, and Noelle wondered whether she truly thought there was a chance that Queen Victoria might deem their house party grand enough to visit.

“Have they left any for the forest?” Cooper murmured beside her, hiding his question as he brought his coffee to his lips, causing a laugh to bubble out of Noelle, one she had to cough to cover.

Lady Burton shot them an arched eyebrow that told them she was not amused, even if she hadn’t heard his barb.

“We have a selection of decorations for you, including cranberry garlands, fruits, nuts, and baked cookies already strung. In the drawing room, we also set out paper and fabric if you want to make your own stars or angels!”

Noelle felt Cooper would not be altogether pleased about spending his day crafting, but it seemed he had learned his lesson for now and didn’t have any more comments.

He carried a cup of coffee with him and followed Noelle out of the breakfast room and toward the drawing room. Noelle scanned the guests to determine who she could help Cooper become more familiar with.

Spying the Rochester twins, Noelle strategically chose a seat beside them, although both gentlemen were currently focused on Lady Crupley and her daughter, Brighton. She was a beauty and enjoyed flirtations, but Noelle had never known her to be serious about any gentlemen, despite her mother’s intentions. Noelle picked up some of the fabric on the table before her, passing some over to Cooper, who accepted it but laid it on his leg, apparently having no intentions of doing any of the work.

“Lord Rochester?” she said, momentarily unsure which one was the elder, for they were nearly identical.

“Yes?” one of them turned to her, and she smiled.

“It is so lovely to see you here. It has been a time, has it not?”

“It certainly has, Lady Noelle,” he said with a grin, his eyes crinkling in the corners. Noelle wasn’t sure that either of the twins had ever spoken much more than a sentence at a time of a serious matter. They were far more interested in the next prank they were about to play.

“I wonder,” she said, leaning forward as the other, Lord Andrew, seemed interested enough to join their conversation for the moment. “Have you planned your great prank for this year’s house party?”

“Prank!” Lord Rochester exclaimed, placing a hand on his chest as though she had seriously wounded his character. “You believe that my brother and I would carry out a prank ?”

She rolled her eyes as she placed a hand on Cooper’s knee.

“I told my fiancé about what you did last time I attended a party here at Burton Manor, but he wouldn’t believe me. Perhaps you could tell him, for you are a much more adept storyteller.”

The twins leaned forward, eyeing Cooper as though deeming whether he would be worthy.

“Lord Rochester and Lord Andrew, this is Mr. Hartwell,” she said, squeezing his knee, and his lips curled up as though she had instructed them to at her touch. “I believe he would be a kindred soul, interested in learning more about your most inspired ideas.”

“It is true,” Cooper said with a nod. “I once devised a trick in which I created a large wire spider that I attached by thread to the back of a friend’s shirt. By the time he realized that the spider only ran as fast as he did, we’d all had quite the laugh about it.”

The twins exchanged a look with one another that allowed them some communication, for they both turned to Cooper as one and extended their hands.

“An excellent prank!” Lord Rochester said before Lord Andrew added, “Much admired!”

“Thank you,” Cooper said modestly, crossing one leg over his other knee.

“Of course we are happy to tell you about last year,” Lord Andrew said, leaning around his brother to better see Noelle and Cooper. Noelle leaned back into the sofa at Cooper’s side as she began to work on stitching the fabric of her craft together, creating a small heart decoration while the men continued their discussion.

“Lord Burton loves his newspapers, as do most of the men, of course,” Lord Andrew began, Lord Rochester, nodding his head, approving his brother’s storytelling. The two began to trade sentences back and forth so quickly that Noelle found it challenging to keep track of who was saying what, for the two men spoke in such a way they were like one speaker.

“Before we left London, we wrote an entire newspaper about Lord and Lady Burton, their house party, and their guests and had a few copies printed.”

“A few days into the Christmastide house party, we pilfered the real newspapers of the day from the butler and replaced them with ours.”

“You can imagine Lord Burton’s outrage when he began to read!”

The two men began to laugh, and Noelle couldn’t help but smile as she remembered it. It had been a rather ingenious prank.

Cooper commended them, and the three began to trade stories back and forth. Noelle congratulated herself on another successful introduction. Still one deal to make and three weeks to do it. She wasn’t sure how the Rochesters would be able to help him, but she supposed Lord Rochester might someday decide to do his duty and attend the House of Lords.

Or perhaps Cooper could invest in a prank store.

Soon enough, Lord Andrew’s attention had returned to Lady Crupley’s daughter, and Noelle had fashioned her heart ornament. She looked at Cooper’s hands to find the fabric still lying there.

“Your decoration leaves much to be desired,” she said wryly, and he passed the fabric to her.

“I am not exactly a ‘decoration’ type of man.”

“So it would seem,” she said before passing him her heart and fashioning a second out of his fabric. “I’ll finish this, and then we can add a few things to a tree. Perhaps we will meet someone I can introduce you to while we walk there.”

“Are any of these men influential?”

“Any of them with a title are. Even the men you just met on a substantial piece of land in Devon,” she said. “You have never encountered any others in your business dealings?”

He shook his head, his jaw tight. “Not most of them, no. Most in this group of people stay far away from the likes of me.”

“I see,” she said quietly. “Hopefully this opportunity will change their minds.”

When she finished, they stood together, deciding to go to the ballroom, where many trees stood.

“This is an odd tradition,” Cooper mused, “cutting down trees to bring them inside to serve no purpose other than to stand in decoration.”

“I agree,” she said. “They have become quite the fashion among the nobility over the past few years now that Queen Victoria has made them popular. But they do smell beautiful and usher in a sense of the Christmas season. Lady Burton was one of the first to adopt the tradition.”

“I feel Lady Burton would do anything that became in fashion, especially if the queen decreed it so.”

“You are not wrong about that.”

Four evergreens of various sizes stood in one corner of the ballroom. Lady Burton's actions were extreme, whether it was the number of parties and houseguests she invited, the courses she served for dinner, or the trees she cut down from their estate and brought indoors for Christmas.

They walked together to the front row of trees, and they saw a few of the other guests beginning to wander into the ballroom.

Noelle hung her heart on a tree, and Cooper hung his beside it. Noelle paused, noting the matching pair side by side.

“Well, if anyone happens by, they will certainly believe that we are together,” Cooper said with a smile for her, and Noelle felt her real heart twitch unexpectedly.

Of course, his words were nothing more than a quip about their deal. Yet somehow, it hurt that he was so flippant about it.

Because they weren’t together. Not now or ever.

“Did you discover anything about the lock last night?” Noelle asked in a low voice, needing to change the subject for herself.

“No,” Cooper shook his head. “I asked the butler, however, and he said there was no reason for the door to have been locked before all of the guests were abed.”

“So, it was purposeful.”

“Apparently.”

She looked at Northbridge, who walked by with a glare for both of them.

“Do you think it was him?” she whispered, and Cooper shrugged.

“He seems vindictive, and there was a discussion of consequence among the gentlemen last night. Perhaps there was something they wanted to keep me away from.”

“I could ask my father.”

“Don’t,” Cooper shook his head. “He and I are just becoming friendly. Wouldn’t want my future father-in-law not to trust me for any reason.”

She eyed him out of the corner of her eye. “He’s not your future father-in-law.”

“He doesn’t know that – and neither does anyone else at this house party.”

He smiled broadly at Lord Northbridge, who walked by with a smiling Hattie on his arm, her sister, Hermione, following with a smirk as she chatted to Lady Jennifer, Lord Northbridge’s sister.

“Northbridge, how are you this morning?”

Lord Northbridge bristled, Cooper’s intentions hitting their mark.

“It is Lord Northbridge.”

“Ah, yes, my apologies. I forgot.”

Cooper’s grin was so large, and Lord Northbridge’s ire grew so intense that Noelle couldn’t help but diffuse the situation.

“Hattie, what decorations have you chosen?”

“My mother had some gilded decorations that I’d like to place on the trees,” Hattie said shyly, even while Lord Northbridge seemed bored by the entire situation. “Lord Northbridge was kind enough to accompany me. Us,” she added with a look back at Hermione.

“You could place them by our hearts,” Noelle said, pointing to the tree beside them.

“How lovely,” Hattie beamed. “You have always been so adept with a needle and thread, Noelle.”

“Thanks to my mother,” she said, noting then that Cooper and Lord Northbridge were eyeing one another with undisguised animosity.

“Well, I suppose we shall see you later tonight.”

“Of course,” Hattie said. “My mother will have another lavish dinner prepared. We are to dance tonight among these trees.”

“We look forward to it,” Noelle said, wrapping her hands around Cooper’s elbow as she nudged him forward.

“Embarrassed of me?” he said wryly.

“Not at all,” she said, shaking her head. “I just thought to avoid a brawl in the middle of Lady Burton’s ballroom.”

“Never,” he scoffed, even though he looked away from her, proving she was right.

“You do like to provoke him.”

“I can’t stand assholes like that.”

“Fair. But you wanted to be here. You don’t have much choice.”

“Perhaps not,” he murmured before repeating, “perhaps not.”