Page 22 of Duke of Rath

She sat and Mademoiselle kept chatting away, gesturing animatedly, switching into French, and interrupting herself with an apology in English. She combed Patience’s hair, and Patience couldn’t shake the sensation of needles pricking her skin. A stranger, a servant, was tending to her, when all her life the only touch she’d known was that of her sisters or her parents.

She mumbled something at Mademoiselle Antoinette’s suggestions for a hairstyle and accessories for today and sat for what must have been one hour while Mademoiselle created the most elegant chignon at the nape of her neck with soft little curls around her face. The updo was then adorned with jeweled hairpins and a small delicate hairnet made of gold thread.

This was the most beautiful hairstyle Patience had ever had in her life. The feeling of being completely out of her element was like walking on a shaking ground. She couldn’t have felt more out of place.

Then Mademoiselle Antoinette laid out three gowns to choose from.

“Celle-ci,” she said, “the pale blue muslin is light and airy, perfect for a morning walk if you please. This blue brings out your eyes, non? This soft lavender one is elegant yet practical. The mint green linen is fresh and will bring out your youthful skin. It is très chic, very fashionable this season in Paris. All the ladies are wearing this shade.”

Patience looked them over. No seams, no holes, they were pristine. Newly made. All of her previous dresses had been worn by each of her sisters before her. “Where did they come from?”

“Oh, je pense it was Madame Eleanor Buchanan who wanted to give these to you as her wedding present. These were quite cleverly designed to fit most figures since they are sewn without specific measurements, but I’ll adjust them once you try them on.”

Oh, Dorian’s aunt… How thoughtful yet practical of her. She must have foreseen Patience wouldn’t own any gowns suitable for a duchess.

“Alors, which do you prefer, Your Grace?”

“I…I think the blue, perhaps?”

Mademoiselle Antoinette nodded and placed the lavender and the green dress back in the armoire. “Ah, oui, a safe choice! Et vous savez, at the last ball at the Tuileries, everyone was ablaze in such colors. Les robes étaient absolument magnifiques!”

Patience was struggling to keep up. The extent of her French was coming to an end. “I’m sure they were lovely.”

Mademoiselle Antoinette gestured for Patience to raise her arms and when she did that, she pulled her chemise up and over her head. “And the hats! Plumes that touched the sky! Vous devez voir ça—you must try one sometime. Imagine, a feather soaring from a bonnet like a bird in flight!”

Patience could imagine nothing stranger than having a giant feather like a bird on her hat, especially when she stood naked before a woman she had met only yesterday. She wanted to cover herself while Mademoiselle, seemingly unaware of her discomfort, retrieved a fresh chemise. “The…the feathers sound…quite something,” mumbled Patience.

As Mademoiselle Antoinette was about to put the new chemise over her head, Patience stopped her, one arm covering her breasts, the other stretched out for the chemise. “Please, I can do it myself.”

Mademoiselle Antoinette chuckled. “S'il vous plaît, Your Grace! I am here to do this for you. Please, stretch out your arms.”

Patience didn’t have the courage or energy to contradict and simply did as Mademoiselle said.

“Oh, and the gossip, mon Dieu!” she continued as though there was no other care in the world. “Did you hear about Miss Beige and Lord Smist? Scandaleux!”

At least the chemise was on now, soft and white as a cloud and smelling like lavender and soap. Mademoiselle put a corset over Patience’s head and pulled it down to her waist. Patience shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard…”

Mademoiselle Antoinette waved her hand dismissively. “Ah, it is just as well. Better to stay above such things, n’est-ce pas?”

As Mademoiselle laced the corset and then pulled the gown over top of everything, chirping about gossip and events of the London ton, Patience stood tensely wondering how this could be her life.

Several times she was about to open her mouth and say she’d do it herself, but she gave in to the inevitable, knowing Mademoiselle would just say it was her task to dress her.

It was one of the most uncomfortable things she’d ever experienced, having a servant dress her like a doll!

Her mind, completely disinterested in gossip, drifted to her roses. How had the bushes survived the travel? She had dug the best ones out, tied the root system along with some soil in pieces of canvas, and transported them here with her meager sack of clothes and her botanical journals. Now they stood somewhere in the household buildings, and the duke wouldn’t even allow her to use the garden. What would become of them?

“Voilà!” exclaimed Mademoiselle Antoinette as she stepped away from Patience, looking her over.

And when Patience looked into the mirror for the first time, she didn’t recognize herself. Never in her life had she worn such a beautiful gown or such an elaborate hairstyle. This was how she was supposed to look yesterday for her wedding to a duke. This Patience, in a gown that made her eyes shimmer and her hair shine like spun gold, looked like she belonged to the right of the nave, with her husband’s guests, the dukes and the duchesses and lords and ladies.

But inside, she couldn’t feel any less like one.

Patience had never felt so alone in her entire life as she felt in Rath Hall over the next few days.

Confined to her quarters by the first of her husband’s rules, she had looked through every corner of her part of the house. Her quarters consisted of her bedroom, a dressing room directly adjacent to it, two additional bedrooms for guests, a sitting room downstairs where she could receive visitors, her own dining room, and a drawing room where she could write her correspondence, draw, embroider, read, or play a pianoforte.

The combined area was at least three times larger than Rose Cottage. She had shared that tiny house with seven other people, and now she was all alone in this vast space.