A Season of Masks and Masquerades

Chapter 46: The City of Scandals

London is, without a speck of dust, the city of gossip and scandals. It forever has been. The dismay of those victimized by the lies, or truths sometimes, most of the times in fact, that the most witless very foolishly get involved in but never succeed in keeping confidential, is what Londoners savour.

Confidential doesn't happen in London, it never did.

This knowledge was, of course, no news for anyone born and bought up in the city, that however still did no good in helping them, Esther for instance, avoid getting involved in the juiciest gossip one season or the other.

However, for someone visiting London, and during the season, there was one unwritten rule to avoid becoming the feast of the ton and it was to avoid gatherings, any and all.

The Duke of Dales, in that matter, came quite prepared at the onset of the season. With Lawrence pushed to take his stead in the ton, he was supposed to ride the safer horse behind his well-carved masquerade however, quite a dramatic turn of events caused him to fall into a storm he could have never imagined to be a part of yet, couldn't seem to exit even when shown the way to the door more than once. That however is beyond the point. 

The more important lesson is that for anyone visiting London in the scandalously romantic 1800s, there were but two roles to pick from. 

One, the gossip.

Two, the one holding the reins of the said gossip.

The latter, of course, was always the safer option but Juliette Frampton was never the one for safety. The former, however, made one the talk of the town which she now was.

With an image of the tartiest debutante that she had very successfully retained throughout the season, she was known for pushing herself on every rich man she put her eyes on. But that was only obvious and a very usual behaviour for most debutantes.

However, getting involved with the most well-known Don Juan such as Cornelius Valentine, dearly known as Reuben, was clearly not the most decent move. Stories were deemed to fly. After all, he only ever kept women around him for one reason and to speak of which in the same sentence as of a young debutante was what you would call the gossip of the season.

It was fortunate the Framptons were not socially important enough to make it to the centre of noble gossip, the Sherborne however were more than.

Hence when Juliette decided to speak of Esther Sherborne herself as she was being dragged out of the hall by Rebecca Valentine, it was nothing short of the biggest goodbye gift she could give the ton.

"Oh, I heard Lord Valentine used one of the Miss Framptons to get information on Miss Sherborne!" An excited voice hissed as Esther walked past a bunch of giggling and evidently happy ladies.

"Ah, I heard he is in love with Miss Sherbourne! Isn't he a friend of the Duke's? Her fiancé!" Another replied with not one hint of sympathy.

"Indeed!" Someone added and Esther could swear she heard excited tapping of the foot. "No, yes! I think it was the youngest Miss Frampton. How old is she even, twelve?" Hilarious laughter was ceremonial after that comment although Esther did not seem to find any humour in any of that. She smashed her fan on the little table the women were surrounding and their faces went pale like they had gotten the plague.

"Miss Sherborne!" One of them managed a curtsy. Esther only glared at the bunch for some small moments before resuming on her trail that seemed to end at Rebecca Valentine who apparently was busy tasting pie.

Lady Sherbourne, owing to her old age and dignified composure, was several steps behind her which made it obvious that she was about to fail in her attempt of preventing her daughter from getting in, what was about to be a scandal so spicy, that it would still be on the noble tongues when they return for the next season.