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The next day Laurel came down stairs and saw a few of Aunt Iris' friends but in the afternoon she adjourned back to her room and she did not feel well enough to go to Uncle Charles' and Aunt Iris' dinner party. Aunt Iris did not feel comfortable leaving Laurel alone so Emmy was attended to party by Mr. Dumont. Mr. Dumont was not the most sociable person so people were a bit surprised to see him without his wife but accepted him just the same. Emmy apologized to host and hostess for the change of plans. Uncle Charles paid no mind and Aunt Victoria was sorry she didn't know of her niece's sickness, when she said this she almost had a look of remorse so Emmy believed her. The when she was out of the receiving line she looked around and realized besides Mr. Dumont she knew no one in the room. She recognized some of them from the wedding but could not think of the names to go with the faces so she didn't feel comfortable approaching anyone. She saw Caleb standing in the corner talking to another group of men, she caught his glance for a bit and smiled. He smiled back but then coldly returned to his conversation.
"Miss Emmy," it was Mr. Foster.
"Mr. Foster, I did not know you would be
here."
"Your aunt was kind enough to invite me. She
needed a seat filler," he giggled a bit.
"Aw for me it was a family
obligation."
"Where is your family?"
"Mr. Dumont has been pulled in with the
other married men. Laurel was not feeling well enough to come and Mrs. Dumont
stayed home with her."
"Miss Cromwell is sick?"
"A slight fever, the doctor said she would
be fine."
"You called a doctor?"
"Yes Mr. Foster but like I said, he said she
will be fine she just needs rest."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, he is coming back next week to check
up on her but Dr. Clark has been Mr. and Mrs. Dumont's physical for years he is
completely trustworthy." Emmy saw Ethan's face change to worry over this
conversation she lightly touched his arm. "If you want Mr. Foster, I can send
word when Dr. Clark comes back."
"Yes Miss Emmy that will be nice."
"Now, Laurel told me for me not to be
worried about her and told me to have a good time, I suggest you to do the
same."
"Of course, I cannot having you go back to
your sister with a bad report and since Mr. Dumont is preoccupied it is up to me
show you off. Come on we can be second string invites together." Mr. Foster then
stuck out his arm so he could escort her around.
"Thank you Mr. Foster," Emmy smiled one of
her sweet smiles.
When they were at Pine Haven she saw Mr.
Foster as a quiet and reserved man almost to the point of boredom and could
never figure out why Laurel liked him. Though after few minutes with him she saw
a soft side of him that was very caring and he made her laugh more than once
through the night the night with his little jokes. And he did his job of showing
her off to all her the best of society.
Eventually Aunt Victoria came up them. "My
dear Mr. Foster, thank you so kind for entertaining my niece. Now Emmy tell me
all about Laurel," she took her arm and started to pull her away.
"Mr. Foster please find me after dinner,"
Emmy said before she could get away.
"Yes Miss Emmy."
When they were out of hearing range Aunt
Victoria gave her real reason for pulling Emmy away. "Be careful Emmy dear,
people are whispering."
"Whispering about what?"
"You and Mr. Foster, what else?"
"What else indeed, he is a good friend of
the family."
"Yes everyone knows his connection to your
family. Sitting with you at church, spending the day at your house and now you
guys are joined at the hip."
"What? You must be joking."
"We all thought it was your older sister he
admired but now you are raising questions and I must say it is quite unbecoming
for a young lady especially a young lady being just presented into society. You
cannot chance ruining your good reputation before you have one."
"Aunt Victoria, I think you are worrying too
much. I do not have any intentions towards Mr. Foster as far as I am concerned
he and Laurel are meant to be together."
"Then behave better."
"Yes aunt," Emmy said as the dinner gong
rung.
Mr. Dumont was good for being at her side
two seconds later to escort her into dinner. He apologized for leaving her alone
but Emmy told him it was alright. He either didn't hear the whispers going
around or he did not care, both of those reasons made sense for Emmy and she was
glad he didn't have any time to ask her follow up questions.
Though Emmy felt like a second string
invite, she got a high seat of honor sitting at the right hand of her aunt. It
was only correct that Emmy be giving a high spot of honor, after all she was the
niece of the host and hostess but it was nice recognition. She might have had a
high seat of honor, her aunt paid little attention to her and Emmy's other
dinner partner was Reverend Cole, who was at least a hundred and had no interest
in speaking. She looked diagonally across the table and saw Mr. Foster who sat
three seats away Mr. Foster who sat three seats away from her on the opposite
side allowing no conversation to happen but he smiled at her then rolled his
eyes at the conversation his dinner partners were having. Both girls looked
like persnickety girls that cared more about
the fashion of the party than having an actual intelligent conversation.
"Why would he be so sweet to me and be so
concerned about Laurel if he was engaged to another girl. No it could not be
right Caleb must have been wrong," Emmy thought.
"Well cousin, you are getting some
whispering about, I hope you are proud of yourself," Julia said after dinner
when the men and women separated.
"All the whispering is ridiculous, I have no
attentions towards Mr. Foster as I told your mother."
"I hope not you would not want to crush her
sister's heart."
"I have no attentions."
"You are such a good, sweet, innocent girl
and way too idealistic."
"Thank you cousin."
"It will not do at all if you plan to stay
in Boston. Everyone know to survive in the real world you must be sweet and
innocent on the outside and cunning on the inside."
"Perhaps then I don't belong in
Boston."
"Perhaps not."
"But while I am here I will learn from your
ways and then all the men will want me."
The words could be sweet but the tone was
far from anything sweet. Emmy could not tell you what it was about her cousin
that brought out the worst in her. She used to love her cousin but after this
summer she saw her cousin as a manipulative person always looking for trouble.
Emmy thought her cousin would be great as a Shakespeare villain, much in the
vein of Iago from Othello.
After Emmy and Julia exchanged their
pleasantries the men returned to their women. No one could miss what happened
next Caleb nodded to Julia when he came in the room and she cut through the
party to him. Uncle Charles then clinked his glass calling the attention to him
"If my wife could join me, we have some
pleasant news to announce," Aunt Victoria joined him in no time. "We kept it
quiet till our eldest, Nicholas, was married bit now we are pleased to announce
our daughter Julia will be marrying Mr. Caleb James."
The room began spinning for Emmy. All the
claps and clinks of glasses blurred together and she felt her knees go weak. Her
vision then got hazy and then she was gone. The next thing she knew she woke up
in one of aunt's guest room.
She had collapsed, and unlike Laurel who gained
consciousness right away Emmy stayed out while Mr. Foster picked her up and at
Aunt Victoria's insistence carried her up to a guest room. Then he was ushered
out of the room so the maids could take off her dress and loosen her corset. Of
course they thought it was her corsets pulled too tight, it was frequent for
girls to lose breath with their corsets pulled too tight even with the more
natural form styles that were in fashion.
Little did they know Ethan Foster paced in
the hall outside of Miss Emmy's door till he heard that she was alright. Mr.
Dumont was there too but he just leaned against the wall not saying much.
"How is she doing Mrs. Danford?" Ethan asked
she came out of the room.
"She is awake now."
"Good, then I think should order my motor
coach and we can bring her down when it arrives," Mr. Dumont said calmly.
"I do not think that is a good idea, I would
not want to upset her, I think she should spend the night her. We will send word
after breakfast if she is up to leaving," Mrs. Danford said.
Before Ethan could say he agreed Julia was
at the top of the stairs.
"Mother, come quickly the guest are talking
about leaving. This is my night and I will not let Emmy is fainting ruin it,"
Julia had her temper fit tone.
"Alright, darling, alright I will be right
down."
"No mother, I need you now or else this
whole night will be ruined."
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This is left the gentlemen alone.
"Mr. Foster thank you for being so concerned
over Miss Emmy, I am sure my wife will want to express her thanks as well, they
meant the world to her. When she is home please come by."
"Thank you Mr. Dumont. Please send her my
regards and give Miss Cromwell all my best wishes for her to feel better
soon."
" I will. I'd better be off, I am sure by
now Mrs. Dumont would have received word of Miss Emmy and I will have to calm
her down."
Both Mr. Dumont and Ethan Foster snuck out
of the party. Mr. Dumont did it quickly after saying his farewell to Ethan but
Ethan stayed a bit, he could not leave the house thinking any second he could be
needed to fetch a doctor, or send word to the Dumonts, or really anything. Then
Mr. Danford came up stairs a little sloshed from the festivities below. Mr.
Danford was usually the first one to turn in, he stat it was because he had
business to attend to but in reality he was either too bored or too drunk or
both to be in a party mood.
"Go on son, go on home, we will notify you
right away if she gets worse," was all he said when he passed by Ethan Foster in
the hall.
"Yes sir."
Then Ethan slipped out. It was warm October
night which was uncommon for how late in the season it was. The summer air had
disappeared but there was still a sense of warmth that lingered. Because of this
walk home. The Danfords lived near Berkley on Commonwealth and he lived near
Dartmouth on Marlborough, it would not be worth hassle of ordering his
automobile for the five blocks. Plus his thoughts were preoccupied and he needed
the walk to clear his them out. They should have been on Miss Emmy after all she
was the one that fainted, but Laurel was stuck in his brain. He pretended not to
hear the whispers at the party as a man it was easier to ignore idle gossip. He
had though, everyone snickering at his behavior to Emmy calling them suitors and
making other false accusations. How would he ever be able to explain it to
Laurel? She had seem so cold the other to him and now this would not help her
thoughts of him. He thought he could put it all behind him, he never should have
sent her the book, it would just give her hope and he could not lead on like
that. The news of his engagement would crush her.
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