E is for Elena

1 This Will Not Do

I felt the familiar sweep of satin around my ankles as I stormed from the hall, following my mother up the stairs as I shouted at her back. She did not turn around at my assault but I saw the muscles in her neck tense in anger all the same. Not that it mattered. Words were all I had. Words were my only weapon. Her arsenal was far better equipped and it came in the form of the man we were stomping towards now.

"That is enough, Elena!" she shouted as we reached the landing at the top of the stairs and she spun towards my father's office. "I told you once and I'll tell you again. This will not do!"

"Mother, you aren't listening!" I called back. I wasn't wrong. She never did. And she did not break pattern now as she pushed through the mahogany door to the robust office on the other side. My father looked up slightly from his desk, only peering at us over the top of his glasses as we thundered inside, my mother still bellowing and me red faced and furious. Rather than bluster on about what the meaning of all this interruption was as most fathers perhaps would have, Edward Langley simply leaned back in his chair and raised a brow to show his displeasure.

"Edward," my mother barked in that familiar tone as she stood to face him, coming to a stop in front of his desk with both hands on her hips. "I've just gotten word that Katherine Morris is being announced this season."

My father blinked at my mother as if waiting for further information. Upon finding that no more was to come, he turned to me hoping for some sort of explanation. I only rolled my eyes and crossed my arms at my chest. This was my mother's tantrum. I would let her have it and I wouldn't assist her in doing so.

"I see," he said slowly, buying himself some much needed time to understand. It wasn't enough. "And?"

"And?" my mother exploded with incredulity. "And we were supposed to announce Elena this season!"

She gestured toward me and my father's gaze fell to mine once more.

"But now... we can't?" he asked. I thought my mother would burst.

"Of course not!" she screeched. "It was all settled, Edward! Elena was to be announced this season and would have been declared the most beautiful of all the eligible young ladies. But now that wretched Mrs. Morris has announced her daughter will debut and Katherine could take that title straight out of Elena's hands! You know how important it is to be set apart from the rest, Edward. You know how important it is for our daughter to be distinguished. She must be declared the most beautiful of the year or she will never find a suitable enough husband."

I rolled my eyes once more at the dramatics coming from my mother and waited as my father looked between us, lips parting in surprise as he processed this petty new information.

"Leah..." he started but my mother wasn't having it. Her jaw tensed as she stood up straighter, prepared to hold her ground.

"Don't you dare, Edward," she warned. "We agreed that the matter of the children's social engagements were entirely my affair. And this is my opinion."

Her tone hinted at a sense of finality, that she would hear no argument. My father heard it but looked to me all the same. His expression softened when he recognized the expression on my face as one of anger.

"And I suppose," he began, still watching me, "that you disagree with your mother's assessment or the two of you would not have come in shouting at one another?"

"I do," I answered, holding my head high in defiance. I saw my mother shaking her head out of the corner of my eye but I plunged ahead all the same. "It isn't fair, father. I've been preparing for my debut all my life. Mother knows I'm ready. It's why she agreed to announce me this season in the first place. I don't have to be the prettiest or the kindest or the richest. I just have to find a husband. To deny me that chance simply because Katherine Morris has a more symmetrical face-"