The Emerald Viscountess

~20~

"Where are you off to?" Eleanora asked, catching up to Eloise in the halls.

"A letter arrived for Benedict," she said, holding up the envelope in her hand. "I was going to go give it to him."

"Let me join you," Eleanora offered, intertwining her arm with Eloise's. "I need some sort of distraction after that toast from dinner."

In silence, the two entered Benedict's room, finding the brother hugging Colin, who was vocally objecting against the affection.

"A letter arrived for you, Benedict," Eloise announced, walking into the room. "It's from London."

Benedict snatched the letter from his sister, opening it up and muttering to himself as he read it. He looked up at everyone else in the room. "I have a place." He started tearing up, a smile growing on his face. "The Royal Schools have accepted me as a student!"

"That's fantastic!" Eleanora beamed, before finding herself in an embrace by the new Royal Schools student.

"I got in!" he yelled out, picking up and spinning Eleanora around, much to her surprise. Even more to her surprise, he planted a kiss to her cheek before doing the same to Eloise.

"I thought they were not the arbitors of taste?" Colin asked calmly.

"They must see great promise in my work!" Benedict exclaimed, letting go of Eloise and throwing the letter down on the ground. He ran to the window, opening it up before sticking the top half of his body out into the night air. "You shall all bear witness to my talents!" he screamed out, making Eloise and Eleanora exchange equally confused expressions.

"It is the middle of the night!" Colin hissed, pulling Benedict back inside.

"And I believe that is my cue to turn in for the night," Eleanora said, barely registering what just happened in the last three minutes or so. "I bid you all good night."

~~~

Eleanora found the morning the most perfect opportunity to admire the gardens that lined Aubrey Hall, to study the flowers that gave the residence its personality. And also to possibly find any tulips.

Anthony quietly approached Eleanora, who was busy knelt down in front of the flowers, watching her as she pushed a flyaway hair out of her face from a sudden breeze.

"Nora," he called, hands behind his back as he walked up to her.

"Anthony!" she said, standing up as she straightened out her dress. "The flowers are lovely-"

"Is Miss Edwina okay?" Anthony interrupted.

"Well, how should I know?" she retorted, expression suddenly bitter.

Eleanora was hoping to spend some unexpected quality time with Anthony as soon as she saw him walk over, but his clear intention for initiating conversation was to talk about Miss Edwina.

"You have been conversing with Miss Sharma and Miss Edwina, have you not?"

"Yes, but if you wanted to know of Miss Edwina, why don't you gather the courage to ask Miss Sharma yourself?" Eleanora averted her eyes from the viscount. She knelt down once more, and smelled the flowers with her eyes closed in contentment. "Besides, how would you think a woman is feeling after a man invites her to stay with his family, prompts a toast into seeming like a proposal, before doing a complete turn around and making it about pall mall?"

"I felt nervous in the moment!" Anthony defended. "I backed out of the proposal . . . I don't know why. I didn't meant to disappoint her last night when I did not declare myself."