The Beginning of the end (WIP)

Chapter 1

Events such as this one normally went on for hours on end, with young ladies and gentlemen sneaking off into the halls trying to be secretive, but their parents knew exactly where they were and when they returned home, would get an hour or so of lectures on how terrible it was to have a reputation, and that they needed to start acting their ages, for they were no longer a young child.

Young boys sneaking drinks off of the trays that revolved around the room. The girls who had just been part of that year's debutante ball, being introduced to some old unmarried man with a large fortune, or young men with no idea how to talk to a person of the female gender.

These things were happened and then the next week or two later there would be another one, and it was a never ending cycle of such things, not letting anything ruin the reputation of the family, not allowing father to talk too much politics, not allowing mother to gossip too much, not allowing Nora to give too many young gentlemen longing looks. These were the interactions that were given to Lorena at every party.

But most of the time her family did none of these things at dances, or balls, or state dinners. Nora gave many longing looks at gentlemen but that couldn't be helped. 

Lorena normally stood next to the wall, careful not to lean on it like she wanted to do so bad, or she'd give them the impression of boredom, like the boys across the room chatting. And boredom was not ladylike, so she watched, she watched everyone and everything, she was the one who saw the waiters and slip a glass of champagne and didn't tell anyone because who was she to tell other people's secrets. She watched her sister glance on and off at the recent boy she was infatuated with, she saw her mother and all the other ladies buzz with gossip over on the other side of the room sipping punch with one hand and lightly fluttering their fans with the other.

Although she tried her hardest to not look bored, it didn't mean that she wasn't, there wasn't really any other girls who she found interesting enough to befriend, and all they did was gossip, they never talked about the things that really mattered. Or even that anyone ever cared about but themselves. Maybe her mother was right, and that she spent too much time reading books, and being by herself. But with books she had something she enjoyed listening to, and spending countless hours in the company of.

No one ever seemed as intellectually stimulating as a history book, or a novel. Except maybe her father, she would listen to him read over the books to her for hours on end, talk about the price of so-and-so in whatever country. But her mother never enjoyed her doing that either.

But her mother probably used to be one of the other girls who talked about dresses and shoes, and she was dainty and carried herself like a delicate flower and she never got freckles and her hair was never sun-bleached. 

Nora was never freckled and tan either. Her skin was a nice ivory, and her hair was long and even toned. Lorena couldn't deny it, she looked stunning with her perfect figure and the delicate way she moved. Nora was no longer a new debutante, her coming out ball was two seasons ago, she had several proposals and men ask for her time, but she simply said that she would think about it. Mother was getting tired of her not deciding, and she had told her that if she hadn't a proposal by the end of this season that she would be gravely ashamed of her. But it seemed that Nora had already set her mind to snatching herself a man before her mother had intervened.

Lorena's own debutante ball had been the previous year, and she slightly understood why Nora had been so indecisive. Not that Lorena had had any men interested in her for a large amount of time. She was introduced to too many to remember, and she honestly didn't care one way or the other whether gentlemen enjoyed her company or not. 

She only had a handful come to her mind at this time, most seemed too boastful, or mother's boys. But that would not really come into a marriage, she knew the chances of having love, actual real love come into her future marriage was one in a million. But every girl seemed to dream about a marriage and a future with love, they never thought of reality.