Tamed Love

December 25th 1816

The coach stops in the yard of the Dukes’ of Salshbury house, one of the biggest houses in Bath. There are hundreds of coaches stopped in front of the huge house. Thus, we have to get out of the carriage and walk to the entrance.

“How many people the Duke and the Duchess have invited? I have the impression the whole Bath is here!” my uncle, Albert Worne, exclaims.

“You know very well, my dear, that Duke’s parties are the most well-known and the most successful!” Beatrice, his wife, replies.

Apparently, the Duke likes parties. Certainly, he does not hesitate to spend money to entertain his guests. The house outside is decorated with golden ribbons and rosemary. Mistletoe is hung on the entry door.

We enter the house and leave our coats to the maids. Outside is very cold despite the absence of snow. Inside the temperature is warm. We enter the ballroom where they announce our entry. Some guests are looking at us without interest, but most of them don’t even glimpse at us. Quite normal, as we are not having any title and are not considered rich either.

My uncle is the secretary of the Duke. That’s the reason why we are invited to this party. Concerning me, I am an orphan whose father was an officer to the Majesty of the King serving in the Empire’s Consulate in Salonika, one of the biggest trading ports of the Ottoman Empire.

We walk and head to the Duke’s company to present him our wishes for Christmas and thank him for the invitation. Aunt Beatrice told me earlier this is a good occasion for me to be presented to the English society and maybe attract the attention of the young gentlemen.

I don’t believe I will attract their attention, as I am dressed in a black velvet dress that covers all my chest and it is buttoned until my neck. After all, I am still mourning. Certainly, I will not attract their intention for marriage. Without a dot, I hardly believe I will ever find someone wanting me to marry.

So, my other option is to find a place to work, either as a governess or secretary or companion lady for an older lady. I could not stay forever in my uncle’s house. This is what I was informed when I first entered their house, six months ago.

“My Grace!” my uncle salutes the Duke and he slightly bows in front of him. My aunt courtsies the Duke.

“Mr and Mrs Worne”, the Duke greets my uncle and my aunt.

Uncle Albert continues, “My Grace, please permit me to wish you and your beloved Duchess Merry Christmas and also to thank you for inviting us to your Christmas dinner party”.

“You’re welcome, Albert”, the Duke kindly replies.

Right then my uncle presents me to the Duke, “My Grace, please may I introduce you to my niece, Amelia Worne. She is my brother’s daughter”.

“Miss Worne”, the Duke says and I courtsey in front of him.

“It is an honour to meet you, my Grace”.

“So, this is the young girl who came from the Ottoman Empire!” the Duke studies me carefully.

“Yes, my Grace!” uncle Albert confirms.

“Well, you should find my wife. She is very curious to meet you. She has many questions to ask you concerning the exotic country you are coming from”, the Duke suggests.

“I will be glad to answer all her questions, my Grace”, I politely reply.

Honestly, I do not have any envy to reply to any questions about the place I have been raised, which I consider my hometown. I have lived there since the age of five. So, yes, I consider it my hometown and am not happy at all I had to return to England.

The Duke is looking around at the ballroom and says pointing to one direction on his right, “Oh, there she is! She is talking with Lady Clifford and her niece and the Countess of Richmond”.

“Thank you, my Grace! We are going right away”, my aunt replies in a hurry.

We courtesy again the Duke and leave him. My aunt pushes me in the Duchess’s direction. When we arrive in front of the female group I hear the Duchess greeting my aunt.

“Oh, Mrs Worne, my dear! How do you do? “.

“My Grace!” we both say and courtsey to her.

She is stunning in her red muslin dress with golden embroidery!

“Very well my Grace, thank you. Please permit me to present you our best wishes for Christmas and also to thank you for inviting us tonight”, my aunt says to the Duchess.

“Thank you, Mrs Worne! And who is this young lady who accompanies you tonight? Is it your niece?” the Duchess curiously asks my aunt while observing me from head to toe.

“Yes, my Grace! She is my niece, Amelia, the one who came from Salonika”, Aunt Beatrice replies smilingly at her.

“Oh, wonderful! I have so many questions to ask you! But first, let me introduce you to my company. Here is Lady Anne Belford, Countess of Richmond”, the Duchess joyfully shows on her right a mid-aged lady with blond hair and a red velvet dress.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my Grace”, I say to her with a courtsey.

“Nice to meet you too”, she politely replies.

Then, the Duchess of Salshbury continues, “And here is Lady Tabitha Clifford and her niece, Lady Beth Clifford, aunt and sister of the Earl of Perristone”.

I courtsey them, “Nice to meet you, my Ladies”.

They reply with a smile, “Nice to meet you too!“.

The old Lady Clifford has white hair and blue eyes. She is wearing a golden dress with black muslin and golden embroidery. The young Lady Clifford is a very beautiful young Lady with blond hair and sparkling green eyes. She is wearing a white silk dress embroidered with small pink roses. All the four Ladies wear magnificent jewels with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. The only jewels I wear are a set of pearl drops, a pearl necklace and bracelet and a silver ring with a diamond belonging to my mother. All the other jewels she had, have been passed as part of her heritage to my uncle.

“When you came back from the Ottoman Empire?” the Countess curiously asks me.

“Six months ago, my Lady, after the death of my father”.

“Oh, I am so sorry to hear it. My condolences!” she replies and the other Ladies join her in the condolences.

“Thank you”, I reply to all of them.

“So, tell me how it was there? How long have you stayed in Salonika?” the Duchess continues asking me with curiosity.

“Well, I arrived in Salonika when I was five years old, my Grace. After the death of my mother, my father decided that a change would be good for both of us. So, he accepted the offer they had made him, join the service of the Consulate there as an officer treating all trade deals for the Consul”.

I continue, “It was really nice! The climate is very hot during summer and during winter it is quite warm. Nevertheless, from time to time, there is a strong icy wind that comes from the North which makes you freeze”.

“The population? The food? How was it?” the Duchess asks me, wanting to know more.

“Most of them are Ottomans and Jews. There are also Christian Greeks, some Bulgarians and French. There are not so many British though. The food and the aromas are totally different! They use many spices in their foods, often adding dried fruits and nuts. At home, we were eating almost every day fish or pulps or mussels. Salonika is just in front of the sea”, I wistfully explain to them and they are listening to me with interest. In the meantime, other ladies have approached us, listening carefully to what I am saying.

“What about the buildings? Is there a theatre? An Opera?” some Ladies ask.

“No, unfortunately, there is not such a thing. No Theatre, neither Opera. But there is a kind of open Shadow Theatre at the Squares. There are marionettes placed behind a white sheet. They place candles behind it and then they put in front of the candles the marionettes which the shadow is displaying on the sheet. The stories are always fun and make the people gather to laugh”, I reply.

“I really would like to see what it looks like!” the young Lady Clifford says excitedly.

“Yes, it sounds interesting”, the other Ladies agree with her.

At that time the battler announces dinner is ready to be served. So, we all head for the dining room. At the dinner, I am sitting next to the young Clifford Lady, and a young man who is not introducing himself to me and will not address me a word during the whole dinner. Fortunately, Lady Beth is a very pleasant young lady and likes talking. So, we chat during dinner.

She tells me about the death of her parents and how she understands me. Then, she tells me about her brother, the Earl of Perristone, who is a widower. She explains to me how she came to stay with her aunt here in Bath. Her brother comes to see her only four times per year and never writes to her back.

She thinks he might accuse her silently of their mother’s death. Her mother died after giving birth. Although she says whenever he comes to see her, he brings her gifts and is very attentive to her. She tells me that he became very weird since he lost his wife, who by the way was pregnant at that time.

I can imagine how difficult it is for him. I think my father was not like that because he already had one child to take care of and couldn’t let himself be like this, closed in himself.

This dinner is one of the best dinners I have ever had in my life. I had attended many dinners in the Consulate or the Consul’s house, but they were not like this. First comes a white soup. Then artichokes with cream. The first dish is lobster au gratin. The second dish is goose and the third is venison. After eating all these, they bring us a Christmas pie stuffed with duck. Then, the cheese and salad and finally the famous Christmas pudding.

“Why don’t you visit us one day this week, Miss Worne?” Lady Beth asks me while we are sitting on the sofa in the saloon, drinking cherry after dinner.

“I would love to, my Lady!” I reply happily with a smile.

I think I have just made my first friend in England.

“Tomorrow I will send you an invitation for a tea and maybe we can go out to the town to have a walk”, Lady Beth proposes.

“It would be a wonderful idea!“.

We chat a little more, discovering some common interests, like books and gardening. Then, we go to the ballroom. Lady Beth has already filled her ball carnet, so she is dancing with many young men. I, on the contrary, haven’t had any propositions to dance.

“You are not dancing, Miss Worne?” the old Lady Clifford asks me.

“No, my Lady”, I reply.

“But why not?” she asks me again.

“I am still in mourning, my Lady. It will not look correct dancing and after all, no one offered me a dance”.

“How is it possible no one offered a dance to a beautiful woman like you?” she says, trying to cheer me up.

“Well, thank you for your kind words, my Lady, but we both know I do not have exceptional beauty and certainly I do not have a dowry”, I reply to her with a smile.

“Nonsense! You should stop wearing black. After all, the mourning period it’s finished. Six months have passed, now you can wear something else. I know widows who are wearing black only for a month and then, they put on their red dresses”, Lady Clifford comments wryly.

I am speechless from the direct tone of her speech.

“As for the dowry, if a man really loves you, he will not look in such things. I had a very big dowry when I was your age and was also beautiful. I have never married though. Because the man I have loved, he was in love with a lady who hadn’t my beauty nor my dowry. He got married to her, you know!” she says to me with a smile.

“I am so sorry, my Lady”, I feel sad for her.

“I am not. I prefer to be lonely and sad than with a man who doesn’t love me and be both sad”, Lady Clifford smilingly replies.

I stay silent and only smile at her. I think this is the definition of true love. When you really love someone, you do not put yourself first. The person you love is above all, even yourself! Its happiness is what counts, not yours!

“Here you are, Amelia! I was looking for you. We shall be going now”, Aunt Beatrice announces to me.

We wish good night to Lady Clifford. Then, we thank the Duke and the Duchesse for the invitation again.

Back at the coach, I say to Aunt Beatrice, “Lady Beth Clifford told me that she will send me an invitation for having tea together tomorrow”.

“That’s wonderful!” Aunt Beatrice exclaims. “She is from a very respectable family. If they see you in Bath with her, then you might start having invitations from others too”, Aunt Beatrice continues.

“I like her! We also have some common interests together”, I add.

“Perfect! Only stay away from her brother. If you see him one day, just do not say anything to him. He is such a rude and unpredictable person” Aunt warns me, but my uncle comes in his defence.

“Beatrice, you tell nonsense! He is a very good and kind gentleman. If you are talking about the incident that happened last summer with Lady Pommeyrose, then sorry, but she was asking for it”.

“What incident?” I ask curiously now.

“It was on August, here in Bath. The Earl of Perristone passed by to see his sister and his aunt. Of course, the Duke learned it and invited them for dinner, as well as many other people. Suddenly after dinner, when we were in the ballroom, we heard the Earl of Perristone scolding loudly Lady Pommeyrose that if she wants to make a tour of the gardens then she should ask her chaperone to accompany her and not a gentleman”, my uncle says.

“Oh!” I exclaim, placing my hand in front of my mouth shocked by Lady’s Pommeyrose actions.

“She just asked him to accompany her as a gentleman, because it was too hot inside”, my aunt tries to justify Lady Pommeyrose.

“Beatrice, a young lady should not go out alone with a gentleman in the gardens and especially at night. Do you think the Earl of Perristone is such an idiot to fall into such traps? For God’s sake, he is not a twenty years old boy! He is a man almost in his forties!” my uncle says.

“Well, my aunt and my uncle, you do not have to worry about something like that might happen to me. I know very well what I should do and what to say”, I assure them.

“Of course, Amelia, you are a very well-educated girl with fine manners and not an instant has passed from my mind you could do something stupid like that”, my uncle replies to me.

With that, the carriage stops in front of my uncle’s townhouse.

A week had passed since Christmas and Lady Beth and I were unseparated. Every day we were having tea and then we were going out for a walk. Once we went to the theatre too. I made my first friend! As Aunt Beatrice had told me, after the first day out with Lady Beth and her aunt, Lady Clifford, I had received two other invitations from the Countess of Sutton and the Baroness of Winston.

Everything was going fine until New Year’s Eve, when Beth told me, “In a week I should go back to my brother. My aunt cannot take care of me anymore. She says she is old and it is time my brother starts being more involved with my life”.

“So, you are going to Hereford? You are leaving in a week?” I ask with sadness in my voice.

“Unfortunately, yes”, she says without being happy either.

“Here you are, my little birds!” Lady Clifford joins us in the drawing room of her house. “Why is this sadness on your face?” she asks us.

“I told Miss Amelia I am going back to Hereford”, Lady Beth replies to her aunt.

“Oh, I see! Well, I might have something that will please you both!” she says with a big smile. “Miss Amelia, I am thinking about asking my nephew, the Earl of Perristone, to have companionship for Beth in Hereford, so she will not feel lonely. Would you like to be this person?” Lady Clifford proposes to me.

I immediately accept “Yes, Lady Clifford! It will be an honour for me!“.

“Auntie, you are the best aunt in the world!” Lady Beth happily shouts and jumps on her aunt and hugs her.

“Oh, Beth, stop! I am an old lady, you will make me fall. And before celebrating it, we should ask your brother’s approval first”, Lady Clifford wisely says.

Hearing that, Beth becomes serious, “Auntie, do you think he will accept?“.

“I hope so, otherwise I am not letting you there alone”, she replies with a smile.

“Hurray!” Lady Beth happily exclaims jumping up and down.

She seizes my hands pulling me to get up from the armchair I was sitting on to join her happiness.