Rosaline

Three Years later.

“Helena…” Rosaline’s warning tone made the little girl freeze. She stared up at her mother, with the loose curls of her auburn hair falling forward a little, and her cheeks beginning to blush. “Now, is that anyway to treat your friends?”

Helena looked behind her, at the other children playing in the sitting room. On one side was Nathan, the Duchess of Suffolk’s son, sat down peacefully with a book he was trying to read and his tongue between his lips in concentration. On the other side was Susannah and Peggy, Chloe’s daughters, who were playing with small wooden dolls. Though poor Peggy’s doll was no longer in her own hands, but in Helena’s.

Helena hurried to return to Peggy and offered up the doll for her to play. Peggy’s frown instantly turned into a smile.

“That’s better,” Rosaline said, watching as Helena glowed under her praise and sat down with her friends to play.

“Ha! You have a wonderful way at dealing with the children,” Chloe said from her place sat at the table.

Rosaline returned her focus to the table where she sat. On one side was Chloe, pouring out tea for the three of them, and on the other was the Duchess of Suffolk, cutting up some cake.

“She is excitable,” Rosaline explained with a shrug. “I know what that is like. She just needs calming at times.”

“Don’t they all,” the Duchess said with a laugh. “I’m amazed Nathan is peaceful enough today to attempt to read.”

They all looked across the room to see Nathan did not stay reading for long. When Helena approached him with a toy doll and offered it to him, he stood to his feet and followed her to Peggy and Susannah, easily drawn into their games.

“Well, never mind,” the Duchess said, her smile peeking through as she lifted a teacup to her lips. “Be warned, he’ll be stealing all the dolls in a minute.”

The three of them laughed together as Rosaline looked down at the paperwork beside her.

These were some of the moments that she loved most in her life. With the Duchess and Chloe, they would often gather together to discuss the Ladies Periodical, and they always had their children with them when they did so. It was a pleasant time, full of personal and work pleasure that Rosaline loved so much. Her eyes flicked toward Helena, watching the girl closely for a minute, hoping that she would grow up with the wish that she could do such work in life if she wished to. Helena seemed unaware she was being watched. She was busy making one of the peg dolls attempt to walk before Nathan showed her how to do it.

“So, what shall we discuss?” Chloe said as she placed down the teapot. “I hear last month’s issue was a roaring success. Your article on ladies’ businesses in Covent Garden was a hit,” she said, addressing Rosaline alone.

“You liked that one because you were mentioned in it,” the Duchess pointed out with a giggle.

“Well, all publicity is good, is it not?” Chloe asked, sitting tall. “I am flattered my business was considered enough of a success to be mentioned.”

“How could it not be?” Rosaline asked, laughing as she sipped from her own teacup. It had been an article she was particularly pleased with and had taken some research. Circling Covent Garden, she had discovered many shops were ran by women such as Chloe. The article had celebrated their achievements. As well as modiste shops, she had discovered a woman silversmith who had taken over her husband’s business when he had passed away and a milliner’s shop, where a woman had inherited the shop from her father. Many people had mentioned the article since, and these ladies’ names had gone from being unknown to celebrated. “People seemed to like the article.”

“That they did,” the Duchess agreed. “What article are you working on now?”

“I have a few ideas.” Rosaline pulled forward one of her sheets of paper, covered in scribbled notes. “That last article was such a success that discussing such businesses across London in general might be a good idea. I also wished to do a piece though on women’s educations. In particular, young girls and what we teach them that’s different from boys.”

In unison, all of their eyes turned to the children as they played together. They were so young that the differences between them did not matter. Nathan happily played with the peg dolls, and when Helena picked up his book, he didn’t mind. He attempted to read it to her, but she was too young to be able to read herself.

“That is an article I’d like to read,” the Duchess said, nodding slowly.

“How about you, Maeve?” Chloe asked, looking to her friend. “Do you have a short story to share with us this month?”

“Indeed, I do.” The Duchess presented a few sheets of paper and passed them across the table to Rosaline.

“What’s it about?” Chloe encouraged her on.

“A simple tale this month, but I hope you’ll agree an elegant one. It’s the tale of a young woman coming to London and seeking her fortune. It deals with the realities of such an endeavor, and inevitably we find out where she really ends up.”

“I hope it has a happy ending,” Rosaline murmured, knowing such a tale could take a dark turn.

“I don’t believe in sad endings,” the Duchess said reassuringly and smiled as she cut herself a second slice of cake. “More cake anyone?”

They all agreed and took more. Rosaline was about to turn the conversation to Chloe’s contributions when the door opened, and their meeting was rather disturbed. The Duke of Suffolk was the first one to walk in, bearing quite a bit of dirt on his trousers.

“Leo, what did you expect to happen?” he asked, laughing with full vigor.

“I rather hoped the horse would not be as clumsy as myself.” Lord Felton followed in behind him, covered in considerably more dirt. Lastly, Simon entered, perhaps the cleanest of the lot.

When his and Rosaline’s eyes met across the room, they both shared a smile.

“What happened to you two?” the Duchess asked, looking between them.

“Care to explain, Leo?” Simon said, gesturing down at the sheer amount of mud on him.

“It looks like you bathed in dirt, husband,” Chloe said with a wrinkled nose and then laughed. “I should have put a wager on you falling off your horse.”

“I did not fall off,” Leo said, then his smile grew. “It’s just the horse fell over with me on top of it. We ended up in a ditch.”

“I had to pull him out,” the Duke said, gesturing to the mud on his own trousers.

“I rounded up the horses,” Simon explained, moving to stand behind Rosaline.

“Don’t you all sound like children playing?” Chloe said playfully, gesturing to them all. “What happened to these grand titles you all bear? These fine gentlemen you are, yet you carry more mud on you than our children do!” Her words made them all laugh.

“I suppose we are a mess,” Simon said, bending down and kissing Rosaline on the cheek. She smiled at him before leaning back, seeing that he hadn’t quite escaped all the dirt on their ride after all.

“You are disturbing our meeting,” she pointed out. “Go play with the children whilst we finish our discussions.”

“Oh, is that the way it is now?” Simon’s words were teasing as he stood firmly behind her. “You are the one in charge of business.”

“Just so.” Rosaline smiled widely as he matched that look.

“You heard her, Simon.” Another voice joined them.

Rosaline looked up to see Georgiana entering the room. She had with her a stack of papers as she hurried to sit at the one chair at the tea table that was empty and sat down as quickly as she could.

“Listen to your wife,” Georgiana urged. “Play with the children whilst she attends to her business.”

Rosaline felt Simon squeeze her shoulder with affection. It was a soft touch, and one that let her know exactly what Simon was feeling. He was happy.

The change in Georgiana had been a gradual thing over the last few years. Georgiana’s warmth to Rosaline had grown and grown, until the point that she never made a reference to the fact that Rosaline used to be a seamstress at all. In fact, Rosaline had even heard Georgiana quieten a lady at a ball recently, who endeavored to raise the matter of Rosaline’s past with her directly.

She is one of my keenest supporters these days.

Her transformation and happiness brought Simon considerable peace.

“Perhaps I wish to take part in the discussion too, Mother?” Simon offered and made an appearance of trying to find a chair to join them.

“Go.” Georgiana gestured to the children. When not only Simon moved to the table, but both the Duke and Lord Felton did too, all of the women raised their hands and pointed at the children.

“Go play!” Chloe urged. “And try not to get the children as dirty as you lot are.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Lord Felton asked as he reached for his daughters. He lifted up Peggy from the floor who squealed with delight in his arms, then Susannah barreled into his trouser leg, before she realized how dirty it was.

“Yuck!” she exclaimed extremely loudly and began to shake herself, rather like a dog attempting to shed all the dirt.

Rosaline laughed before she attempted to return her focus to her business matters. She encouraged Chloe to talk of the advertisements she wished to place in the Ladies Periodical. She listened attentively to the new designs Chloe wished to place in her adverts, specifically gowns that were suited for the changing seasons, now winter was nearly here. Soon enough though, Rosaline grew distracted.

She found her eyes crossing the room to where her daughter and her husband sat, playing together. Simon was laying on the floor beside her, with one of the peg dolls in his hand, propped up on his elbow. Helena was knelt close to him, with a second one in her clutches. As she played with the doll, Rosaline tried to listen to a few of the words.

“She’s a lady,” Helena said, brushing out the doll’s dress. “Like duchy.”

“Duchy? Oh, you mean a duchess, love?”

“Duchy!” Helena said again, clearly not understanding where she was going wrong with the pronunciation. Simon chuckled and laid a hand over the doll in his daughter’s hands.

“She can be anything she wants to be,” he assured her with a smile. “Anything.”

Rosaline felt something warm inside of her as she heard the words. A lot had changed since she had met Simon, but it was moments like this when she knew her heart had chosen very well indeed when she had fallen in love with him. If there was a man in this world to lead Helena into being a woman who was not afraid to carve her own very distinct path, then it was surely Simon.

“Rosaline, what do you think?” Georgiana’s words urged Rosaline to turn back to the table, to see all three women were waiting for her opinion on something.

“I think…” She paused, knowing that everything she had heard so far was promising indeed. “This month’s periodical may be the best yet.”

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