"m-marry?! No! hell no!" Eloise shouted out loud
Her dazed mum gazed up at her blankly. "What else can you do? Eloise people's tongues will wag. You.... you have tarnished your reputation. In order to save yourself some dignity you have to marry that man… for that, we have to find him. How will we find him?" she shot up from the sofa and started to prance around like a pregnant cat.
Eloise just gaped at hr. "You're being crazy. I just drank with someone! It's not like I slept with them!"
"It doesn't make a difference!"
Elois groaned loudly. "Mum are you being serious right now"
"I'm dead serious Eloise Ayles. So, you better work hard retrieving that memory of yours. The man who carelessly spent time with you will be your husband." She plucked the coat from the ground. "Odette check what you can find from this. a hair or even a maker's mark. We can trace it back to who lost their coat last night." She massaged her head.
Through all this mess, Eloise just stood there like a frozen popsicle. She could not believe her beloved mother would even suggest that. Marriage to an unknown man just cuz she drank with him? preposterous! She would never marry like that.
in fact, she had no intention of getting married!
She gripped the coat that was being passed to Odette in a tight grip. "I would rather be an old spinster than marry an unknown man.
"Eloise Ayles!"
"Yes, that's my name. No amount of your shouting is going to change my mind! mother... do you wish to see me unhappy? Do you wish for me to disgrace myself even more? Because if you marry me to this said gentleman I would sure to jump out of our balcony and run away at dawn. Let's see how the ton will react then."
Her mum just gaped at her. "y-you…. Do you realize what you are saying?
"I am well aware of the words that escape my pretty mouth. If you shall excuse me, I will return to my room," she plucked the coat form Odette's hand and banged the door close behind her.
Madam Ayles just glared at the closed door. "Odette… what must I do now?"
"Madam… I suggest you let our mis cool down for a bit. I've never seen our miss this angry before." The young maid dwindled her thumb.
"She shouted at me…" madam started to cry. "What impossible thing did I even suggest? I just want my daughter to have a bit of dignity left. But did you hear what she just said? She would rather be a scornful spinster than a married woman." She plopped down on the sofa and started to cry.
Eloise, who was inside the room, heard this. heart ached to run to her and hug her, but she needed to stay put. She wouldn't waver now. If she did, her mum will definitely marry her off to some tom dick and harry. Who would want that?
Marriage? She scoffed. She would never marry. Not in this Victorian esk era. She had a crippling fear she might lose even a bit of indigence she has after marriage.
'And I fear I might have to be a birthing machine.' She gulped.
That was her irrational fear too.
She feared being a mother. She feared those silky-skinned little creatures that would pop out of a human body. she shuddered just thinking about all that pain that came with that process.
'Nope, not for me… if I have to marry I would have to find a contraceptive before that. Or else there is no bed tie activity. Never' she hardened her heart and stayed in the room while her mum cried a river outside.
Eloise gazed at the coat in her hand. 'its all your fault!' she slammed it down and stomped on it again and again until it had ugly stomp marks on it. "Fuck you, coat! fuck you!" she picked it up and went to throw it out.
"What if mum fishes it out and tries to find clues? No, I have to burn this."
She rolled up the coat in her hand and stomped her way out.
Her mum and Odette gazed at her in unison.
"I'm not coming out to agree to your match. I have a work to do. If you shall excuse me…" she walked past them. "And mum, don't cry. You'll get sick… if I don't get married, I will be with you all your life. Isn't that a great thing? We three shall we like peas in a pod. We will live happily ever after."
Her mum wiped her eyes and silently gazed at her.
Eloise paused in her footsteps. "Seriously? You're giving me the silent treatment?"
"Odette, tell her that I would rather talk to my grandchildren than to her."
The young maid gazed at her with her mouth ready to convey that.
"Are you kidding me?! Ugh! This guy! I will kill him! I will fucking kill him!" Eloise rushed out.
"You better not kill anyone. I will not bail you out!" she shouted after her,
"I will do it discreetly. Oh, mum, you don't know the ways I can hide a body." Eloise grinned down at her, bowed and walked out of there.
Madam Ayles scoffed. "As if she can do that. She can barely cut up a cloth without a mistake."
Odette squatted down in front of her. "Madam. You have to be soft-handed when you are dealing with young miss. She is stubborn, you know that. You have to soften your approach, madam."
"Oh Odette, what else must I do? I already tolerate her absurd behavior. If it was any other, they would have…...." She massaged her brows. "Should I whack her butt? I heard people do that."
"We can try… but I fear our miss would hate it very much."
They both sighed loudly.
Eloise, who was eavesdropping outside, scoffed. "Smack my butt? Let's see them try.," she scrunched up the coat ever further. "it's all your fault, you darn thing!"
She had to appreciate t. it was probably because of this coat that she was even able to sleep so comfortably. After all it snowed a bit last night.
But right now, this black coat was an eyesore to her.
It only reminded her of the dire misstep she had taken.
She stomped all the way over to the hidden back end of the ship with many watching her. This spot did not have a window or an opening, making it cold as ice.
A small fire pit was started there for people walking by to warm their hands.
She removed the grill of it with the fire kindler and gazed at the fire in pure fury. "Just burn away. you darn thing."
"Miss Eloise?" a soft voice pulled her out of that furious state. She gazed back at Fred and the young duke walking up to her.
"oh, mister Fred, your highness." She smiled at them.
The duke peered at the coat in her hand. "y-you should wear it if you are feeling cold."
"This?! I wish it would burn in hell!" Eloise tossed it into the flame.
The young duke froze. "d-did I offend you in any way? If I was my fault, I apologize…"
"no its not your fault young duke. It's this wonder of this coat's that is at fault. Do you know what happened? Last night I drank and slept on the balcony,"
"You didn't return?!" he frowned deeply. "Miss it was entirely my…"
"yes, yes I didn't. I slept all night in a drunken stupor. So, what happened is I went back to my room and my mum confronted me. She said that I spend a night with this guy and I need to marry him! Can you believe her? Preposterous! I can't believe it! I will rather strangle that man than marry him!"
The duke's face went pale as a sheet of paper. "Is... is it not agreeable?"
"Marriage is not on my agenda." Eloise patted her hands clean.
"n-not on mine either."
Eloise smiled up at him. "Mister Raymond I really appreciate that. it's better to a spinster than marry a girl I barely know."
"b-barely know?" the duke moved close. "I thought we were quite close…."
Eloise raised a brow. "of course, we are close. we are business partners after all. I'm talking about the coat's owner that I was talking about."
"Oh. So… so you don't have that lad's name."
Eloise nodded with a pout. "I don't remember a thing that happened last night. But I'm pretty sure that we didn't do anything untoward."
'I'm sure you didn't." The duke's face went awkward after that.
Eloise gazed at him with a smile. "it's rare to see you out here. did you come out for a breath of fresh air?"
"it's snowing. The sun is not out.," he said with a small smile.
"You don't like the sun."
The duke nodded. "I loathe it. Or should I say it loathes me"
"I get tan easily too." Eloise nodded. "But the duchy you are going to be staying in a tropical zone, right? would you be able to handle the heat?"
The duke sighed. "That was what I was dreading."