Thank you to Jess (Hylen) and Brina (Brinchen86) for encouraging me to write this story. Thanks girls for giving me a kick in the right direction!
So, this story is a try – I don't know whether you're going to like it or not. I will have to rely on your feedback – be it in PMs or Reviews. Please let me know what you think, else I'll never know whether this is going in the right direction and whether you guys actually want to read this. So, click the button at the end!
Now, on to the story details:
Setting: London, 1837.
Category: AU, History/Romance
Summary: The Lady Beatrice Taylor is the daughter of the powerful Earl Mac Taylor. She is also an aspiring writer, but does her father approve? And what will happen when her best friend, Lady Lindsay Monroe, falls in love with her servant? What about the unhappy marriage between Deputy Chief Constable Donald Flack and his wife Jessica? Will the Baroness Bonasera win over the heart of the Earl? This and more, in my story.
Pairings: Flack/Angell, DL, Mac/Stella, Hawkes/OC (the latter was decided on 17/06 after having published chapter 6) – all of the characters of CSI:NY will be in the story though.
Spoilers: Obviously, none.
Disclaimer: I don't anything related to CSI:NY - all I own is my OC Beatrice Taylor and my own ideas.
Thank you very much to Brina (Brinchen86) for beta'ing and encouraging! Love you, hun!
London, February 1837.
The Lady Beatrice Taylor was sitting in a chair in front of the fireplace. She looked out of the window and could see the white snowflakes falling out of the sky, settling down on the earth and covering the green grass. Beatrice sighed – she preferred spring over winter and she couldn't wait for the weather to get better and warmer. The spring and summer season also meant that her father would take her back to Heslington Hall, their manor house in Yorkshire. She loved the big park that belonged to the house and when she wanted, she could spend all day outdoors. In winter, her father, the Earl Mac Taylor of Heslington Hall, preferred to stay in their town house in London. He used the winter season for his businesses before he returned to Yorkshire with his daughter to spend the summer either there or in Bath, in society.
Her father always wanted her to come to Bath with him and she couldn't always refuse. But as much as she loved the city of Bath, she despised of the society that her father kept there.
Beatrice was a very solitary person, the happiest when she could read a book or hold a pen in her hand. The only person to wake her up from her reveries was her best friend, the Lady Lindsay Monroe.
And it was her, who just came into the room and made Bea place down the book she was reading.
"Bea!" Lindsay greeted her best friend. She flew over to her, kissed her on both cheeks and then took off her bonnet. She handed it over to the maid, who was waiting, and then sat down.
"You don't want to take off your coat?" Bea asked.
"What?" Lindsay asked, bewildered by Bea's question. She needed a second to understand what Bea meant. "Oh, right. But I'm so excited," she giggled and took her coat off and handed that as well to the waiting maid.
"Anything I could bring you, Miss?" Katharina, the maid, asked Bea.
"Some tea, please, Katharina," Bea asked and excused the maid.
As soon as Katharina was out of the door, Lindsay blurted out: "My uncle is going to give a ball next weekend!"
"A ball?" Bea enquired.
"A really big ball. Oh, how I long for the next weekend! You know how much I love balls. What do you do tomorrow? We could go down into the city and buy some new dresses and bonnets!"
"Calm down, Lindsay. It's just one ball of many this season. Why are you so excited anyway?"
"Because it's the first ball that my uncle is giving in the house!" Lindsay replied.
Bea smiled at her best friend: "Oh right, it is, isn't it? I wonder what took Lord Hammerback that long anyway," she wondered.
"Oh, who cares about that now? We will have a ball next weekend and there will be so many guests coming. Oh, you should see the guest list, it's so very long!" Lindsay babbled on. "Why are you not as excited as I am?" she then asked Bea.
"You should know me by now, Lindsay, I'm just not so much into balls," she answered.
Katharina came back into the room and set the tea tray down on the little table between Beatrice and Lindsay, in front of the fireplace. She poured two cups and then asked Bea if there was anything else the Miss needed doing.
"Katharina, get out Lady Beatrice's best ball dress because she will be attending a ball next weekend!" Lindsay shouted out.
Beatrice smiled at Katharina and with a nod, she signalled her that this was all and that she was allowed to leave. Beatrice then turned to Lindsay and smiled. She adored her best friend, she even loved her when she was all exhilarated as she was now. Bea took her cup of tea and sipped.
"Will you please say that you're coming?" Lindsay asked, pleadingly.
"Of course I'm coming, Lindsay. Do you think that the Earl would allow me to stay home, even if I begged him to?" she raised a concern.
That seemed to be enough to calm Lindsay down and she took up her cup and settled back into her chair. "What have you been reading today?" she asked.
"Oh Lindsay, the most wonderful story in the world! Mister Dickens has published the beginning of a new novel. It is called The Adventures of Oliver Twist and I read it today in the Bentley's Miscellany," she remarked.
"I can't believe your father still lets you read those," Lindsay said in astonishment.
"Well, he doesn't know I'm reading it," Bea answered with a whimsical smile on her face.
Lindsay gasped. "Then, where did you get the paper from?"
"Adam bought it for me."
"Your stable boy?" Lindsay called out.
"He has the right sort of character and you of all people shouldn't judge him for his position. He is a hard worker and he takes good care of our horses at Heslington Hall. And he also does his job as a servant here in town very well," Bea lectured her best friend.
Lindsay grumbled and then asked further: "And what do you mean by 'me of all people' shouldn't judge?"
Bea smiled at Lindsay and sighed. "Maybe because you are in love with your servant?"
"I am not!" Lindsay gasped. "You know that I am practically spoken for," she said and put down her cup.
"But we both know that your marriage to Dr. Hawkes is your uncle's desire and not your own," Bea remarked.
Lindsay didn't know what to say to this, so she avoided her best friend's gaze and got up, walking over to the window.
"Come on, admit that you have taken a fancy to the handsome Master Daniel," Bea digged deeper.
Lindsay turned around and blushed. "Maybe," she answered meekly. With a sigh she sat back down in her chair and continued: "But I am promised to Dr. Hawkes and we both know I could never marry my servant!"
"Stranger things have happened," Bea pointed out.
"Oh you, don't you mock such a poor soul as mine," Lindsay shouted and closed her eyes. She couldn't see Bea's smile. "You'll never fully understand me anyway," Lindsay started.
"What do you mean by that, darling?" Bea wanted to know.
"You don't want to get married, ever. And why? Only because Miss Austen never got married!" Lindsay confronted Bea.
"So? You have read Miss Austen's stories – so wonderfully romantic tales and such a witty style of writing. I wish I was Miss Austen," Bea sighed.
"But don't you think Miss Austen was in love? How else could she have known so much about love?" Lindsay remarked.
"I don't know, I personally think Miss Austen is the wisest person that has ever lived," Bea answered, proudly.
Lindsay smiled at Bea, knowing that when it came to the topic of writing and Miss Jane Austen, no-one could convince Beatrice that she was wrong or stubborn.
"Have you heard the latest gossip?" Lindsay then changed the subject.
"What is it now?" Bea groaned, normally not interested in the stories of the upper class, but ever since Lindsay was her best friend, those story were inevitable. Her best friend took a liking to gossip of all sorts and she had the most fun discussing other people's private life.
"I heard today that Deputy Chief Constable Flack is about to divorce his wife Jessica!" Lindsay blurted out.
"Why?" Bea asked, shocked. She had expected a lot of things to happen, but she always thought that the Flacks were a very happy couple. Plus, Bea had to admit, that she had a soft spot for the Constable, even though he was married. She was always convinced that he would be the only man she would give herself to, but then he got married and she resolved never to get married herself
"Well, they have been married for almost a year now and Jessica is still not with child," Lindsay explained. "As you can see, she is neglecting her duties."
"Duties? Oh Lindsay, you are such a hopeless romantic!" Bea cried out. "For you a marriage is only perfect when there are about twelve children sitting around the fireplace."
"And what is wrong with that?" Lindsay asked.
"Don't you aspire more in life than being an angel, waiting at home for the husband to get back at night?"
"I personally cannot think of a better way to spend my day," Lindsay retorted, her chin up in the air.
Bea smiled and gently caressed Lindsay's hand with hers. "Don't let us start a fight. We both know we are so very different and yet, you know that you are my favourite person in the whole world."
Lindsay turned to Bea and smiled back at her, took her hand and gently pressed it. "I know. Lady Beatrice and Lady Lindsay are going to conquer the world one day. And we are going to start next weekend…"
"…at the ball!" Bea finished the sentence and started giggling.
Their happiness was then interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Yes?" Bea asked.
Katharina came into the room and announced a visitor – the Baroness Stella Bonasera. She originally came from Greece and had been married to an English aristocrat. Now that he was dead and she a widow, she was out to find a new husband and it seemed as if she had chosen Earl Taylor as her newest victim.
"Ask her in, please, Katharina," Bea demanded. "God, I wish she wouldn't come round as often," Bea whispered to Lindsay and made her smile.
Lindsay knew that Bea wished her father would never marry again, but Bea knew that she had no choice in the matter.
"Lady Beatrice!" Stella greeted Bea as she came into the room. She kneeled down in front of Bea and kissed her hand. "Lady Monroe!" she then greeted Lindsay as well, doing her the same honour of curtsying.
"Baroness, what brings you here?" Bea asked and signalled for Stella to sit down on the large couch in the room.
"I was wondering whether your father, the Earl, was in," Stella hesitantly wanted to know.
"I'm afraid he is out, doing business in the city somewhere. I'm sorry you missed him," Bea replied and winked at Lindsay. Her friend understood the wink and had a hard time suppressing a giggle.
"Oh well, that is a pity now. But tell, do you know whether he will be at Lord Hammerback's ball next weekend?"
"I'm quite certain that he will be, Baroness," Bea answered.
"Good," Stella said and smiled to herself. What Bea couldn't know was that Stella really had deep feelings for the Earl and that she did not only want to marry him for the sake of marrying, but because she was in love with him.
Stella then got up again and put her bonnet back on. "I'll leave you two to your tea then. I assume I'll be seeing you at the ball," she said and left the room.
Bea and Lindsay then were left alone and spent the rest of the afternoon discussing Lindsay's newest town news.
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