. CHAPTER TWO
Edith Edelton was pretty, but no one on earth was as pretty as Edith Edelton thought she was. Part of it was the fact that out of the eligible young ladies of Mount Bedford, Edith Edelton was the prettiest. Ruth Adams was pretty, but no competition for Edith Edelton, and she had had far more beaux than Ruth could ever hope for.
Edith was looking very cool and fashionable strutting around the ballroom in her mint green crepe silk, frothy party dress. To her Mount Bedford was always a disgusting, sleepy, town until summer. However when summer rolled around life in Mount Bedford could be interesting again. All of the local young men would come home from university, some would travel with their families a large distance to get away from the bustle of the cities, to spend the summer in a quieter town. This meant many new young gentlemen faces for Edith Edelton to charm.
"Edith," Clarisse VanSicklen greeted her friend. "Guess who is coming to the party tonight?"
"A man worth my time and energy?" Edith guessed as she rolled her eyes and fluttered her fan. Already it was turning out to be a stiflingly hot summer.
"I don't know if that exists," Clarisse replied with a laugh. "Samantha Parkington is back in town for the summer."
Edith put on a face that looked like she had smelled something bad.
"Oh I don't care about her," she sniffed. "I never used to play with her. I only had to invite her to parties because her grandmother is a pillar in the community."
"Yes but she is bringing along that servant girl Nellie," Clarisse said.
"She works for Samantha now?" Edith asked surprise. "I thought you said that she was a lousy maid."
"No," Clarisse replied. "She is bringing her to this party."
"You're kidding," Edith gasped. "She can't bring that filthy, mangy, rag-bag, here. To the Royal Bedford!"
"I believe she is," answered Clarisse. "She's on the guest list, Miss Samantha Parkington and Helen O'Malley."
"Perhaps Samantha just needs someone to carry her fan and her handbag for her," Edith muttered. "Sometimes Mother will bring her servant with her to unlace her corset if she feels faint, and help her freshen up."
"Wow Nellie," Samantha gasped. "I think I died and went straight to heaven."
The girls had entered the hotel's ballroom. The room was filled with people, many of them young, dashing, wealthy, gentleman.
Nellie's eyes looked for the tables of food. They were glorious, tables and tables of decadence. Nellie fancied food as much as Samantha fancied gentlemen. For the first ten years of her life, Nellie had often gone to bed hungry. So hungry that she had laid awake at night nauseous from hunger. So hungry that she had grown accustomed to having a headache. Since coming to live with Samantha, Nellie had vowed to never ever go hungry, and she loved food. She would often say that whoever was crazy enough to marry her would have to deal with the fact that one day she would get fat, because she loved to eat so much, especially apple strudels. The first few weeks of living with Samantha and her aunt and uncle, Nellie could hardly contain herself from eating too much, it was overwhelming have so much food around.
"Let's get something to eat," Nellie suggested.
"But the tables are in the corners," Samantha moaned. "Men won't see us if we are tucked away in the corners."
Edith Edelton and Clarisse VanSicklen's mouths dropped open. They recognized Samantha Parkington right away as she swished into the ballroom, decked out in some apricot tulle number. She looked very much like her childhood self, just taller, more mature, and much more elegant and graceful.
"Samantha looks great," Clarisse observed. "It's not fair her getting to live in New York, right in the center of fashion."
Edith was still speechless. Not so much by Samantha, but by the short, blonde haired girl who followed her. That couldn't be Nellie the raggy servant girl, but who was she?
She was very short, curvy but still petite. Nellie had been scrawny and sickly looking with two spindly legs that could barely hold her up. Her hair was very long, but swept up in a fashionable and elegant style. She was dressed very finely in a white, lacey, dress, trimmed with robin's egg blue sashes, and wore a to-die-for pair of matching blue slippers.
"Who on earth is that with her?" Edith asked.
"I'm not sure," Clarisse replied. "I've never seen her before. Perhaps a friend she brought back with her from New York. Shall we go over to her?"
"It's not the O'Malley girl is it?' Edith asked with much confusion.
"Of course not," Clarisse laughed. "Nellie didn't dress like that, plus she was an ugly girl. This girl is pretty. I guess the girls back in New York have us beat."
"No," Edith muttered and went scanning the room for young men. "No one has Edith Edlton beat."
Samantha spotted Ida Dean and waved her hand excitedly. She would recognize Ida anywhere, with her short bouncy curls!
The girls hugged.
"Samantha you are gorgeous," Ida commented. "And your dress! Why I could never pull of wearing such a fine dress. I'd get nervous in it and faint."
"Ida, do you know who this is?" Samantha asked, as she put her arm around Nellie. Ida furrowed her brow.
"I'm sorry to say I don't," she replied. "Forgive me."
"This is Nellie. You know, my friend that I used to play with all the time," Samantha replied.
"The servant girl!" Ida gasped. "No. Wow. You sure clean up nicely Nellie."
The servant girl Nellie thought. Samantha can side step it all she wants to, they are going to see me as the servant girl, and they are going to act like I am some sort of abnormal oddity just because I am in a nice dress.
Samantha and Ida chatted on about things such as boys, school, and Mount Bedford. Nellie was happy as a clam to be ignored for a few minutes. Being ignored was better than being the cleaned up servant girl.
The hotel was fabulous. The ballroom was decorated in pink and white. It had pink and white striped wallpaper, wood floors, and painted white rafters. There was a stage set up with an orchestra playing Oh You Beautiful Doll. Nellie let Samantha and Ida's conversation fade out as she focused on the music and sights around her. Ida brought Nellie back to the conversation. Another girl had joined them.
"Nellie, this is Maude Jeffries," Ida introduced. "Maude, this is Samantha's sister Nellie. She is not her real sister, she was a servant girl originally, but then her parents passed away and Samantha's family took her in so she wouldn't have to stay in an orphanage. Is that pretty much the story Sam?"
Samantha knew that Nellie was feeling uncomfortable, and she couldn't blame her. Must everybody know and dwell on the fact that Nellie used to be a servant? What was it to them? She wasn't a servant anymore.
"Nellie is the best sister a girl could ever have," Samantha said. "We are both orphans, so we have the "orphan" connection."
Nellie knew Samantha was just trying to finesse things a little. Ida had made Nellie sound like the world's biggest charity case, and even in her pretty, lacy, fineness, Nellie felt dumpy and inadequate around the other girls.
"I'm going to get something to eat," Nellie whispered in Samantha's ear. Samantha nodded.
"I'll join you shortly," she replied.
Nellie made her way to the food tables, the one nice thing about the whole ridiculous party. Nellie always liked to eat, but at times when she was upset she tended to eat a little more. She figured no one would be watching her, she wasn't the standout type, so she didn't have to watch how much she ate. She filled her plate until she couldn't fit anything else on it. She decided to take one last raspberry tart, and since her plate was full she popped it into her mouth.
"How are the tarts?" A voice asked.
Nellie spun around, her face turned as red as the raspberries. She tried to swallow too much too quickly, so he wouldn't know that she had popped the whole thing into her mouth. It caused her to cough a little bit.
"They're delish," she mumbled.
Though her eyes watered from not trying to cough she could tell that the man standing behind her was tall, perhaps in his early twenties, with dark brown hair, and big dark brown eyes. He was classically handsome. Usually the handsome men stayed away from her. Why when she was making a pig of herself did they have to come around?
"You'll have to excuse me," she went on. "I don't usually eat this much, I just do when I'm nervous."
"I'm nervous too," the man replied. "I'm not much for these prim proper social functions."
"Well telling by the way that tart went down, I guess I'm not either," Nellie stammered out. I say such stupid things when I'm nervous. Nellie thought. To think that Cornelia and Gard spent all of that money on finishing lessons for me.
"Well then we will keep it our secret," the man replied as he shoved a tart in his mouth. "By the way I'm Eugene. What's your name?"
"I'm Nellie. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Nellie so wanted to just hide or have the plate of food she held vanish. Her first experience with a young Mount Bedford man and she was holding a plate with enough food for three people.
"Hi Nellie, how is the food?" Samantha asked as she came flouncing up to them. Immediately her eyes lit up at the sight of Eugene. "Who are you?" She asked with great interest. Eugene's eyes lit up at the sight of Samantha.
Good. Thought Nellie. She can take some of the heat off of me and maybe he will forget what a pig I can be.
Eugene got just as red and flustered as Nellie had. So Nellie introduced them.
"Samantha is a very beautiful name," he said.
"Nah," Samantha replied. "It's too long. You can call me Sam," she smiled her charming smile. Just then another man joined them. Nellie had seen Samantha light up around many different men, and claim to be in love with many different men but no man had ever gotten the reaction out of Samantha that this man did. Nellie actually saw Samantha's knees shake, and for a moment thought that she would have to hold her sister up. Nellie was always a nervous-nilly around men, but even with Eugene she had been able to halfway make conversation. This man left her absolutely speechless. To say he was handsome was not enough, he was absolutely gorgeous.
"Why Eugene," the man commented to his friend. "You actually found some pretty girls. I was beginning to think this town was a drought in that department. I'm shocked. Usually you scare them away with your clumsiness."
He took Samantha's hand and kissed it, totally ignoring Nellie. Samantha pulled herself together but she was sweating and trembling inside, If she didn't pull herself together, she might lose him, and Samantha Parkington did not lose men, she didn't care how debonair or handsome.
"And who might you be?" She asked in a mischievous tone.
"I'm Peyton. Peyton Denardo," he replied. "And you must be the prettiest girl in Mount Bedford."