Chapter 5: Dancing with the Devil
Anne de Bourgh left Anne Russell's house two hours after Elizabeth and Charlotte did. She hailed a taxi and was dropped off at The Peach Skin, a spa complex that she loved, and went to whenever the opportunity arose. Here she was spoiled and pampered. She started with a facial and hair treatment and work her way down to her toes, choosing a subtle pink round French pedi that left her feeling quite glamorous. Despite growing up filthy rich, Anne always felt less than, her mother controlled every aspect of her life, but now with mother having gone to Scotland for six month to inspect her properties and Anne being far to frail to survive in such a cold climate, she was free to do what she wanted. Her mother thought she was in town to seduce William, HER COUSIN WILLIAM, sometimes she had to question her mother's sanity!
After completing her treatments three hours later, she decided that she needed to get new lingerie, well get lingerie, she did not have any, her mother never let her buy any, not deeming it suitable for a 'gentle woman' or Anne. "One would swear we were living in a Jane Austin novel the way my mother carries on!" Anne muttered to herself as she browse through the lacy, satin and silk items.
After choosing six different 'outfits' and her purchases discreetly packed for her, she was decidedly hungry, she was going to go to Burger King, mother could not stop her now, mother was not here. She felt giddy with the freedom.
Her phone rang, seeing who the caller was she was even giddier. "Georgie!" she cooed into her phone.
"Please do not call me that, it makes me sound like a nursery rhyme" the voice on the other end laughed.
"Okay my love, are you coming over tonight?" Anne was excited to show her lover the items she bought.
"Not tonight sweetheart, I have a business meeting with investors, and we are going to finish late." He knew she was going to be disappointed, but he was keeping her hungry, he had big plans for her.
"Why don't you call me when you are done with your meeting, there might still be time for you to come over, I don't have to be up early or anything?" she knew she was begging but she missed him so much.
"I have to be up early my sweets, lets have dinner tomorrow night at the Moulin Rouge café, I know you love that place." He charmed her.
She did not actually like the Moulin Rouge, it was a rip off of the real thing, "Okay darling, but if you change your mind, just call me."
"Take care of you for me" he said, ending his call with his traditional greeting, woman always interpreted that as I love you, as if!
Anne felt deflated, she had planned the day around him coming over tonight, she would have to double her Burger King order, even if she had to purge afterwards, its not like he is going to know.
As Anne left the Burger King with her body weight in food, her phone rang again, she almost dropped her food she was in such a rush to answer in case it was him and he changed his mind.
It was Caroline, well that was not a bad thing.
"Hello Caroline" she tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
"Hi Anne, a little bird told me you were in town, you naughty rebel you, and you did not even let me know!:
Anne could hear Caroline pouting through the phone, and she laughed "I just got in yesterday, so your little bird is very knowledgeable!"
"Are you busy tonight, or would you like to go to Helter Skelter the new club on Seventh? I know the manager so even if they run a queue, we will still get in." Caroline was determined to meet up with Anne so was dangling the biggest carrot she could.
But Anne was still feeling the low of not being able to show her lover the beautiful garments she bought, he always made her feel seen and valued. "Perhaps another night Caro, I feel a bit down tonight, I am going to binge on Burger King at the apartment, do you feel up to just hanging out with me?"
"Helter what? Should I bring my own Burger King? And do you want some wine with those fries' ma'am?" Caroline was delighted, this was even better, a little girl time, some wine and she could find out if Anne was dancing with the devil.
Anne laughed; this is why she like Caroline when a lot of her friends did not. "Yes, indeed some wine with my fries! But I think I have more than enough Burger King for both of us, and all of our personalities!"
"Ciao Bella, see you in about an hour." Caroline ended the call as she wandered into Charles wine cellar to find some wine.
Anne felt slightly better, that someone wanted to spend time with her made her feel good.
When she got home, she carefully packed her lingerie away, changed into something softer but still stylish, without her mother to dictate what she could eat or wear she found she had quite a simplistic but elegant style that suited her.
Almost exactly an hour later the doorbell rang. Anne opened the door to be greeted by a very stylish looking Caroline, the tops of some wine bottles poking out of her tote. The friends hug hello and moved into the living room.
Caroline placed the wine on the table looking around. "You have modernized the place? It looks different to the last time I was here; I like it!"
"Mother does not bother to come to town anymore so I took the liberty of upgrading, it increases the value of the place, so even if she does find out, that will be my argument." Anne knew that Caroline always had an eye for detail, that is why she was so good at her event planning.
"Which bottle should we open first?" Anne asked inspecting each bottle.
"All of them, they need to breath." Caroline put on the voice of their old etiquette teacher from the finishing school where they met"
They laughed and started opening all three of the bottles, Anne felt herself relaxing and was glad that her friend had phoned her
Burger King and two bottles of wine later, Anne had let her guard down, Caroline had been talking about William as she always did, Anne knew her cousin would never go for Caroline, but she let Caroline have her crush. But then Caroline mentioned she had met someone, but she could not date them openly as it would not be considered a good match.
Anne felt as if she could finally talk to someone, Caroline was exactly where she was. In no time she found herself telling Caroline how George Wickham had been at Rosings, she had bumped into him at the annual Medieval Festival, literally bumped into him, he was wearing glasses and had dropped the books he was carrying, at first they did not recognize each other, but he offered to buy her some tea and queen cakes, and she remembered an incident from when she was young, William and Richard had been teasing her, she ran away and hid, George found her and asked her if she would like some tea and queen cakes. At which point he recognized her and said that she had grown into a beautiful woman, he had hardly recognized her, they spent the evening talking about books and medieval times until the early hours of the morning, he helped her sneak back into the house so that her mother did not know she had been out at all. They met as often as they could after that, they fell in love and now she was trying to find a way to tell her family they were engaged.
She lifted her hand and showed Caroline the engagement ring he had given her, Caroline was impressed it was quite a ring. But it looked familiar, she just could not place it.
Caroline asked if Anne had told William about George, to which Anne's face fell. "William and George had a falling out a while back, William really like a girl but that girl was in love with George, William could not forgive George although George felt nothing for the girl. Its quite silly really."
Caroline decided that with all the wine she had been drinking that night, she had better call a cab and go home, she was not sure to do with all the information she had just been given. She had not expected Anne to off load that much, and she felt as if she was betraying her friend; but on the other hand, if George was as bad as they said, then her friend was very much in danger of having her heart ripped out.
As Caroline climbed into the cab, Anne lent out of the window "Caro, you did not tell me about your lover, what is their name?"
Caroline made as if she did not hear Anne, but as she sat back in the cab a single tear rolled down her cheek and she softly whispered the name of her love.