Fortunately, she was already dressed and waiting for him.
But that had been an odyssey unto itself.
When Gavriella had awakened after those rough few hours of slumber, Camilla had still been asleep, snoring softly in the feather-filled bed. Listening to the faint sounds of the street outside mingling with the snoring, Gavriella had crept out of bed and went about dressing very quietly.
Her first order of business had been to bolt the chamber door. She didn’t know where Aurelia was and the last thing she wanted was for that woman to enter the chamber just as she was getting dressed for a rather scandalous meeting. She didn’t want to have to explain herself to Aurelia, especially not after the fight they’d had, so Gavriella had gone about dressing very quickly in the hopes of avoiding Aurelia altogether.
She also had a special reason for wanting to avoid her – she didn’t want Aurelia to see that she was wearing one of Camilla’s dresses, in yet another dress to potentially ruin. Gavriella had no real need for fine clothing in the north because her father’s castle was in a rural setting and it wasn’t as if their lives were a gay social whirl. In fact, it was quite the contrary.
Because of this, Gavriella owned just a couple of good dresses and she had already worn those several times since she had arrived in London. Both of those dresses had been taken to the laundry and she had nothing left but the simple broadcloth dresses she had brought with her, and quite frankly, she didn’t want to wear those plain and unassuming garments for Andreas.
She wanted to look pretty.
Which meant she had to borrow another dress.
Therefore, Gavriella was very quiet as she opened Camilla’s wardrobe and pawed through the dresses that were hanging on the pegs. She didn’t want to wear one of the really nice garments, expensive with gold and jewels, but she wanted one that was better than her simple broadcloth. She found a red garment, made of a lightweight wool and a sheer white shift that was worn underneath it. It seemed simple enough, without any adornment, so she pulled on the shift, which was very nearly transparent, and the red dress over it.
Being that Camilla’s father was an earl, her bedchamber was well equipped, including a bronze mirror that was about five feet high. It was positioned on the wall next to the dressing table and Gavriella went to look at herself in her borrowed garments. With her fair skin and blonde hair, the rich red dress looked absolutely stunning on her. Because Camilla was a little smaller than she was, the dress was snug, but it made her look quite delectable.
In fact, Gavriella had never seen herself look so… beautiful.
It was a little startling. As she ran her hands over the material, she realized that although the design was simple, the material was, in fact, expensive and the dress very well made. This was no cheap piece of clothing. It had a low neckline with the shift peeking out and long sleeves with cutouts so the nearly transparent shift could be seen underneath. The bodice was snug to her hips whereupon the skirt flared quite beautifully. In truth, it was magnificent.
And she looked magnificent in it.
Feeling confident in the lovely garment for the first time in ever so long, Gavriella combed and braided her hair, draping the braid over her right shoulder and tying it off with a red silk ribbon she found on Camilla’s dressing table. The thrill of looking pretty was something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She’d just spent the past year feeling ashamed and ugly, and this was the first time in many months that she actually felt attractive and young and alive.
There was something in her that desperately wanted to live a normal life again.
Emboldened by the lovely dress, Gavriella went to her satchel and found a silk purse very deep at the bottom that contained her jewelry. She pulled forth a large golden cross on a long chain that she put over her head. Fine leather slippers went on her feet and she fastened her coin purse to a golden belt that she draped over her hips. The belt also belonged to Camilla and she silently thanked her cousin for her generosity. She knew she was going to have some explaining to do when she returned home but, at the moment, she wasn’t concerned about it.
She was only concerned about the excitement in her heart.
She was blind to all else.
Fully dressed in the lovely red clothing, Gavriella then stood by the windows overlooking the street outside and watched for that tall, blond man who had been part of the eventful evening the night before. As she waited, she relived the night over and over in her mind, thinking on the very moment she met him up until he brought her home at dawn.
She thought about their conversations and about his bravery as he had pulled her from the Thames. More and more, she was feeling incredibly foolish about impulsively jumping in the river. But as she explained to Andreas, she really didn’t know why she did it. All she knew was that every event in her life over the past year had built up to that moment and she was desperate to escape it, however stupidly.
But she didn’t feel like escaping it anymore.
She felt something she hadn’t felt in a very long time – hope.
Just as the wait was becoming torturous, Andreas finally made an appearance and Gavriella left the window and rushed to the mirror for one final look at herself. She turned for the door when something on her cousin’s dressing table caught her eye; a golden headband that had a white gossamer veil carefully stitched to it twinkled in the dim light.
It was a headpiece that a proper maiden would wear and, impulsively, she put it on. With the gold glittering in the light and the soft veil trailing just past her shoulders, she looked prettier than she had ever looked in her life. She wanted Andreas to think so, too.
God, she needed this, more than she’d ever needed anything.
Dressed and ready, Gavriella made her way to the chamber door and unbolted it, quietly cracking it open.
The corridor outside seemed to be still and quiet, so she stepped out of the chamber and silently shut the door. She was acutely aware that Aurelia’s chamber was right next door and she tiptoed past it, moving as swiftly as she could without making a sound. Since the entry door of the manse was directly below, Gavriella silently made her way down the staircase to the reception hall below.
There were a few servants moving about, but they didn’t pay any attention to her as she went to the front door and threw the bolt. Pulling the door open, she was immediately confronted by two armed soldiers, but they did nothing more than shut the door behind her as she walked out. No questions, no comments. Their job was to guard the door, and guard it they had. Their job was not to question a young woman who was coming out of the manse, unescorted.
But that didn’t stop them from giving her a queer look.
Oblivious to the expressions of the soldiers, Gavriella was focused on Andreas across the wide avenue. He was literally all she saw. The man had been watching the front door and when she came through, he came across the street and met her right in the middle.
For a moment, they simply looked at each other. All they had really seen of each other since their acquaintance had been in dark chambers or in the fog, or in fire-lit rooms. Never out in the sunlight where they could get a good look at one another. From the dark, dank night to the bright light of day, it was literally a world of difference.
And the difference was staggering.
“Greetings, my lady,” Andreas said after a moment, a smile playing on his lips. “I am pleased to see that you thought enough of me to keep our engagement.”