Of Gossip and Dances

"It seems that we will be entertaining a guest this afternoon." A smile graced the woman's face as she read over the letter that she had received only moments ago, putting a hand to her mouth as she tucked the letter back into the envelope. "To see his grown up face for the first time will bring me joy." A family of three had made themselves comfortable in the drawing room, where they would quietly sit and enjoy each other’s company after their midday meal.

“My always growing face does not bring you a speck of joy, my love?” The woman’s husband, sitting across the room, smiled at her as she scoffed at his teasing comment. It was the kind of love and teasing that kept the couple’s relationship anything but boring. The spark that had brought them together all those years ago had not yet faded because of their constant banter and frequent dates, which only brought them closer together throughout the years.

The woman smiled. “Oh of course, my dearest. But this man is young, and has not come to visit in the few years that we have been living here, despite knowing where we were.” The young man sitting on the chair by the window turned toward his mother. Was she speaking of his cousin, the one closest to his own age? It had been years since they had seen him, and the two had much catching up to do.

“And it could not have been that I have been too busy to visit my always lovely aunt?” The voice was almost instantly recognized by the couples’ son. And he was right; his cousin had come to visit.

As he went to hug the young man’s mother, he – Hugh Seymour – studied his cousin. So much had changed about him in the years that he had been away at school, the school that his mother had demanded that he attend by himself. Hugh’s cousin had grown much taller, maybe even taller than he had grown.

When the two men locked eyes, a smile grew on both of their faces. “It seems that you have grown into your long nose, Hugh!” The two laughed. When Hugh was a young boy, he had been very conscious about his nose, and his cousin, Richard, had done nothing but make fun of it every chance that he got.

“Have your feet stopped growing yet? They look monstrous!” All the jokes that they flung out at each other brought back memories from their childhood; how they would spend all of their time sneaking around their parents, playing tricks on people. If only they could go back to those days.

As he had grown up, Hugh had been taught a number of lessons about the manners in society and how others expect him to act both in private and in a public setting. And he only thought that women were drilled about the rules of society. There were many expectations that many people had that Hugh worried that he would not be able to fill them all, and the last thing that he wanted to do was disappoint a single person, whether he knew them or not.

“Oh goodness!” Hugh glanced over at his mother, who seemed that she had only just now remembered something very important. “We must be getting ready! We will need to leave soon!” She was the only one to hurry out of the room, while the three men did not move a single muscle. Both Hugh and his father knew that she was the type of woman to worry over the smallest things, and liked to be ready for events hours before they had to be there.

“That woman,” his father said, shaking his head. “I will never understand her.” He left the room, still shaking his head after hearing his name from across the house. How could others ever think that his mother was a quiet woman? She was the loudest person that he has ever known, even when he was a child.

Richard chuckled. “I have missed being here.”

“If you lived here, then you wouldn’t miss it so much. She is such a handful. If all women are like her, I can’t even fathom why men are so desperate to get married in such a hurry. I would not be surprised if my mother attempts to find me a beautiful woman that I may fall in love with tonight.”

Richard shook his head. “Look on the bright side, you will have women swooning over you, right?”

“But if you attend this dinner party, they will be all over both of us? That might be enjoyable. And I do not think the hosts will mind. I mean, they were hoping more people would come,” Hugh said, once he thought of the idea. It would be better if he did know someone there other than his parents and the people that he was forced to be introduced to and would never remember their names. “What do you say?”

“Let us get ready then, we don’t want to be late.”

In the other room, however, the mother watches the men leave the room. “Why on Earth would he come on such short notice? He has no reason to visit us; he never has.”