Page 31 of With Love in Sight
Or did she want to live for one more glorious night, to have that adventure she had craved so badly?
She removed her spectacles, then took up the mask and held it up to her face, turning to the looking glass as she did so. It was a fanciful silver concoction, with deep blue paste gems rimming the eyes. Several sleek white feathers curled over one brow and down the side of her face. Right away she felt transformed, no longer the placid Miss Duncan but another creature entirely. How would it feel, she thought, to wear the entire outfit? Would she look like herself anymore? Would she feel like herself anymore?
She felt a shiver of anticipation. To be transformed, even for one night, would be a heady thing, indeed.
Chapter 13
The moment Caleb saw the stunning creature in blue enter the room, he knew it was Imogen. The way she held herself and walked was the same. But that was where the similarities ended.
The woman who stood uncertainly in the doorway, her hands clasped together tightly, looked nothing like her. Somewhere the maid must have found the stays and hoops necessary for the construction of the eighty-year-old dress. The elaborately embroidered stomacher, with its silver thread and seed pearls, accentuated a narrow waist and high, full breasts. Her shoulders were creamy where they rose up over the wide, square neckline. Her light brown hair was a riotous mound of curls, piled high on her head, accentuating the length of her neck. Several long strands trailed in a teasing manner to brush her neck, her shoulders, the tops of her breasts. Caleb swallowed hard at the sight.
Her mask was firmly in place, but her color seemed high. Was that rouge she was wearing? The thought unsettled him. Imogen was simple, wholesome, utterly without artifice. This creature was not her.
But that was what he had tried to do for her, he reminded himself. He had wanted to give her the gift of being completely free of her future for one magical evening.
Looking on her now, however, at the stranger she had become, he felt he had erred, and horribly. She did not look like herself, the Imogen he had come to care for. Needing to see her, speak to her, know that she was still in there, he strode across the ballroom toward her.
It was crowded, quite a feat considering they were miles from London. It seemed no one had turned down the invitation. As he moved through the throng, he lost sight of her. But finally he caught a hint of sapphire blue shimmering through the crowd. And then the sea of people opened up, and there she was.
But what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks. She was smiling shyly at a young gentleman, who held his arm out gallantly to her. She took it, and he led her out as the music started up.
Caleb could only stare after her as she joined in the sets on the dance floor.
And that was the pattern for the next two hours. He would watch her dance, smiling and happy, her partner staring down at her with avid interest. Once she was led from the floor, Caleb would attempt to reach her side. But before he could, someone was already leading her out for another set. And each successive time found a frown pulling down on his face, his mood darkening until he was a seething ball of frustration.
By the time Tristan and Morley located him, he was ready to punch a wall.
“Ho there, Willbridge. You’ve been deuced hard to catch up to. You’ve been running back and forth across the ballroom like your shoes have caught fire.” Tristan peered at him from behind his black and green mask. “You all right there, man?”
“I’m fine,” Caleb snapped. He didn’t miss the look that passed between his two friends. What the devil was wrong with him? He attempted to rein in his mood.
“Abominable crush,” Morley commented, obviously trying to turn the conversation. “Can hardly move about the place. I did see Miss Mariah Duncan and her glorious shepherdess costume, however. Even managed to get a dance in.” He paused. Then he asked casually, “Didn’t see her sister, though. What is Miss Duncan disguised as, Willbridge?”
Immediately all thoughts of cooling his temper fled. “I believe she is ill and could not make it down,” he growled.
“Dashed bad luck, to miss the ball.”
Caleb grunted, his eyes back on the floor and Imogen as she twirled by in the arms of Ignatius Knowles. Obviously the man wasn’t planning on settling down with Mariah any time soon if he was looking at Imogen like that. Caleb had never had a mean thought about his cousin before, but he did now. Several of them. Some involving a satisfying amount of violence.
Tristan seemed to have followed his gaze. “Don’t know who that stunning one in the blue is. I’ve been trying to find out all night. Do either of you know?”
“Haven’t a clue,” Morley responded. “Quite a figure, though. That dress accents her assets perfectly. It looks like something my great-grandmother would have worn, but if she had looked like that in her portrait at home you can be assured I would have had some very interesting dreams about her in my youth.” He chuckled.
Caleb saw red. Quite literally his vision went crimson. Luckily for his friends, however, it was at that moment that the dance ended and Imogen was brought to the side of the room not ten feet away from him. Without even a farewell glance at the two other men, Caleb stalked off toward her. She would not escape him this time.
• • •
Imogen’s feet hurt from dancing in the heeled slippers, her cheeks hurt from smiling constantly, her head hurt from being without her spectacles again, and her back hurt from the uncomfortable corset. All in all, she thought, the evening was not turning out as she had hoped. It was all well and good to want to be the belle of the ball. But if this was what her sister had to endure night after night, she was glad for her own unpopular social status.
And she had not seen Caleb once. Granted, she thought she had glimpsed him from afar, or rather the blurry outline of someone very tall with his color hair. But he had always been across the room, and she could never be certain.
And then there had been her family. She had spent an inordinate amount of time avoiding them, certain they would know who she was and out her for the incredible fake she was. But when she had inadvertently entered into the same set as her sister, she had not received more than a small, friendly smile.
Now she stood at the side of the room, her previous dance partner having just left her. She reveled in not having to laugh and smile for a moment. She eyed the entrance to the ballroom. It was not so very far away. Perhaps she could slip out before anyone else approached her…
“May I have this dance?”
The familiar deep voice sounded in her ear. A shiver ran down her spine. She turned to face Caleb, her face breaking out into what had to be the first real smile she had given all night.
