Page 14 of A Deal With a Notorious Devil
“I see Emma just there,” Phoebe said. “I’m certain she has got a fresh dance card going spare.” She knew well enough that it would not get any use, but that hardly mattered. This one small thing would make Mama happy, at least for the moment.
At least until Chris arrived.Ifhe arrived.
Her nerves jangled as she wound her way around the outer edge of the ballroom, toward the refreshment table where Emma stood. Emma caught sight of her some distance away and her brows lifted as Phoebe neared.
“Champagne?” Emma asked,sotto voce, as Phoebe arrived. “You look quite peaked.”
“Please,” Phoebe said, accepting the glass that Emma offered. “I told Mama I would ask you for a fresh dance card.” She lifted the ruined one that dangled on a ribbon from her wrist.
“Oh, dear. Do you think you shall have need of one?”
“I don’t expect so,” Phoebe said. “But it was a convenient enough excuse to come and talk to you instead of standing at thewall and—and—”
“Fretting?”
“It’s just that he’s not come,” Phoebe said in a harried whisper.
“He will. He’s never bothered even to respond before. But he has accepted, and so he will be here.” Emma hesitated. “Phoebe…are you certain that this is what you truly want? Because you cannot take it back. If you should change your mind, you will be utterly ruined.”
A strange little shiver slipped down her spine. She might be ruined anyway; at least in the eyes of society. It was permissible, of course, even expected in some circumstances, for a woman to marry beneath her. If she hadn’t the dowry to secure a suitor of a higher status than her own, she might have little other choice. A viscount’s daughter could wed a mere mister, and still expect to find herself in invitations.
She would not merely be marrying a rung or so beneath her, in the eyes of theTon. She would be stepping off the ladder completely.
It would befine. Her friends would not desert her, nor her family. Even Emma had experienced remarkably few consequences due to her association with her illegitimate half-brother, though Phoebe had the sneaking suspicion that it had had quite a lot to do with the fact that she’d married into the Beaumont family, and that she now counted both a marquess and an earl among her relations.
An odd hush descended over the ballroom, the thrum of conversation dying to nothing. The musicians played on, but amidst the silence of the room the music sounded suddenly hollow and shrill.
And there he was. He had strolled in as casually as if he owned the place, with a wrinkled cravat tied a bit too loosely, his gold hair windblown—not in the fashionably disheveled mannerin which certain gentlemen were wont to wear their hair, but as if he’d hung his head out the window of his carriage on the ride over. Every eye was trained upon him, and he wore the weight of the stares he collected without a flinch, as if he had not even noticed the attention he’d attracted, and—
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’m certain.”
“Go, then,” Emma said. “Kit’s caused such a stir that you won’t be missed. In fifteen minutes, I’ll let your mother know you’ve gone to walk in the garden. If you change your mind, you must be back in the ballroom before then.”
Phoebe downed the last of her champagne and set the glass aside. And while the whole of the ballroom marveled at the unexpected intruder, she slipped out into the cool night air.
∞∞∞
Chris was accustomed to stares, to suspicion and reticence. He’d expected no less, even at an event hosted by Emma. There was a sort of power in it, one that he wielded on force of habit. Like the parting of the Red Sea, the dancers stumbled in their paces, drifting inexorably to the fringes of the floor to merge with the separating crowd.
“Kit!” Em struggled through the thick of the throng that had coalesced at the outer edges of the room, as if they had been pulled by a magnet—or repelled from him. She held two glasses of champagne in her hands, which she guarded carefully as she weaved through her guests. “I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said as the last strains of the music faded with a discordant hum of the strings. She reached his side at last, appearing oblivious to the vast swath of empty space which surrounded them.“Champagne?” she offered.
“’Course. Far be it from me to refuse when the cost of it hasn’t come from my purse.” It was fine stuff, naturally, but then Em could well afford to entertain her guests in style. Into the heavy silence, he said, “I suppose you’ve gotten loads of donations?”
“You’d have no reason to know, since you’ve not attended before,” she said, “but the largest part of the evening is dedicated to entertainment and to finding appropriate positions for my oldest children. Donations are made at the end of the evening when the dancing has concluded. I expect it will be the most profitable year yet.”
“I expect you’re correct.” He lifted his voice just a little; a subtle suggestion to the room that it hadbetterbe. That they ought to dig as deeply into their pockets as they were able, if they wished to avoid his displeasure. “And where is Rafe this evening?”
“Likely in the nursery,” she said, “making himself suitably scarce. He attracts a great deal of attention these days, and he didn’t wish to make himself the showpiece of my ball, when it is meant to be about the children. Do you know, I think he is not quite enjoying his newfound fame.”
No, Rafe wouldn’t. He’d long become accustomed to enjoying a certain relative anonymity, in which society at large paid him little attention. To have found himself so much the focus of it just recently had no doubt placed him in a strange and awkward new position.
“You’re welcome to visit with him, if you like,” Em suggested.
“In the nursery? Not damned likely.” Chris swallowed down the last of his champagne.
“Oh, come. You’re fond of the children; you know you are,” she said.
He supposed he was, in a way. The way of an uncle whofrequently sent lavish gifts and sweets and such, and who tolerated the presence of his sister’s children despite the annoying screeches and noxious smells that often emanated from them. But he had little interest in spending more time with them than absolutely necessary for the sake of whatever nebulous manner offamily harmonyEm had insisted upon.
