Page 60 of A Rake's Redemption
“I will come back tomorrow so we can begin the dance lessons,” Caroline said as she prepared to take her leave a short time later.
“Dance lessons?” Inis asked.
Caroline smiled. “You do not expect to attend a ball and not dance, do you?” Inis paled and Caroline patted her hand, hoping the girl didn’t have two left feet. “It will be all right. I will make sure you know the steps.”
Inis threw Alex a startled look. “I had thought we would be putting in an appearance, perhaps staying on the sidelines.”
“Not a chance,” Caroline said. “The ladies practically line up to get Alex to sign their dance cards, but do not worry. I will make sure your card is full as well.”
Inis’s face turned even chalkier. “I will have to dance all evening?”
“It is expected to do at least one set.” Alex studied her. “Do you wish to withdraw from our agreement?”
Inis worried her bottom lip and then finally shook her head. “No. I will do what I need to do.”
Caroline glanced from one to the other, aware of some undercurrent, but not sure what it was. “Well,” she said brightly as she pulled on her gloves. “Until tomorrow then.”
Her carriage waited in front of the house, the door open, the steps down. Caroline gave instructions to her driver before the footman helped her inside. As the carriage rolled away she wondered what in the world had been wrong with Alex this afternoon. He had been unusually subdued and lost in thought. The last bit of conversation between him and Inis was interesting, too. Or perhaps worrisome was a better word. Had Alex been reconsidering going through with his plan to put egg on George’s face?
Caroline sat back on the squab. When Alex had first explained what he planned to do, she had thought the idea too bizarre to work, but the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea ofHis Pompous-Ass Gracebeing totally mortified when he found out the truth a day or two later. Alex would probably wait until Inis was on her way to America before he informed his brother of the hoax, but Caroline intended to be there when he did.
Initially, she’d had her doubts also about teaching Inis enough to be able to carry through, but she was proving to be an apt pupil. Caroline supposed Inis’s panicked reaction today was natural for someone who’d never attended a ball, let alone been expected to dance with aristocrats. But, between herself and Alexander, Inis would be prepared. The more of George’s friends that they could fool, the better.
Caroline hoped Alexander wasn’t going to change his mind. It would ruin her own plans for revenge.
The carriage rolled to a stop on Regent Street. Caroline stepped out and smoothed her skirt, then looked up at the coachman. “I shall not be long,” she said and then turned to walk into Madame DuBois’s modiste shop. She had an order to place for a negligee.
Chapter Nineteen
Late the next afternoon, Inis had entered the ballroom of Dansworth House for the dance lesson when she finally realized why Jameson had given her surly looks ever since lunch. He was standing at the far end of the room. The stable master had changed clothes and, if her eyesight wasn’t failing her, there was something around his neck that might have been a cravat.
Evans, the butler, stood alongside him looking resigned as did Alex’s valet, Higgins. Near them, Elsie and Fern and Mrs. Bradley were clustered. Elsie’s eyes were round as an owl’s, although Fern and the housekeeper looked more composed.
“What…” Inis started to ask, but was interrupted when Caroline walked in, followed by Alex.
“Oh, good. You are all here,” Caroline said. “This will be such fun.”
Elsie giggled, and Fern smiled, but the men looked like they’d rather be drawn and quartered, and Inis heard Alex chuckle behind her. She turned around. “Why is everyone here?”
“Apparently, Caroline didn’t think she could teach you the quadrille without the proper four pairs,” Alex replied, “so she pressed the men into service.”
“Do not worry,” Caroline said sotto voce, “none of these servants will gossip about your not knowing how to dance. Alex demands loyalty.”
Inis inwardly cringed. She was going to owe Jameson a big favor for this. He had mentioned a time or two how much he hated visiting his wife’s relatives who believed no evening’s entertainment was complete without rolling up the rugs and doing a few country dances. She wasn’t sure how Evans and Higgins felt, but judging from their expressions, they both felt this beneath their job descriptions. On the other hand, Mrs. Bradley and Elsie seemed elated and even Fern looked interested.
“Is Caroline going to be giving all of us lasses lessons?” Inis asked.
Alex shook his head. “Before Mrs. Bradley was widowed, she and her husband did a fair amount of entertaining themselves. She interviewed the maids to see which of them might have had some prior practice.”
The quadrille was danced in Dublin, although Inis only attended the balls her uncle forced her to. As far as she was concerned, ballrooms were too crowded and lacked fresh air. The speed at which the quadrille and Irish reels were done by men and women overdressed in formal clothes soon left the room reeking of sweat and a mix of overly sweet perfumes. So, for once, she was not totally lying when she said she didn’t have experience. “I do hope I can master the steps.”
“Do not worry. You will be paired with me first.” Alex gave her a wink. “Rakes are notoriously good dancers, you know.”
The wink was totally improper, of course, but it made Inis smile. Alex was probably trying to put her at ease so she wouldn’t clobber all over his feet. He offered his arm as Caroline moved to the center of the ballroom and motioned for the rest of the entourage to come forward. She positioned everyone and borrowed Alex to walk through the first figure, then had the other three couples repeat it while Inis watched. Caroline did the same with the remaining four parts of the dance while Inis took note of the footwork, her concentration only partly feigned. She definitely did not want to step on Alex’s feet nor did she want to trip over them and go sprawling.
“All right,” Caroline said when everyone had completed the walk-through and she took her place at the pianoforte. “Let us try the first figure to ‘Le Pantalon.’”
At least the song was a familiar one and Caroline played it in the slower 2/4 time rather than the regular 6/8 which kept the mistakes to a minimum. And Alex was right. He was a superb dancer and led expertly, lifting Inis’s arm a bit ahead of time to warn of a twirl and angling her hand slightly to indicate which direction she was to turn. She even managed not to mar his polished boots. She didn’t fare quite as well with the other men when they moved to a Scottish reel, but then she suspected they weren’t overly interested in performing well. Jameson growled at her as they did apassé,although he kept his face impassive. The stiff expressions Evans and Higgins wore slowly changed to winces and grimaces as Elsie—and Fern to a lesser extent—stomped through the steps.
