Page 13 of Scars of a Passionate Revenge
He almost laughed out loud at the idiocy of his thoughts. What on earth was the matter with him? He shook his head, trying to force the thoughts out of his mind, and made his way determinedly across the ballroom, towards the front door of the house, and then out into the night.
Chapter 6
Alice was relieved when the moment came that she and Clara could close the door of her chamber behind them, and get ready for bed in peace.
It was late, and Alice had told her own maid that she did not need to stay up to help the girls to undress, even though she knew that Dorothea would have expected her own poor maid to stay up until the early hours of the morning waiting for her, so that she could help her.
Ever since Benedict had left them, and all the way home in the carriage, her stepmother had been making snide comments, and Alice had had to summon every ounce of self-control not to snap at her and tell her what she really thought of all the horrible things she had to say.
“I do not know why you were not able to convince him to dance with you a second time, Alice.” That had been Dorothea’s parting shot, as the girls were walking upstairs. The words still stung as Alice flung herself down on the bed.
Clara sat down next to her. “You should ignore her, you know. She doesn’t know anything about him, and scarcely anything about you either!”
“I know,” Alice sighed. “But it is so hard when the only things she ever says to me are insults and jibes, and I cannot answer back.”
“Well, what does it matter anyway? He danced with you, and he said that he would have liked to again, but he had to go, so you must have made an impression on him!”
Alice smiled. She was not, though, quite ready to talk about Benedict, and certainly not to reveal that they had known each other when they were younger. Indeed, she had so many thoughts whirling around her mind, that she knew that even if she were to try and talk to her friend about them, she would probably make no sense at all.
Clara often stayed over with Alice after balls, as her own home was quite far away from the heart of the city, where the most important events of the Season took place. It was always pleasant to have company afterwards, to have someone to talk to about what had taken place during the course of the evening.
But tonight, Alice resolved that she would talk very little of her own experiences. No, she would let Clara tell her all about Lord Grant instead, she thought, as they both climbed out of their dresses and got into their night things.
“And I think you made rather an impression on the viscount, too,” Alice said with a smile, as she climbed into bed.
Clara climbed in next to her, her face a picture of radiant happiness. “He is such a fine gentleman, Alice, and he has so much to say! Without talking too much, you know…” She giggled. “I do not even know quite how to describe it, but I felt like I had known him all my life, even though we had just been introduced. And he is such a good dancer!”
Alice grinned. “Mr. Fletcher told me that he did not dance often.” She bit her lip. She had almost about to call him Benedict, which would be far too familiar. She must try to forget that she had known him since she was a child. She took a breath and continued.
“He said that the viscount generally prefers to dance with his cousins, rather than with ladies that he does not know well. I think that you must have made a strong impression on him!”
Clara blushed. “I could not believe that he asked me to dance a second time. Everyone will think that we are courting!”
“Well, perhaps you will be soon,” Alice replied with a smile. She looked at her friend again and felt a surge of pleasure at how happy she looked. Clara was much more focused on marriage than Alice had even been, but had had a couple of disappointing Seasons, and turned down more than one gentleman who she did not think she could love. Perhaps this Season, after all this time, she had finally met her Prince Charming?
The girls settled down to sleep at last, and Alice could not stop her mind from wandering to the garden, and to the moment that she had heard Benedict’s voice coming through the darkness, finishing her quotation from Shakespeare.
It had been one of the most exhilarating experiences of her life, to spend that secret time with him, and even though she knew she should not, she allowed her thoughts to return to the fantasy she had indulged in, of sharing a passionate kiss with a handsome stranger out there in the darkness. She felt a tingling passing through her whole body as she imagined it again, and she smiled secretly to herself in the darkness before finally drifting off to sleep.
***
It was late the following morning when the girls rose for breakfast. Alice and Clara entered the breakfast room together, and Alice was delighted to see that her father was already there, sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee.
“Father, how wonderful to see you downstairs for breakfast!” she exclaimed happily as she sat down opposite him.
“My dear,” the baron beamed. “I am pleased to see you up and about. A late night, was it?”
Alice giggled. “It was a ball, Father, of course it was a late night!”
“And did you and Lady Clara enjoy yourselves?” he said, smiling across the table at Clara as she helped herself to a cup of coffee.
Clara nodded. “We had a wonderful time, thank you, My Lord.”
“Clara danced with Viscount Chalmers, not once, but twice!” Alice said.
“Twice! Goodness me,” the baron said, exhaling as he spoke. “We shall be hearing the banns read soon, I do not doubt.”
Clara squeaked in protest, then giggled. It was true, of course, that everyone in thetonwould be talking about them today, since they had danced together twice, but there were no guarantees that it would go further than that, despite the gossip that would be working its way around the breakfast tables of polite society at that very moment.
