Page 47 of An Offer for a Spinster
“Yes, I’m sure they’re a tremendously interesting person. Imagine the tips they could give, on writing and reading!” Katherine laughed shortly, shaking her head.
Timothy felt as though something were fizzing inside him, getting ready to burst out through his throat, spilling everywhere, impossible to take back.
Don’t do it,warned a small voice in his head.She’ll be disappointed to know that you’re her revered author. So, so disappointed. Do you want to see her face fall? Do you want to hear her laugh, and not believe you? Do you want to scupper your friendship forever, and go back to scribbling alone at your desk, in the dark?
He swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes closed. He’d imagined telling her, over and over again. Her reaction was different every time.
Perhaps she would be angry. Perhaps she would be admiring, or skeptical, or shocked, or disappointed. Perhaps a mixture of them all.
“Timothy?”
He opened his eyes to find Katherine looking up at him, brow furrowed. “Are you quite well?” she continued, laying a hand on his arm.
The touch seemed to burn.
“I am,” Timothy managed at last. “I had something I wanted to tell you about, something about myself. It may take you by surprise, but I feel that it is something you ought to know.”
Serious words, indeed. Katherine blinked, taken aback.
“Oh. Oh, I see. Is it something very worrying, then?”
“No, no. That is… well, I don’t know. You see, the thing is…”
“Ah, Lady Katherine! Here you are.”
Timothy had never considered himself to be a violent man, but at the moment, he could gladly have knocked Lord Barwood’s teeth down his throat.
He saw Katherine’s face drop and was obliged to stop talking and turn to face the man swaggering towards them.
Lord Barwood was wearing a rich, burgundy satin outfit, plush and quilted, and a red domino mask hung from his fingers. Apparently he did not want to mar his handsome face with a mask. He smiled indulgently at Lady Katherine, shooting Timothy a poisonous look.
“Cornered by a man in a sheet. Horrifying.” He remarked, directing a long, slow look of contempt over Timothy’s outfit.
“He’s Apollo,” Katherine said, a definite edge to her voice.
That did not make it better. Lord Barwood stifled a hoot of laughter.
“Apollo?Timothy Rutherford? How ambitious, I must say. And you, my dear Lady Katherine, are none other than the graceful goddess Athena.”
He kissed her hand, flashing a confident smile up at her. Katherine did not return it.
“I expect my mother told you who I was,” she said shortly, and the confident smile flickered a little.
“I came to ask you to dance,” Lord Barwood said, after an awkward pause of half a minute. “They’re starting up again. Shall we?”
Timothy said nothing. There wasn’t a great deal he could say – Katherine was not permitted to refuse him, after all. She took his arm hesitantly, glancing up at Timothy.
“Goodbye, Timothy. I daresay I’ll see you again soon.”
“I doubt it, there’s a tremendous crush here this evening,” Lord Barwood said nastily. “If I were you, Timothy, I’d put the mask back on. Without it, you really do just look like a man in a sheet.”
With that parting short, he led Katherine away towards the dance floor, and the crowd quickly swallowed them up.
Timothy did not replace the mask. He didn’t bother waiting on the edges of the dance floor either, in an attempt to whisk Katherine away. He’d already made too great of a fool of himself. He’d felt so embarrassingly confident as Apollo, right up until the moment he let Katherine’s name slip.
Had she been disappointed, to find his face behind the mask? Had she hoped it was someone else? He searched his memory, but not recall seeing her face drop.
I can but hope.
