She looked at him for a while before seeming to be satisfied. “Very well, I will leave you to mingle with our guests, then. Just try to enjoy the ball, please?”
“Of course, I will,” he replied as she left his side.
Turning to look at the other guests, he debated on how to occupy himself for the rest of the evening. He tried to brush away the feeling that the whole evening was ruined. Even if it were, it was still his duty as host to ensure the evening was not spoiled for anyone else if he could help it.
Unfortunately, the fates had apparently determined his evening was to get even worse if that were possible. The sound of a familiar voice intruded on him, nearly making him wince.
“Lord Bartlett?”
He turned towards the voice with a false smile as he replied, “Miss Rutherford?”
The bright smile he got from the young lady in the swan costume only confirmed his fears. “Yes! I am so pleased we have been able to find each other.”
He had not been looking forward to seeing her again, but he supposed this was as good an opportunity to make his lack of interest in her clear. However, he knew he couldn’t be rude about it.
As much as he wanted Georgiana, logic told him he would probably never be able to marry her. Miss Rutherford was a good second choice, though, as his mother pointed out, she would probably not stay single for long.
“Perhaps I might have the honor of dancing with you?” he said, hearing the current set coming to an end.
“I would love that,” she beamed in reply.
He stood there, content to wait in silence for the current dance to end, hoping his obvious failure to even attempt a conversation might give her a clue as to the fact he was not pursuing her.
She seemed to find the silence disconcerting, and barely any time at all passed before she broke the silence. “I am so glad you decided to make this a masquerade. I haven’t heard that you make a habit of hosting such balls.”
In other words, she wants me to flatter her by confirming I arranged this ball just for her. “That is because I don’t really enjoy hosting balls. But I wanted to … I wanted to reconnect with a friend of mine, and this seemed a good way to do so,” he replied, choosing his words carefully, to be as truthful as possible.
“Oh,” she replied, clearly disappointed. She quickly recovered herself as, at that moment, those about to participate in the next dance were finding their positions on the floor.
“Well, I hope you have been able to talk to this friend of yours,” she told him as he led her into place.
“Yes, actually, I have,” he replied simply, refusing to elaborate further.
“And how was he, your friend, I mean?”
He chose to neither correct nor confirm her mistake, as he replied, “The conversation did not go as well as I had hoped … but I am still glad I had it.”
He lapsed into silence for only a moment before suddenly coming up with an idea which he thought should cement his lack of interest. “One person I wish I could have invited is my cousin Felicia. She would love this ball.”
“Oh? Perhaps I can meet her one day. What is she like?”
“Oh, I don’t know if you will ever get a chance to meet her. She is quite happy living in France. I have been thinking … I might return to France soon for a visit.”
“Back to France? For how long?”
“I have not made up my mind about it, yet. I would likely leave in a few weeks. I don’t know how long I will stay this time…”
He was pleased to see Miss Rutherford seemed to be at a complete loss as to how to reply to that, and it wasn’t entirely a lie, either. If Felicia took too long to reply to him, he might very well decide to go to France to find her and get his answer.
Of course, he would come back as quickly as he possibly could, but he felt no need to share that information. Instead, he let the sentence hang, implying he might stay a long while.
“I see…” she eventually said in a quiet tone. “And is there anything here worth staying for?”
Her real question was clear, so he decided to make his reply equally clear. “I am afraid not.”