I so desperately want to see you…to kiss you, to just hold you to me in a hug? The memory of how a powerful man like the marquess had trembled in her embrace had warmth spreading through her body.
With a huff, she hurriedly rang for Susie to return and quickly performed her morning ablutions. Several minutes later, Maryann felt presentably dressed in a light green high-waisted day gown and her hair caught in an artful chignon. She made her way down the winding staircase of their elegant town house.
First, she would meet with her friends, and then respond to her correspondence, and pen a letter to Kitty. Though she would not receive it right away, for Kitty’s last letter said she had gone on a long honeymoon with her duke to places she always wanted to travel. A wistful ache of longing went through Maryann again, to be so in love and also free.
Maryann entered the room to see her friends sitting close together on the sofa, chatting and taking tea. A rush of affection filled Maryann on seeing Ophelia and Fanny, two more members of their sinful wallflowers’ club. It always astonished her that they, too, were seen as outcasts by those in society, and for such silly and insupportable reasons. Fanny was extraordinarily pretty and a talented painter, but her connections were poor and were even deemed an embarrassment. Worse, a nobleman (Maryann couldn’t bear to call him a gentleman) Fanny had fancied herself in love with had jilted her a few days before their wedding and it was her the ton had judged for his misconduct.
Ophelia was quite different than the rest of their merry band, for she could marry should she wish it. She owned both wealth and beauty but refused to marry, which her father scandalously indulged. Ophelia was a striking lady by any standards, yet the sharp cheekbones and generous lips, and blackest of hair wouldn’t have the ton call her beautiful. Words they often used in her presence were arresting, handsome. And, unpardonably, wallflower.
It was Ophelia who glanced up and saw her hovering in the threshold.
Her golden eyes lit with welcome, and she smiled broadly. “Maryann, you’ve had us waiting an age!”
With a laugh, she sauntered inside and closed the door. “We have so much to catch up on.”
“You seem to be faring well after your twice brush with scandal,” Fanny said with a sniff but with a very decided twinkle in her eyes. “To have danced so publicly with Lord Rothbury! How are you still in town and not banished to Hertfordshire for the rest of the year?”
“Because despite my efforts, Lord Stamford has not withdrawn his pursuit.”
“Your mother visited mine a few days ago,” Ophelia said with a frown. “To garner her support in squashing the rumors.”
“I suspected it would have been harder than anticipated,” Maryann said. “But Stamford’s persistence in the face of the rumors is very surprising to me. You recall last season when Viscount Avedon canceled his betrothal to Lady Jane because a rumor started that she was seen in Hyde Park walking without a lady maid or chaperone?”
Ophelia nodded. “Yes. Lord Stamford is not behaving in the predicted manner like most gentlemen, is he?”
“What will you do?” Fanny asked fretfully. “Lord Stamford seems determined to possess you. I cannot tell if it is flattering or frightening.”
It was frightening and infuriating. “My father gave me a few more weeks of freedom before the announcement. Mother seems determined to ignore that. I am thinking I shall leave for Paris or Italy before I tie myself to a man I do not want.”
“Maryann!” Fanny cried, significantly alarmed. “Pray do not speak such nonsense as to alarm us. Kitty, Caroline, Ophelia, Emma, and I would be most anguished should you run away from England without any companion or money. Your very life would be in danger; the scandal of a single lady traveling alone would be…” Fanny blew out a sharp breath. “I am aghast you should even say it.”
“It seems ridiculous that in an age of civilization, a lady has to so constrain her desires to please gentlemen who do nothing to temper themselves,” Ophelia retorted. “Because they are the ones who set these ridiculous rules. Why can’t Maryann travel alone should she wish it?”
Maryann knew that would be an even bigger scandal than kissing the marquess in public. Traveling alone would signal that she was free with her charms and not a respectable young lady at all. She perched