Last Dance in London (Rakes on the Run #1) - Sydney Jane Baily Page 0,11
her own important task to perform.
“I’m going to the ladies’ retiring room,” she announced to Mrs. Zebodar. Unfortunately, her chaperone nodded and rose to her feet.
“Oh, are you coming, too?”
“Indubitably,” the woman replied.
Julia grimaced. Her normally easy mission, although occasionally heart-thumping, was no longer going to occur on her own schedule if she had to worry about dodging Mrs. Zebodar every time she wasn’t with a dance partner.
“Surely you don’t think I’ll come to any harm in Lady Pritchard’s retiring room?”
Her chaperone pursed her lips. “You cannot wander on your own. You might be assaulted in a hallway or dragged outside or abducted into a carriage. What if someone tries to kiss you?”
Julia nearly laughed. Mrs. Zebodar was equating a kiss with some other truly dreadful actions. And she, for one, wouldn’t have missed the thrilling kiss with the Earl of Marshfield for all the world. Although not her first, it was undoubtedly the best she’d ever experienced.
Glancing around, she noticed the very man himself was staring at her as she crossed the room. At his piercing gaze and dour expression, she nearly smiled and waved just to be cheeky, but decided such behavior was a tad vulgar.
Instead, Julia turned her thoughts to the hound of a chaperone by her side. How would she ever manage to get away from the woman?
Then a thought struck her. “I think before we go to the retiring room, we ought to secure a few more partners. There will be four more dances altogether, I believe, and I have one secured by the Earl of Marshfield.” If he still showed up after her impertinence. “I don’t want to incur the reputation for being a wallflower, do I?”
“Heavens, no!” Mrs. Zebodar looked alarmed. “That would reflect badly on me, indeed. And you are such a lovely girl. There is no reason you shouldn’t enjoy every dance until the wee hours.”
What a horrifying notion! Dancing with strangers all night didn’t sound appealing at all. If only the country dances, as the people in Town called them despite doing them in the London ballrooms, weren’t so very long.
Although the waltz with Lord Marshfield hadn’t seemed long at all.
“I know that young man,” Mrs. Zebodar exclaimed, nodding her head toward a gangly buck, leaning against the wall, talking with a few others. “He’s a baron’s son. His mother is an acquaintance of mine. Let’s see if he has yet to promise for all the dances.”
Exactly so! Julia wouldn’t give a fig if she stood him up, leaving him on the edge of the dance floor, which was what she needed to do to slip away upstairs.
After meeting the unfortunately named baron’s eldest, Mr. Boreman, and letting him claim a quadrille, as well as two more partners whom Mrs. Zebodar sniffed out, at last, they went to the retiring room to freshen up.
An hour later, Julia’s plan worked like a charm. When her partner claimed her from her chaperone, on the way to the dance floor, suddenly she begged off with a cry of dismay.
“I’ve torn my hem. So clumsy of me. I’ll go to the cloakroom where they’ll be able to assist me with a quick stitch. I’ll meet you by the fireplace,” she assured him. “While we can’t dive interrupt the flow of this dance, I believe my next one is free.”
Before her partner could offer to go with her, Julia disappeared amongst the tide of people crowding toward the dance floor.
In a very few minutes, she was on the level above and prowling the deserted hallway, hoping to find her hostess’s bedroom.
Chapter Four
“There was a battle of the petticoat and the cravat at Lady Pritchard’s ball, when Miss T__ in quite a pelt gave Lord M__ a sound tongue-lashing near the ladies’ retiring room. Although no good can come of eavesdropping, a nearby female heard the earl offer to ... Alas, dear reader, we cannot print his words lest we lose our license.”
-The Gazette
Jasper watched Miss Sudbury give her hapless partner the slip and leave the room. Hm. Where was the hoyden off to? So much for a chaperone.
Frowning, he searched for the Zebodar woman, only to find her sipping champagne and chatting with someone at the next table.
Not really sure why he was still interested or what he was going to do, he followed Miss Sudbury. By the time he pushed his way through the throng in the ever-hotter ballroom and strode into the hallway, there was no sign of her.