Introducing Miss Joanna (Once a Wallflower #2) - Maggi Andersen Page 0,7

you think we should?” Jo’s eyes widened in the mirror. What if Letty cut a hole in her dress?

“I do.” Letty took hold of the flower positioned near Jo’s navel and cut the threads holding it in place. The camellia came away in her hand.

Jo turned to the mirror. Her gown was better without it.

She tried not to tremble as Letty snipped away. More flowers fell to the floor. She kneeled to remove some of those crowding the hem, then straightened and made Jo turn around. “I like the sleeves, they’re pretty, we shall leave them,” Letty decided as she viewed her handiwork. “The gown is quite elegant now, don’t you think so?”

“Yes. I do,” Jo said cautiously, moving closer to the mirror. There were no holes in the fabric, and the change was miraculous.

“Now, please sit. The style of your hair is too severe.”

Letty fashioned a knot high on Jo’s head, then teased a few long curls to rest against her neck and face. Taking a hairpin from her reticule, she tucked one of the smaller camellias into Jo’s hair behind her ear. “You have beautiful hair.”

“There’s too much of it. It’s difficult to manage,” Jo admitted.

“Every woman should have such a problem.” Letty laughed. “It is your crowning glory, Jo.”

“That is what my father says,” she admitted.

“He is quite right. A good cut will make it more manageable. I can recommend my hairdresser. I’ll give you her address if you wish to use her.”

“I would appreciate it, thank you, Letty.”

Letty smiled. “Now, give me your opinion. Have I wrought magic?”

Jo rose to study herself in the mirror. Her gown was still unlike the other debutantes’, but it looked much better. Even the small flowers decorating the sleeves looked pretty. Jo turned a shoulder to better view her hair. She approved of the camellia.

Jo twirled. “I love it.” She grinned. “I can’t thank you enough, Letty.”

“I should like us to talk again,” Letty said. “But Cartwright and I always dance the waltz. The ton frown on a woman dancing with her husband, but I suspect they have grown used to us.”

The waltz was called as she and Letty returned to the ballroom. Letty said goodbye and joined a tall, dark-haired man who led her onto the dance floor. Mr. Cartwright was handsome. He smiled down at his wife with such affection, it sent a flood of longing through Jo’s chest. Would a man ever look at her that way?

Aunt Mary gasped when Jo returned to her chair. “What have you done to your beautiful gown?”

“Improved on it,” Jo said with an impish grin.

“Well, we mustn’t tell Mrs. Laverty,” her aunt said, after considering it. “But, I must admit the simpler style flatters you.”

Jo took a seat beside her aunt. She raised her chin at an appraising glance from a young debutante who had rudely stared at her earlier. “I shall tell Mrs. Laverty that I wore her gown and had a wonderful time at my first ball.”

Aunt Mary nodded in approval. “You are always kind-hearted, Jo.”

But at her next ball, Jo would wear the white muslin she’d requested from her new dressmaker.

Mrs. Millet introduced them to Mr. Baxter, a thin gentleman with gray streaks in his hair. He promptly asked her to dance the Roger de Coverley.

Jo rested her fingers on his arm while offering silent thanks to Letty. Mr. Baxter was too old for her to consider a suitor, but she was to dance, and as they joined the other dancers on the floor, decided the evening had taken a turn for the better.

As Mr. Baxter returned Jo to her chair, she saw a dark-haired gentleman with Letty and Mr. Cartwright. It was the man from the black coach who greeted her when they first entered the city. He and the Cartwrights seemed on good terms as they laughed together. Taller than Mr. Cartwright, with an athletic physique, he stood as if confident in his own skin. She struggled not to glance his way too often, curious to know if he recognized her. But he showed no sign of it.

Jo danced twice more with two different gentlemen. Mr. Baxter took her in to supper. He was a pleasant man, but he spoke almost exclusively about his young baby and recently deceased wife and seemed very sad. The ball ended in the early hours. Exhausted, her eyelids heavy, she climbed into their hired carriage, with her body still thrumming with excitement. The rest of the Season awaited them, and