Strike at Midnight(5)

“Here you go,” a voice said, making me jump out of my skin. Lemonade Guy had sought me out and returned with my drink. “Hopefully this will quench your thirst.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking the glass from him. I knew I sounded distracted, and this guy deserved better. “Please don’t let me keep you.”

“Do you not have a chaperone I can leave you with?” he asked with a gentle look of concern on his face. “Friends, maybe?”

Even his hints were polite as he tried to determine why I had been standing alone. Most people would assume that I was either a harlot in the making or a widow, because no other sane woman would come to a ball unchaperoned. It would be safer letting him think the latter.

“It’s fine to leave me here,” I said, putting my hand on his arm to give him some reassurance. “My reputation will stay intact, I vow.”

He stared at me for a moment as if he couldn’t quite fathom what I was about, and I quickly dropped my hand in case I had made an error with my manners.

“I would like another dance later on this evening. If I may?” he asked eventually, and he lifted my hand again to give it another flutter of a kiss.

Dance card is full, dance card is full…That was all I had to say after I recalled what my roommate had told me about the dance etiquette of such balls, but I wasn’t even holding one.

“Let’s see how the evening goes,” I replied, and nodded for him to be on his way. He wasn’t the reason I was here, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted again. The duke was who was important, and I needed to formulate a plan of seduction.

At the thought of the duke, I cast my eyes in his direction to see that he had disappeared. Damn it.

“It’s been such a pleasure meeting you, Cinderella,” Lemonade Guy said, and I curbed my impatience as I looked back at him.

“You too,” I said again, really needing him to leave.

“I truly hope that luck blesses me again tonight,” he continued, “so I can dance with you properly. But I shall bid you farewell. For now.”

Was it really possible for someone like him to be so nice, so happy, and mean it?

“Thank you,” I said, unable to say his name because I hadn’t heard it before. Hopefully, he was so cuckoo over the pretend woman I was portraying in this rabid silk that he could overlook my lack of propriety.

“Farewell,” he said, then he walked off into the crowd.

Finally, he was gone, but I really didn’t like how he had bothered me so much. Men of the higher classes had always been a no-go area for me because they were only ever after one of two things: a mistress or a wife, and I wanted to be neither. It wasn’t exactly like I had been missing out on anything because they usually pissed me off within seconds of opening their ignorant mouths. But this guy had been different, and I didn’t like how it made me feel.

The duke. He was the reason I was here, and my brain and libido needed to catch up regarding Lemonade Guy. Once I found the duke and got him to remove his gloves, I could get the hell out of here.

And never come back.





CHAPTER TWO

Every Girl Needs Glass Slipper





During a subtle walk around the ballroom, I had to come to the conclusion that the duke was nowhere to be found. The frustration filled me to the hilt, as failure wasn’t even an option to me. I was here on a job and I needed to start acting like it. The amount Sir Raymond would be paying would be enough to cover my contribution to the rent and a few luxuries for a couple of months, so I couldn’t afford to screw this up.

A fan would be welcome right about now, as the heat in the room had started to become unbearable. The corset wasn’t helping, and my temper had started to clash with my inner anxiety about the lack of personal space. There had to be a way out to some gardens around here, and a shadowed recess ahead of me looked like a good place to start.

The black-and-white tiled floors that led out to a candlelit passageway directed me along a wall that played host to large painted canvases of past royals. It felt cooler already with the absence of all those bodies, and the noise of the ballroom started to fade into silence. Or at least it did until I heard a female chuckle come from the shadows in the direction of where I was headed.

It was clear someone was down there, and it didn’t sound like they wanted extra company. But I couldn’t walk away. The duke had disappeared from the ballroom, and it was common for many a couple to disappear discreetly from the crowds to have a secret grope in the shadows. It would be stupid of me to not check and ensure it wasn’t the duke down there with someone, and I didn’t like being stupid. Especially when I knew that the duke was a man who liked the ladies.

The sound of lips smacking together made my eyes roll, and part of me really didn’t want to see what was going on down there as I moved closer.

“Oh, yes. Put it in, put it in,” I heard a voice whisper.

Oh no. Don’t put it in, don’t put it in. My glass slippers made one hell of a sound as I made my presence known.

“Oh, please excuse me,” I said, weaving from side to side as I let out a hiccup and a giggle.

The two people who had been wrapped around one another jumped apart at the sight of me. The fact that the duke was one of them and Lady Stanley the other was a weird surprise. The reluctant introduction I’d had from her earlier had earned her instant dislike from my part, even though her husband had seemed like a sweet guy. Now I felt even more sorry for him.