The Season(51)

“I didn’t say he was ignoring me. I said he was ignoring it. I have seen him. He’s been here, talked with me, shared meals with my whole family.” She looked at her slippered foot, draped over the arm of her chair. “He just hasn’t…mentioned…or even appeared to remember…the kiss.”

“How is that possible?” Vivi asked. “Surely, he must be at least more…attentive? Than before?” She looked to Eliza for support. The maid nodded eagerly.

Alex let out a frustrated breath. “Oh, he’s being the perfect gentleman. Charming, entertaining—entirely Gavin. It’s not as though he’s avoiding me. It’s as though it never happened. Which I suppose is better than last time.”

Ella and Vivi met each other’s gaze. Ella said, “I beg your pardon. Again? Last time?”

“There was a LAST TIME?” Vivi queried excitedly.

“Oh, Lady Alexandra!” This, again, from Eliza.

“Hold.” Alex slashed a hand through the air, leveling a gaze at Eliza, then Vivi. “Don’t go off into some fantasy world. This is not as rose-colored as you seem to think,” she continued grumpily. “If you keep looking at me, we’re never going to be ready for the ball tonight.”

“Who can think about a ball at a time like this?” Vivi interjected, even as she turned to face the mirror again, offering Eliza her back. “You simply cannot expect that we wouldn’t be more interested in this conversation than in something as trivial as hair.” The maid nodded agreeably but lifted the hair iron nevertheless.

Ella spoke up, “Excellent attempt at evasion, Alex, but you failed to answer the question. There was a ‘last time’?”

“Not exactly,” Alex mumbled.

“How, exactly, then?”

“You’d make an excellent Bow Street Runner yourself, Ella,” Alex said grouchily, ignoring her friend’s nod of thanks. “All right. The evening of the Worthington House dinner, Gavin and I were on the balcony, talking, and I thought he might kiss me. But he didn’t. And then he summarily avoided me for a fortnight.”

“Ah…so that’s what put you in such a vicious mood for days later,” Ella pointed out.

“I was not in a vicious mood!” Alex looked over her shoulder for support from Vivi only to catch her and Eliza sharing a wry look in the dressing table mirror. “Traitors. All of you.”

Vivi smiled, careful not to move her head. “Go on.”

“There isn’t much more to say. The other night, after the robbery at Blackmoor House, we found ourselves alone in the library and…he kissed me.”

“Oh! Lady Alexandra!” Eliza exclaimed yet again, causing Alex to wonder if her maid had lost control of her linguistic faculties.

“How very excellent!” exclaimed Vivi.

“Well, I thought so, too…but now…I’m not so certain it was of any import whatsoever.”

“Nonsense. Kissing is most important. I repeat, how very excellent!”

“Your hopeless romanticism isn’t helping this situation, Vivi. I assure you this is nothing to be sighed over. This is real. And if we’d been caught, I’d have been ruined. Technically, I’m ruined anyway.”

“Nonsense,” said Ella, “everyone knows that you’re not truly ruined unless you get caught in the act. I defy you to show me one female who goes to the altar without kissing her betrothed.”

“Ruined! How exciting! How romantic!” Vivi waxed rhapsodic. Ella and Alex looked at her as though she’d grown a second head.

“NOT exciting, Vivi. Decidedly NOT romantic,” Alex protested. “Romantic is being kissed, then wooed. Or wooed, then kissed. I assure you there has been no wooing!”

Vivi continued starry-eyed and lost to the excitement. “He KISSED you! BLACKMOOR KISSED YOU!”

Ella interjected, “And the entire house shall know she’s ruined if you continue at that volume, Vivian. Not that you are, Alex.”

“Thank you,” Alex said.

Vivi lowered her voice. “I am sorry. I simply got carried away.”

“It is all right. I knew before I told you that you were likely to react like we were all caught up in some kind of gothic novel,” Alex offered with a sigh.

She continued, hearing the sadness in her own voice, “While I am certainly in no position to understand what should occur now, I feel certain that being ignored is not it!”

“To be fair, it doesn’t seem that he is ignoring you,” Ella pointed out, ever the pragmatist.

“You’ll understand if that doesn’t enhance my mood,” Alex said shortly, then exhaled in frustration. “This is exactly why I promised myself I would not husband hunt this season. I swore an oath to stay above the fray! The entire male species is unintelligible!”

“Indeed,” said Ella, speculating aloud, “this is an odd turn of events. And I thought he was courting Penelope.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“You did?” Alex looked up in surprise.

“Ella!” Vivi admonished. “That is most certainly not what Alex needs to hear at this particular moment.”

“Well, it is clearly an incorrect conclusion,” said Ella, defensively. “I mean, if he were, he wouldn’t have kissed Alex!”