Pleasures of the Night by Heather Boyd
Chapter 5
“I tell you, it was the most exciting and exhausting night of my life,” Miss Charlotte Waters declared, looking around at everyone to see if any agreed with her. “I could barely get my slippers on my feet this morning. They hurt so much.”
Aurora, Miss Harriet Long, and Miss Seraphine Draven agreed to have the same problem this morning, and it was all thanks to a dozen or so distinguished rogues asking them to dance.
Today’s smiles had all stemmed from Thaddeus Berringer’s unexpected kindness toward wallflowers. “I agree. I haven’t danced so much in years. I had one dance free all night. Just one.”
Charlotte glanced toward the door. “I danced with Lord Brandestock, and we all know how top-lofty he can be.”
“And my older sister only danced half the dances on offer, and she was overlooked by every man who danced with me,” Seraphine whispered. “You should have heard her complain to Mama this morning about me. She felt insulted because I danced when she was not asked.”
“Perhaps, now she’s had a taste of life as a wallflower, she might give her long-suffering suitors an answer soon,” Charlotte murmured dryly, earning a chuckle. “She’s beautiful but not as clever as you. It’s about time that was made apparent to others.”
Miss Draven blushed at the praise.
The competition was rife among heiresses and beauties for all the best titles and the men who came with them. Even between siblings, the rivalry was fierce for a husband with a superior rank.
Eugenia fervently hoped that Aurora wouldn’t be put out that Thaddeus Berringer was now flirting with her. She was still rather startled he was interested in her at all. He could have pursued anyone in society. She pushed the memory of his lips on her neck firmly away, but she would think of him later—as she had when she’d awoken that morning. “I’m sorry to say my cousin Sylvia won’t be joining us today.”
“The marchioness?”
Aurora nodded. “We hope she will be able to join us later.”
“I wish there was something we could do for the marchioness,” Charlotte whispered.
“Your best wishes are enough for now,” Eugenia promised as Mr. Bloom set down a large tray with a teapot and cups and saucers for all. A maid accompanied him today and deposited small cakes and tiny sandwiches onto the low table they sat around. “Thank you, Mary. You may go. Mr. Bloom, could you stoke the fire and then shut the doors and remain there to ensure our privacy remains undisturbed.”
“Yes, Miss Hillcrest.”
Seraphine seemed interested in the young man, but she was about all young men with a pulse and a trim figure.
When Mr. Bloom was gone, Eugenia fetched a bottle of sweet sherry from a nearby sideboard. Their friends preferred sherry sometimes to sipping tea exclusively with luncheon, and, with Mr. Bloom at the door, there was no one to stumble in and catch them partaking.
Once everyone had a beverage of their choice to sip, Eugenia filled a plate with sandwiches for herself, feeling famished. “Well, now we’re alone, do feel free to take those slippers off your tired feet,” Eugenia offered. “Put your feet up, too. There are plenty of footstools.”
A few slippers landed with a dull thump on the thick and expensive rug.
Harriet Long took a quick sip of her sherry, nodding approvingly. “I had no idea Lord Pinner even remembered we were acquainted until he asked me to dance last night. He asked after my family, too, which was very kind.”
“Well, something about you caught his eye last night,” Aurora declared. “This is good news for you, and for all of us.”
Eugenia didn’t want any misunderstandings, though, and cleared her throat. After the joy of last night’s dancing frenzy, it had struck her that expectations might have been risen in these ladies because they didn’t know the truth yet. She didn’t want them to get their hopes up, only to have them dashed when the dance partners of last night failed to seek them out again in the future. “Ladies, I have a confession.”
All eyes fixed upon her.
“Last night, those men were encouraged to seek you out to dance, but not out of any consideration of a future romance.”
“Speak plainly, Eugenia,” Aurora complained.
She swallowed. “A few nights ago, I mentioned in passing to a male acquaintance of ours that not every unmarried lady expects a marriage proposal along with an invitation to dance. I said that we are often relegated to the sidelines and bored, and he confessed to the same. The gentleman—on his own, I must stress—decided to enliven all our evenings. He arranged for his friends to dance with all of us for one night. I had no idea until it was happening.”
Harriet laughed. “Which gentleman arranged it?”
“I’d rather not say,” Eugenia said, wincing. “It might make him uncomfortable.”
“Oh, please. Spare us the concern for a gentleman’s tender feelings,” Harriet complained. “I think we all knew last night was a rare treat. None of us really believe the young Duke of Brandestock isn’t going to marry a diamond of the first water that his mother hasn’t already chosen for him.”
Eugenia considered keeping the secret, but what was the harm, really? “Oh, very well. It was Mr. Thaddeus Berringer’s doing.”
Harriet giggled. “Oh, him.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, Thaddeus Berringer is just gorgeous, and now we find out he’s also kind to wallflowers, too. All the more reason he deserves our endless admiration, even if he’s so far out of our reach.”
“He did not refer to any of you as wallflowers,” she insisted.
“He could refer to me any way he likes, and I wouldn’t complain,” Harriet mused. “Such broad shoulders.”
“His dark eyes give me chills,” Seraphine murmured.
“His sense of humor,” Eugenia added, determined not to be so shallow that she only focused on his good looks.
“Such a tight derrière,” Charlotte added with a fiery blush, burying her nose in her teacup. “Or so it seems from my low height.”
The room erupted into fits of giggles. “Oh, Miss Waters, how terribly corrupted you’ve become,” Aurora declared.
Charlotte sighed and looked around at everyone. “It’s the company I’ve been keeping. Brazen hussies, every single one.”
“Few believe wallflowers should even possess vivid imaginations like ours,” Harriet warned.
“That is their loss, not ours.”
“Well, we must think of something to keep ourselves amused at those endlessly dull gatherings.” Aurora placed her hands on her lap. “Shall we get down to business?”
Eugenia found her notebook and opened it. “Yes. Yes. Let us bring the meeting to order.”
Aurora glanced over Eugenia’s shoulder to read from the notebook. “The first order of business is, as always, the collection plate.”
She went to fetch it and set it in the center of the table. Reticules flew open around the chamber then. Harriet was the first to toss out a handful of coins. “I won a little money at cards so I can repay my earlier loan.”
“I need enough for a new hat,” Seraphine murmured, claiming a few coins from the plate and counting out only what she felt was required. “My dog ate my last straw hat.”
Eugenia clucked her tongue. “How that hound needs a muzzle.”
“I know, but when he looks at me with those big brown eyes, I cannot help but forgive him for any indiscretion,” Seraphine declared mournfully.
“Eugenia, please make a note that Seraphine must not be permitted to consider a marriage to a man with warm brown eyes,” Charlotte murmured. “She’d never win any argument.”
“I like brown eyes on a man,” Seraphine mumbled, but everyone erupted into laughter again.
“You like all men,” Aurora argued. “The color of their eye has nothing to do with your taste whatsoever.”
Eugenia made a note of the additions and subtractions, crossing out a debt that had stood for several weeks for Harriet. “Congratulations on your win, Harriet.”
Even though the ladies had come together by chance only recently, Eugenia hoped they might always be friends. They were good women. Wildflowers all, but having no luck on the marriage mart yet. They offered each other moral support and advice and the occasional loan, too, so they could keep up appearances when their quarterly allowances failed to appear or when a guardian was unreasonable, as happened in Miss Draven’s case. Miss Waters was their only almost-heiress of any great expectation, but un-courted still, and she had generously promised to cover any small debts out of the goodness of her heart. Now, a few months into their friendship, the pot was largely self-sustaining.
“New business?”
“The Newtons are hosting a small ball tonight, and although I have an invitation, I am again without a chaperone.”
“Will your parents not employ a provide one for you?”
“My last chaperone was my third this season—and they still think she was my first. I don’t know where I’m going wrong, but they all seem to desert me for a better situation.” Charlotte winced. “So, I am in need of someone to keep me company tonight at short notice. My parents will attend too, they promised, but they’ll likely spend the evening poring over Lord Newton’s collection of books in the library, like they always do. I would appreciate someone to talk to tonight.”
Harriet raised her hand. “Even if we do not dance, I would be proud to sit among the wallflowers with you.”
“Thank you. My carriage will collect you at seven, and we can have dinner together with my parents before crossing the square to Lord and Lady Newton’s home.”
Eugenia smiled, proud of the way their friends supported each other. A far cry from the behavior of heiresses in society, who’d sooner trip each other than offer the hand of help or friendship. “Any other new business?”
Seraphine shook her head as did the others.
She glanced down at her book, wishing there was more to this meeting than she’d written down. “I suppose if there is no other business, we can close off the book for today.”
“Yes, that would be best.”
“Can we please go back to discussing the gentlemen we danced with last night,” Harriet begged, tucking her feet up under her on the settee.
A round of heavy sighs echoed through the chamber. Postures relaxed as teacups were refilled with more sherry.
“I swear Lord Brandestock tickled me when we danced,” Charlotte admitted.
“Lord Pinner told me my gown was quite pretty,” Harriet confessed. “But I caught him looking down my bodice.”
“Lucky you,” Aurora grumbled. “Lord Brandestock kept talking about his boring new horse when we danced. We share the same name, apparently, and he kept talking about riding her, a mare, into a lather. I’m not even certain he realized what he was implying.”
“He never does.”
Charlotte sighed. “How many of us danced with Mr. Berringer?”
“We all did, I think,” Eugenia said, glancing around and receiving nods of confirmation.
“He is so tall and smells divine. Didn’t you think so?”
Eugenia shivered, remembering not only his scent but his lips on her neck and his fingers spreading lightly on her upper arms. She had been much too affected to forget him easily. “Yes.”
Aurora sighed. “Did he call on everyone this morning?”
“He did, though very early, and I was not able to receive him. He left a bunch of tulips with the butler who brought them to me in my room,” Charlotte murmured. “Of course, my mother ruined the moment by coming to my room for the first time in a month and sneezed all over them and me.”
“Poor Charlotte…”
Thaddeus had sent a bunch of wildflowers to Eugenia early that morning, too, with a note begging her forgiveness for not delivering them personally. The duke apparently had need of him elsewhere. But he’d found the time to do his duty and send flowers to his other dance partners.
“Well, it doesn’t matter that Mother ruined the moment. I have danced with several of the most eligible bachelors of the ton this week. All of them in the same night,” she said, preening. “Mr. Berringer chose me over an heiress. The man has excellent taste in dance partners and friends, if I may say so.”
Eugenia smiled to herself, thinking of him. She had her wildflowers and a stolen kiss upon her neck, which was ten times more pleasing than a public display of preference for conversation or a dance. They would never know the delights of having Thaddeus Berringer’s hot breath teasing their throats. But Eugenia did. It was all she had wanted from him last night. And perhaps next time, if there was one, she might arrange a longer meeting…and a longer kiss somewhere else, too.