Chapter Two
A week later, Opal could hardly stay still in her chair as her lady’s maid decorated her hair. “I feel like a princess,” she told Iris, who stood a few feet from them.
Iris smiled. “You’re beautiful. The gentlemen will be fighting each other to dance with you. Poor Warren. I don’t know if he’s ready for this.”
Laughing, Opal glanced at her lady’s maid. “She exaggerates.”
“I do not,” Iris argued. “I’ll need to follow him around the whole evening with peppermint tea to help him settle his stomach. He was unable to sleep at all last night.”
“I don’t understand why he worries so much. He had two years to get me ready for a Season.”
“Yes, but that time passed by much too fast.”
Since her lady’s maid was done, Opal rose to her feet and thanked her. After her lady’s maid left, she told Iris, “I have to get married at some point.”
“No, you don’t,” came her brother’s voice. “It’s not imperative you marry. Plenty of ladies go through their entire lives without a husband.”
She glanced over at the doorway where Warren was coming into the room. “I can’t stay here for the rest of my life,” she replied. “Not if I want a husband and children.” She gestured to Iris. “I want to be as happy as she is.”
Warren put his hand over his stomach and sat by her vanity. “I’m not ready for this. I wish I’d realized how difficult this was going to be when I agreed to let you have a Season.”
Iris went over to him and rubbed his shoulder. “Opal is right, Warren. She deserves to have a good gentleman in her life.”
“That’s the problem. Making sure she ends up with a good gentleman. There are so many rakes out there, and some are bound to slip into the ball tonight.”
“You made that list,” Iris said. “Why don’t you go over it again?”
Though Opal had memorized the names he’d given her many times over the past two weeks, she joined Iris in encouraging him to read his list, thinking it might make him feel better.
“All right,” he said as he pulled the neatly folded parchment from his pocket. “Lord Whitney would make a good choice. No scandal has touched him, and he loves to read. In fact, he spends most of his days with his nose in a book. I’ve seen some of the books he’s read, and most have to do with ancient cultures.”
Iris winced. “My father says he’s boring.”
Opal had to admit he did sound boring by the way her brother described him. She should have asked him earlier what the gentlemen were like instead of being concerned with how they looked. Even if Warren had assured her that Lord Whitney was handsome, she didn’t know if she wanted to spend the rest of her life discussing cultures that were no longer around.
“Better to be with a boring husband than one who engages in scandalous behavior,” Warren said.
“Even better than that is a husband who is exciting and doesn’t engage in scandals,” Iris countered.
He let out a long, audible sigh. “Fine. We’ll put him at the bottom of the list. What about Lord Bridgeton?” His gaze went to Iris. “Do you like him?”
“I don’t know anything about him,” Iris replied. “Is he new to London?”
“No. He’s been at White’s for three years, and he is actively engaged in the social scene.”
“What social scene?”
“The typical scene an honorable gentleman would be caught in.”
“Which would be?”
Amused by the way Iris was pressing him, Opal bit her lower lip so she wouldn’t interrupt.
Warren shrugged. “The same kinds of things I did before I married. He goes to the museum, White’s, dinner parties, balls.” When Iris stared at him expectantly, he asked, “What more could a lady ask for?”
“If he’s been all around London for three years, my father should have mentioned him,” Iris said.
“He’s terribly shy. People probably overlook him.”
“You mean in the same way people had a tendency to overlook me?”
His face grew pink. “That wasn’t intentional. I honestly didn’t remember your name before we married. I wasn’t trying to be cruel.”
“I know, and I don’t hold any of that against you. I was being sincere in asking if Lord Bridgeton has the same situation I did.”
“Well, actually, it’s worse than that. Lord Bridgeton has a tendency to,” he hesitated then forced out, “hide.”
“Hide?”
“He’s extremely shy.”
The grandfather clock chimed in the hallway, and Opal decided this whole thing was pointless. This discussion could go on all night if she let it.
“Why don’t we go to the ball, and you can introduce me to the gentlemen as you see them,” Opal suggested.
“She’s right,” Iris said. “She needs to meet them for herself to make a decision about them.”
Though reluctant, Warren folded the parchment, slipped it back into his pocket, and stood up. “All right. But,” he glanced at Opal, “I hope you won’t base your decision only on how good looking they are.”
“I won’t,” Opal promised. “I’ll carefully weigh how attractive they are with how nice they are.”
“That’s a good balance,” Iris told Warren.
“Yes,” he began, “but I really hope she doesn’t put too much emphasis on how they look.”
“She’s a very pretty lady,” Iris replied. “She has a right to have someone equally attractive. Also,” she added just as he opened his mouth to protest, “she’s intelligent. She can figure out which gentleman is nice, especially since she has you as an example.”
“Iris is right. I will compare all of them to you,” Opal added.
Looking somewhat relieved, he consented and led them out of the room.
***
A half hour later, Landon didn’t know if going to Lord Steinbeck’s ball to pay off his brother’s debt was a good idea or not. However, since Lord Asheley had insisted on it, he walked up the steps to the townhouse with Guy right beside him.
“You don’t have to say a lot,” Guy whispered. “I’ll do most of the talking.”
Landon wasn’t so sure that was a wise plan. His brother got into this trouble partly because he had talked to Lord Asheley to begin with. But, for the moment, he was willing to go along with Guy’s idea. If Guy started getting into trouble, Landon would speak up then.
The two entered the ballroom, and at once, Landon was overwhelmed by the number of people in the room. Gentlemen and ladies were dressed in their best, and from the looks of it, they were enjoying themselves. How he envied their ability to relax and have fun. They didn’t have to worry if the way they talked would make others laugh at them. It would be nice if that could be the case for him.
His gaze settled on a young lady who was absolutely beautiful. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a flattering hairstyle, and her pink dress accentuated the color in her cheeks. Maybe it was because he’d been stuck in the country most of his life, but he couldn’t help but think ladies were far lovelier than he remembered, especially this one. At the moment, she stood next to an older gentleman who looked so much like her that they had to be related. The two were walking around the room until he stopped and pointed to one of the gentlemen in the room.
“I see Lord Asheley,” Guy said.
As reluctant as he was to stop looking at the lady who’d bewitched him, Landon followed his brother over to Lord Asheley, who was talking to two gentlemen Landon didn’t recognize. It didn’t matter, he supposed, since he’d never had anything to do with them.
Guy bowed as soon as the gentlemen stopped talking. “Lord Asheley. Lord Rossington. Mr. Ritter.”
“Did you come with the money?” Asheley asked.
“Yes.” Guy glanced at Landon. “My brother has it.”
Asheley turned those cold eyes in Landon’s direction. “Do you?”
Landon nodded.
Asheley turned his gaze back to Guy. “Considering how much you lost, I don’t blame you for wanting to be discreet. It’s rather embarrassing.” He glanced at the two gentlemen. “I’ll return shortly. This won’t take long.”
Since Asheley started walking away from them, Landon and Guy followed. Just moments ago, Landon had been thinking London wasn’t all that bad with someone as lovely as that young lady in the town. But all of that pleasantness had faded upon meeting Asheley.
He glanced at Guy, wondering what his brother had been thinking when he willingly entered into a game with this person. Asheley was rude in so many ways. Not only did he not give them a polite greeting, but he had a sneer on his face that made Landon want to wipe it right off.
Landon bumped into someone who gave out a slight yelp. Pausing, he turned to the lady. “I’m thorry,” he blurted out before he could think better of it.
The lady blinked as if she wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “What did you say?”
Cheeks growing warm, he said, “Forgive me.”
“He said he was ‘thorry’,” said the lady who was next to her.
The lady he’d bumped into started laughing, and another soon joined in.
Sure that his face was bright red, he hurried to catch up to Guy and Asheley. He’d been doing well in London up to this point, smiling and nodding when appropriate. He’d only allowed himself to talk around his brother and sister-in-law, but even then, he’d weighed his words before he spoke. But even after all that, one little slip of the tongue had been enough to start a wildfire of laughter around him.
“It’s all right,” Guy whispered. “They’re snobs.”
Yes, Landon had gathered that, but it didn’t make him feel any better. The fact that the ladies were snobs only worsened things because snobs had a tendency to gossip.
Once he was done giving Asheley the money, he was going to make a direct beeline out of this townhouse, and tomorrow morning, he’d be on his way back to the country where he could get back to his peaceful life.