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Elizabeth nodded, and they made their way toward the stairs.
“My stem is definitely off to you,” Caroline said with a laugh, lifting her green mask in salute. “My husband spent quite a bit of time here as a child, and he assures me that he is still terrified of Lady Danbury.”
“Was your husband friends with her children?”
“Her nephew, actually. The Marquis of Riverdale. I hope to see him this evening, actually. He must be invited. Have you met him?”
“No. No, I haven’t. But I heard a bit about him last week.”
“Really?” Caroline began to step carefully down the stairs. “What is he up to? I haven’t heard from him in over a month.”
“I don’t know, actually. Lady Danbury held a small garden party last week, and he sent a note asking one of the guests to meet him in London immediately.”
“Oooh. How intriguing. And how very like James.”
Elizabeth smiled at the mention of the name. She had her own James, and she couldn’t wait to see him again.
Caroline stopped on a step and turned to Elizabeth with a very sisterly, and very nosy expression. “What is that about?”
“What?”
“That smile. And don’t say you weren’t. I saw it.”
“Oh.” Elizabeth felt her cheeks grow warm. “It’s nothing. I have a suitor whose name is also James.”
“Really?” Caroline’s aquamarine eyes held the gleam of a born matchmaker. “You must introduce us.”
“He isn’t here, I’m afraid. He is Lady Danbury’s new estate manager, but he was recently called to London. Some sort of family emergency, I believe.”
“That’s a pity. I already feel that we are the truest of friends. I should have liked to have met him.”
Elizabeth felt her eyes grow misty. “That was such a lovely thing to say.”
“Do you think so? I’m so glad you don’t think me too forward. I wasn’t raised in society, and I have the most appalling habit of speaking without thinking first. It drives my husband mad.”
“I’m sure he adores you.”
Caroline’s eyes glowed, and Elizabeth knew that hers had been a love match. “I’m so late he’s likely to bite my head off,” Caroline admitted. “He can be such a worrier.”
“Then we had best be on our way.”
“I cannot wait to introduce you to Blake.”
“That would be lovely. But first I must find Lady Danbury and make certain she doesn’t need anything.”
“Duty calls, I suppose. But you must promise that we shall meet up again later this evening.” Caroline smiled wryly and motioned to her costume. “I’m fairly easy to spot.”
Elizabeth reached the bottom of the steps and unlinked her arm from Caroline’s. “It’s a promise.” Then, with a smile and a wave, she dashed away from the ballroom. Lady Danbury would be out front receiving her guests, and it would be easier to scoot outside the house than to try to battle the crowds within.
“What the hell?” James followed that query with considerably darker and louder curses as he steered his horse around the crush of carriages slowly rolling toward Danbury House.
The masquerade ball. The bloody, annoying, inconvenient masquerade ball. He’d forgotten all about it.
He’d planned the evening to the last detail. He was going to go to his aunt, tell her that he’d failed, that he hadn’t been able to flush out her blackmailer, and promise her that he would continue to try, but that he could not put his life on hold while doing so.
Then he would ride out to Elizabeth’s cottage and ask her to marry him. He’d been grinning like an idiot the entire ride home, planning his every word. He had thought to take Lucas aside and ask him for his sister’s hand. Not that James planned to let an eight-year-old dictate his life, but somehow the thought of including the little boy left his heart warm.
Plus he had a feeling that Elizabeth would be charmed by the gesture, which was probably his true motive in the entire affair.
