What did Lady Serenity admire, what would affect her feelings? What would put him head and shoulders over Thorpe?
Charles stumbled and dropped his glass, spilling brandy across the cream carpet. He stared at the amber liquid seeping into its fibers. He was such an idiot. It had been staring him in the face all along.
It was that dog. That ridiculous three-legged dog. He could rescue the dog.
All he’d need to do was devise a situation in which the dog needed rescuing. He would be the hero, while Thorpe would appear befuddled, having no idea where to even look for that cur. Charles would know, though.
“It is all right, Lady Serenity,” he mumbled, “I have rescued…whatever its name is…from…very bad people. It is my honor to return it to you.”
*
The night before,Serenity felt as if she’d all but floated up the stairs to her bedchamber. She and Lord Thorpe had spent the rest of the evening playing vingt-et-un. Or at least, pretending to play at it. Their conversation was such that there was little attention paid to the number twenty-one or any other number. It felt as if they’d spoken of everything in the wide world.
Of course, there had been moments when her feelings threatened to run away with her. She had relayed her conversation with Lady Pembroke, which had led to a discussion about slatted skeps. Lord Thorpe admitted that he did not know what sort of hives were used on his estate and that idea had very naturally led Serenity to imagine the worst. He did promise to find it out and switch to the slatted skeps if it was discovered that they’d not yet been adopted. It was very kind of him to do so but she’d had a time of it blinking the water back in her eyes at thethought of a colony of bees being murdered. She supposed her honeycombed mask had hidden it well enough, though.
They might have gone on agreeably in that situation had not Lady Darlington rounded up everybody in the card room and herded them to the voting tables.
Soon enough, Lady Darlington had tallied all the votes, quieted the orchestra, and read aloud the results.
Serenity could not claim to be too surprised to win the most original costume. Other ladies won the prizes for costumes that were deemed beautiful in some way but nobody else had arrived as an insect.
She had really been very touched at the applause that accompanied the announcement and she was certain Lord Thorpe applauded the loudest. She’d received quite a few congratulations, though some of them mentioned her daring so she supposed she was right to feel ridiculous in her bee costume. Lady Darlington gifted her a very charming India shawl as a prize.
At the end of the evening, Lord Thorpe had proposed to ride his horse alongside her father’s carriage. He claimed there were no end of footpads and would-be highwaymen lurking on the London Streets and he might be called on for protection.
Her father’s coachman had looked down his nose at the proposal and patted his pocket as if to point out he was well-armed, and well able to protect the duke.
The duke had snorted and told Lord Thorpe that he did not care to cause talk until there was something decided to talk about. Lord Thorpe had nodded as if he’d expected as much but thought to try it out anyway. They had said their goodbyes and Serenity had made a spectacle of herself, hanging her head out the window to watch him ride off.
