“Like knights of old?” Odette pressed.
Terrance hesitated. “I would answer in the affirmative, but that would make you the dragon, and I know better than to insult a lady.”
“You do not think I am the dragon?”
Jack answered aloud without meaning to. “You are certainly not the dragon.” All eyes were on him. Worrying he’d revealed too much, he quickly added, “If anything, you are the knight, not Lexington here.”
“Mr. Lexington is the damsel in distress, then.” Odette nodded as if the idea were perfectly logical.
Miss Summerfield grinned broadly. This drive was proving far more diverting than Jack had anticipated.
The carriage slowed as it entered the press of Hyde Park. They greeted and were greeted. Miss Summerfield received any number of expressions of delight. Odette was also acknowledged with pleasantries, but there was something in the tone and expression that spoke far more of curiosity. Jack and Terrance proved far less popular, just as they had all predicted.
At the end of each encounter, Odette updated the score. By the time they’d completed half a circuit of the park, Miss Summerfield was joining in the accounting. Odette was more herself during the drive than Jack had seen in months. She laughed and teased. She smiled. Excitement and enthusiasm touched her words and posture. Her attentions to Miss Summerfield had pulled the timid young lady out of her shell.
Jack had always known this part of Odette’s character. Terrance was discovering it for the first time. He looked impressed. Touched.
Intrigued.
Perhaps this arrangement had been a mistake after all.
***
Adelaide watched Mr. Lexington’s carriage roll past among the crush of vehicles in the park. She had placed herself on a bench facing the carriage path with the precise purpose of watching for the young people. What she saw was both encouraging and surprising.
Odette looked genuinely happy, something Adelaide had not yet seen. The smile and sparkling eyes fit her far better than the expression of annoyed ennui she usually wore. But what had inspired it?
Mr. Lexington was a jovial companion, but Adelaide knew he had not captured the young lady’s heart. Mr. Hewitt and Miss Summerfield were joining in the apparently entertainingconversation. Perhaps it was simply the combination of companions that brought light back into Odette’s eyes. Perhaps it was the effect of fresh air. Or time away from her parents.
It bore thinking on.
Chapter Five
Odette was both excited and terrified. She was standing up for the supper dance with Jack during the Salsteads’ ball that night, which meant she would be taking her supper with him. She would have his company, but for too short a time and with far too many people nearby. They would be permitted no tender moments, no words of love or longing. They would be allowed only the vaguely friendly interactions of two lifelong neighbors.
She dressed with extra care. This was to be her one opportunity to pretend as though she and Jack were an ordinary courting couple; she wasn’t going to waste it. She chose a gown in a flattering shade of pale blue. She asked her abigail to weave into her hair a ribbon of pastel yellow, one Jack had given her many years earlier. He had, while at Eton, used the last of his spending money before returning home for the summer holidays to purchase it. How well she remembered his nervousness when he’d presented the ribbon to her.
“I know you like tying ribbons in your hair,” he’d said. “There were a lot of different colors and widths and such. I hope this is a good one. I wanted you to have something from me. I wanted you to have something you’d like.”
He had been her favorite person even then, though the romantic affection between them hadn’t blossomed until years later, when they were both old enough for such things. It had been such a slow and natural progression that she’d been top over tail in love with him before she’d even recognized the change. The Summerfields moved to the neighborhood shortly thereafter, and Jack’s parents quickly made clear their preference for their son’s future wife. The timing had been horribly unfair.
“You look a real treat, miss,” her abigail, Liza, said. “The yellow ribbon against your dark hair. Lovely.”
“Do you really think so?” She was not usually so uncertain, but the evening ahead meant a great deal to her.
“A real treat.”
She repeated that declaration in her mind as she stepped from her bedchamber. She looked “a real treat.” The ball would be enjoyable. The supper dance and meal would be everything she hoped it would. Again and again she promised herself those things.
By the time she reached the entryway, where Mrs. Northrop and her parents were waiting, she had her confidence firmly intact and her exterior of haughtiness in place. She did not care for the role she was playing, but it had worked thus far. No gentlemen were vying for her hand; she would escape the Season unpromised to anyone.
Mrs. Northrop and Odette’s parents were deep in conversation and did not note her arrival.
“This may not be the most important event of the Season,” Mother said, “but it is of enough significance that we really oughtto be in attendance. Her sisters would have made a disaster of their lives if we had left them to their own devices.”
Panic grasped Odette’s heart. Were her parents intending to interfere more directly? To push for someone in particular?
“I feel it best for your daughter to first begin addressing her notoriety,” Mrs. Northrop said. “I have helped young ladies do precisely that many times. Leaving her in my care will accomplish what you seek far better and far faster than if I am made to juggle the entire family.”
