Page 28 of What Happens in Hedone

“You look delectable,” Effie told her friend.

Heddy nodded. “I know.” Heddy’s gown of antique gold silk had beret sleeves that bared her arms and was ruched at the bodice into a V that emphasized her tiny waist. Cascades of ruffles and bows swooped around the hem. Her hair was an equally fearful arrangement of loops and knots and round curls, blooming with lilies.

“Was it worth it?” Heddy asked.

Effie gulped and nodded. “Every moment. Heddy.” She dropped her voice to a whisper, even though Heddy’s lady’s maid had gone downstairs with their cloaks. “He gave me the forbidden kiss.”

Heddy’s eyes widened. “He did?”

“And I—returned it.”

“Glory.” Heddy waved her fan. “And now?”

Effie put her hands over her face, careful not to smudge the cosmetics Heddy had lightly but artfully applied. “I don’t know how I can ever be happy with my cousin after this. Hed, he was going to ask me to marry him.”

“Oh, duckling. He was enchanted with you, of course. And,” Heddy added, scowling, “you know how I feel about your cousin.”

“Effie,” she said. “He was going to ask me. Effie. Not Lady Erato. He didn’t even know I was the same person!”

“He didn’t know?” Heddy fussed with Effie’s headgear, shaping a few curls with her finger. “Well, that pleases me, I have to say. The point is that my guests have a successful disguise.” She paused and met Effie’s eyes in the mirror. “Are you sorry I teased you into coming?”

“Of course not. You know I’ve supported your ambition from the very first tableaux as Miss Gregoire’s. You’ve certainly expanded your dream.”

“And I mean to keep at it as long as I might.” Heddy tweaked one last bow to make it stand at attention. “We needn’t go tonight. I can say you are ill. Or I am.”

“I want to see him. It’s foolish, I know. But I don’t know how I am to let him go.”

A knock sounded at the door below, then voices as Heddy’s maid admitted their guest. Heddy kept a small staff, fewer servants to gossip about or disapprove of her lifestyle. Their eyes met once more. A shiver passed through Effie at the sound of Jay’s voice. Just knowing he was near made everything in her lift and want to go to him.

She was ruined. Utterly and impossibly ruined.

Jay, standing in the foyer of Heddy’s townhouse, looked more magnificent than she had ever seen him. His charcoal gray evening coat with deep lapels hung open to reveal two waistcoats, one a shimmering walnut brown and the second white. Instead of his cravat he wore a crisp white stock with a collar, which set off the fierce, hard line of his jaw. He held his silk top hat and a walking stick and glared at her with brimstone in his dark gray eyes.

He was still angry with her.

But he was here.

“Where is our destination?” Heddy inquired.

“It’s only ten minutes away, if you do not mind walking.” Jay transferred his attention to Heddy and reared his head back, eyes flaring. “Lady Hedone, I presume?”

“You may call me Miss Zuylestein. Or Heddy.”

“You do not live on the same premises as your club, Miss Zuylestein.”

Ah, so he was angry at both of them. Heddy lifted her brows.

“Norfolk Square is fine quarters for Hedone. But this house, here in Bedford Square, belongs to my father. It is a better place for my guests. Like Effie.” She linked her arm through Effie’s.

“You have been friends for some time, I take it.”

“Since school.” Effie lifted her chin. How dare he be short with her? She hadn’t lied. She’d assumed he recognized her as readily as she’d known him. He ought to have known her.

He’d done those things with Erato while planning to ask Effie to marry him. She wanted to be angry in return, but she remembered how he’d said he felt he was betraying another, and he’d been mixed up over her. The thought made her heart a bruised balloon.

He hadn’t betrayed anyone. Why wasn’t he thrilled they were the same person?

Because she belonged to another. Or perhaps he no longer wanted to marry her now that he knew Effie, gentleman’s daughter, liked to explore the beach by day and act in sensual tableaux featuring liberated women at night.