Page 45 of To Steal a Kiss

“Pleased to meet you, Mr Stanhope,” Alice said, quite unable not to return his smile. He had the look of a cheeky schoolboy despite being in his late twenties. A scattering of freckles over his nose and cheeks did little to dispel the impression.

“I’m playing chaperone tonight, Miss Dowding,” he said, offering her his arm. “Would you like to accompany us?”

Harriet snorted. “You? Chaperone?” she said, sounding incredulous. “What an idea. You couldn’t chaperone a sponge cake.” She rolled her eyes, ignoring Henry’s exclamation of protest. “My Aunt Nell is with us too, Alice, if you do wish to accompany us.”

“For what that’s worth,” Henry said, giving his sister a reproachful look. “I’m a deal more effective than she is.”

“Yes,” Harriet agreed. “Until you get sidetracked by a pretty girl or a game of chance. Aunt Nell is, at least, perfectly respectable.”

Henry blushed a little but held his tongue, so Alice assumed Harriet had the right of it.

Once she had introduced Harriet, Henry, and Aunt Nell to her parents, Alice gained permission to go with her friends. She would return to her parents for supper, later in the evening. With a light heart and a deal of anticipation, Alice took Kitty’s arm and they set off to explore.

Chattering happily the group set off on the Grand South walk, admiring the splendid Triumphal Arches as they passed beneath. Alice was enraptured. Although she had visited Vauxhall in previous years, never had she been so captivated. Perhaps it was the warmth of the evening, or the company of her friends, or perhaps it was the anticipation of seeing Nate, but the evening had a magical air impossible to resist. Not that she had any desire to do so. She felt alive and full of hope, and just a little reckless.

The gardens seemed vast indeed as darkness fell, despite the illumination from the thousands of lamps. The many gravelled walks were bounded by high hedges and trees, studded at every turn with ever more extraordinary delights. Pavilions, lodges, and groves, temples, porticoes, and colonnades; at every turn there was something new to delight the senses, and at every interval music from a variety of bands and orchestras. The people themselves were no less entrancing, everyone bedecked in their finery and laughing and gossiping with such animation.

“Oh, what time is it, Henry?” Harriet asked as they moved along the Dark Walk. “We mustn’t miss the cascade.”

Alice’s heart skipped a little as this was where she would meet Nate. She held her breath as Henry took out his pocket watch. “Good heavens,” he said, surprised. “It’s almost ten o’clock.”

With a cry of dismay Harriet glared at her brother; “You were supposed to tell us when it was a quarter to,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, there’s nothing for it, we shall have to run.”

Grasping hold of Alice’s hand, Harriet took off. With a shriek of surprise, Alice had little option but to run after her.

The scandalised calls of Harriet’s Aunt Nell followed them. But, if Alice was intent on seeing Nate, Harriet was just as passionate to see the cascade, which was said to be a miracle of modern engineering. Kitty ran beside them, one hand holding her bonnet in place as she laughed with delight.

As they ran, the bell sounding the commencement of the spectacle clamoured through the gardens, and the girls shrieked and laughed harder as they scurried down the paths, their dainty satin shoes sliding and slipping on the gravelled surface.

“This way!” Henry called, turning left onto a wide path that led into woodland. He seemed to have the right of it as they joined dozens of other people, all hurrying and jostling in their eagerness to reach the cascade.

Flushed and breathless, finally they reached their destination and Henry redeemed himself in his sister’s eyes by elbowing and forcing his way forward and making a path until they reached the front. Before them was a huge, heavy dark curtain, and the crowd murmured with excitement to see what lay behind the thick swathes of material.

Alice, by contrast, was scanning the crowd, straining her neck in a most unladylike fashion which would have gained her a dreadful scolding had her mother witnessed it.

“Looking for something?”

Nearly leaping out of her skin, Alice drew in a sharp breath at the sound of the familiar voice close behind her.

“Don’t look round,” he whispered, his lips so close to her ear that Alice shivered with pleasure from the warmth of his voice against her skin. To her shock, one large hand moved to her waist, the warmth of his palm burning through the soft muslin of her gown, resting beneath her spencer.

With a guilty glance to her side, Alice wondered if anyone had noticed his audacity or her blushes, but Kitty and Harriet were introducing Matilda to Henry and Aunt Nell and the rest of the crowd were intent on the spectacle before them.

“Do you mind?” he asked, his voice low and eliciting another round of shivering. “I’m a wretched fellow for such liberties, and I shall stop at once if you prefer, but I’ve missed you so much. I’ll go mad if I can’t touch you.”

Alice’s heart pounded as a delighted smile curved over her mouth. Perhaps she should scold him, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to lean back, to press her body against his and feel the heat and weight of him at her back. The desire to do so was an ache beneath her skin.

“I don’t mind,” she whispered breathlessly.

“I want to kiss you,” he said, his thumb stroking her side in slow, insistent sweeps.

Her colour rose higher and Alice was glad of the darkness, but before she could consider an answer, the curtain drew back, and the crowd gasped in awe.

Before them was a rural scene painted in extraordinary detail. So skilful had the painter been that Alice felt she could walk into the design and find herself in the depths of the countryside. A miller’s house and a water mill set the scene, but the most striking feature—and the one that drew murmurs of wonder from the crowd—was the cascade itself. The water seemed to be moving, rising up with foam at the bottom and gliding away again and the sound of rushing water was loud enough to make it necessary to speak a deal louder to make oneself heard.

“It’s mechanical,” Harriet exclaimed, looking more excited and exuberant than Alice had ever seen her. “The water is made of sheets of tin on large belts. The mechanism is moved by a team of men.”

“Dash it all, Harry, don’t spoil the spectacle by explaining it!” her brother protested, shaking her head at her.