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Devin shouldered open the door. “She’s your little sister,” he said impatiently. “You need to guide her choices.”

The man didn’t have the faintest idea what he was talking about.

CHAPTER FIVE

April 15, 1814

ALMACK’S ASSEMBLY ROOMS

SOUTH KING STREET

Almack’s Assembly Rooms … The dancing hall every young lady dreams of entering. The place that issues vouchers for entry, allowing only the crème-de-la-crème to walk through the door. The place where matrons rule, and gentlemen must wear knee breeches. Where the lemonade is warm and the ham sandwiches thin.

The place that Beatrice Valentine dreaded even more than ballrooms. Balls took place in houses with rooms and curtained alcoves in which one could hide. An assembly hall sounded bare. Frankly, she had been happy when Lady Alcon moaned about the fact Bea hadn’t been given a voucher to Almack’s.

Until the voucher arrived that morning.

“Don’t forget to be on your best behavior,” Lady Alcon hissed, as they climbed out of the carriage. “I don’t want to have to nose you out of a corner like a hound after a fox. Not here, in Almack’s.”

Bea would have liked to disclaim this unpleasant description, but it was true. She went to ground whenever possible, after which Lady Alcon rooted her out like a pig with a truffle. She kept that reflection to herself.

“I’m so grateful that we received your voucher,” her chaperone said, her tone making it clear that she was also quite shocked. “Lady Regina’s kindness in forcing her brother to dance with you may have turned the tide of your fortunes!”

She’d only made that remark three or four hundred times since breakfast. Lady Alcon seemed to have missed the signal point that Bea would never have received a voucher if Regina had anything to do with it.

Lady Alcon gave her a commanding stare as they handed their pelisses to a footman. “You acquitted yourself decently on the dance floor with the Duke of Lennox, so you can do so with other men as well. I don’t want to see you flailing about like a trout on a line.”

Bea nodded.

Query: Would Lady Alcon ever give her a true compliment?

Probability: 20%?

She’d come close to it after Bea’s unexpectedly successful dance with the Duke of Lennox: her chaperone had described her comportment as “nearly elegant.”

Lady Alcon had called for their carriage directly after Bea’s dance with the duke at the Sheffield ball; she hadn’t wanted anyone to know that no gentleman had requested Bea’s hand for the supper dance, meaning she would have to dine with the matrons. It would be better, Lady Alcon had decided, to plead a sudden headache and leave immediately.

Bea had spent a solid two hours in the afternoon assuring herself that Lady Regina was merely a woman, albeit an unpleasant one. One could ignore her. Walk away. Be courageous and not respond to niggling remarks. Not hide!

Even so, she followed Lady Alcon with her stomach in a knot. The assembly hall was a large room hung in pale blue draperies, with a balcony at one end. The people who clustered in such a balcony, in Bea’s experience, did so to poke fun at those dancing below.

She felt ill at the very sight of it; the last time she’d danced beneath a balcony, a guest hooted a witticism about the longitude and the latitude meeting in one place. Since Bea had been dancing with a gentleman as tall and thin as a beanpole, she had no difficulty grasping that she represented the globe’s mid-section.

No music was playing at the moment. Ladies in colorful gowns were clustered on the dance floor, gentlemen dotted amongst them like the black spots on the back of a ladybug.

With a sickening thump of her heart, Bea caught sight of the Duke of Lennox, which meant that his sister Regina was here. Her fingers tingled, as if blood had rushed from her head; she felt dizzy.

This is absurd. Ridiculous, cowardly, stupid … With each rebuke, her panic multiplied.

Query: The likelihood that Regina would be furious after Bea’s “nearly graceful” dance with her brother?

Probability: 100%.

Regina had meant to shame her, given that all eyes watched when the Duke of Lennox—who rarely appeared in society—took the floor. Yet Lady Alcon thought the dance might have brought Bea into fashion. It had led to the unexpected voucher for Almack’s.

Regina would be livid.

“There’s His Grace,” Lady Alcon hissed, pinching Bea’s arm. “Not that he’ll dance with you again, but it is interesting to see him here. Perhaps he decided to choose a wife. If only he hadn’t been such a dilly-dallier and made the decision last Season!”