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"She's only trying harder, and you are too kind to compete. But I am not kind at all," Marissa said with a grin, "so leave it to me. Will you?"
"I suppose," Beth murmured, but she sounded more loyal than certain. As if she suspected Marissa was up to no good.
Ridiculous, of course, but when Jude loomed over her with a glass of punch, Marissa knew she was caught. He took one look at her expression and grinned.
Yes, Jude had named her well. She was naughty indeed.
"Here," Marissa muttered, reaching a hand down the bodice of Beth's dress.
"Marissa!" her friend gasped as she tried to duck away.
"Elizabeth Samuel, men like bosoms, and yours are sheer perfection, if only you'd let them out." Once she'd plumped Beth's décolletage to her liking,
she stood back. "Do you know what I'd give for bosoms like that? Mine make no kind of shape at all, no matter how tight my laces."
"Well, if they're so important, why have you had five offers and I've had none?"
"We each have our blessings. I have a swanlike neck, and you have wonderful bosoms. I show off my blessings, and you do not."
"Marissa!" She started to tug her bodice up, and Marissa slapped her hand.
"Don't you dare. Even if Mr. Dunwoody is blind, there are at least three other likely gentlemen here. I'll be surprised if they don't all ask you to dance. I've already spoken to Mother. She promises to have dancing after the play. Now hold still."
Marissa surveyed her work with a critical eye. Though Beth hadn't had any jewel-tone dresses, she'd brought this sky blue one from her last Season. She hadn't worn it more than once, because she'd felt too self-conscious, but Marissa had thought she'd looked beautiful. She did.
Marissa's maid had spent nearly an hour ironing Beth's curls into loose waves, and a touch of kohl at her lash line turned her plain brown eyes mysterious.
Marissa's own hair was pulled into a simple chignon as a result of all the time spent on Beth, but she didn't mind. She had her hands full of troublesome men already.
"Are you ready?" Marissa asked.
"No," Beth muttered as a faint knock sounded on the door. A maid entered, a note in her hand. Marissa's heart sank as she took it.
"Is it from Jude?"
Marissa lied as she opened it. She knew it wasn't from Jude, but she couldn't let Belli know that. Instead she look the note to a corner chair and read it.
Mr. White wasn't giving up. He wanted to meet her one last time, to try to convince her of his good intentions. A meeting behind the stables at 10 pm, as if she were that foolish. He'd kidnap her or cause another scene. But what would he do if she didn't show up at all?
Damn that man. She felt helpless now, incapable of making a good decision and vulnerable to the whims of an untrustworthy man.
She folded the note and slipped it into a drawer of her dressing table. She'd have to consider it carefully. But right now she wanted Beth to emerge from this year of exile and enjoy herself.
"Come," she said with a forcibly bright smile. "Let us find you a gentleman. But remember what I said about kisses. A nice kiss is well and good, but keep trying until you find a kiss magnifique
"You're scandalous, Marissa!" Beth whispered, but she was still smiling a few minutes later when they entered the drawing room.
A freckled young man named Kenworth looked toward them, and his eye definitely settled on Beth, but she didn't seem to notice. Her focus fell on Mr. Dunwoody, who didn't look up from his conversation with Nanette.
Marissa's eyes locked onto Nanette too. "Oh, blast her," she said when she saw her dress.
Nanette had been in the room when they'd picked out Beth's dress, and she'd clearly meant to outdo her. Nanette was dressed in bright blue, with a bodice that came very close to immodesty.
"It's all right," Beth murmured. "It was a flawed plan. I can't compete with Nanette. I'm better off waiting for her to marry before I set my cap for a husband."
Marissa disagreed. She wanted to shout that it wasn't true and Beth could marry whomever she liked. That they could both marry whomever they liked.
But there was no point flailing, so she only took Beth's arm and led her to another seat. "Next Season will be grand. You'll see." Except there was a good chance next Season wouldn't be grand at all, at least not for Marissa.
