AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Proper society will think poorly of you being a single woman sitting out all the dances.”
“I don't care what proper society thinks of me.”
“Of course you do. Why else do you have a downright panic attack at the mere mention of a crowd?”
At that, Evelina finds herself speechless for he was absolutely right and he knew it.
“Now, I’ve penciled us in for dances 1, 4, 7, 10, and 12.” He handed her one of the cards and took the other. “I shall go fill out the rest of my card. You do the same.”
He was gone before she could put forth any further protest. Glancing down at her card, she bit her bottom lip and wondered what she should do next. Ryan wasn’t easily thwarted. He refused to accept she did not wish to dance.
She noticed next to each of the numbered dances he mentioned, he had simply marked them with an X. This surprised her. She would have thought he would have jotted his name into the slot. With any luck, maybe he would forget which dances he had selected.
This gave Evelina a thought.
If she marked the remaining dances also with an X then it would make her card appear full and hence not able to accept any other invitations to dance.
Pleased with herself, she quickly marked an X into all the remaining dance numbers.
“May I pencil myself into your dance card, Evelina?”
She glanced up to find George Hastings, a young redheaded man from down the street standing before her. She knew him by name only, having never socialized with him ever since her family moved into the neighborhood some twelve years ago. It surprised her that he even knew her by name, and that he had the audacity to refer to her by it.
“I’m afraid my card is full, Mr. Hastings.” She put emphasis on the mister part of his name, silently reproaching him for his informal use of her first name without consent.
He glanced at the card she held out for his observation with all the numbered dances marked with an X. He frowned heavily before glancing back at her
face then giving a slight nod he turned away. Well, that was easier than she realized. If she had known that all she had to do was fill her dance card with X’s, she wouldn’t have bothered to ask Ryan to escort her at all.
She looked up and noticed George join a group of young men not too far away from where she stood obscured in her corner. He lowered his head and said something to which they all glanced in Evelina’s direction. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly revisiting a memory of the past when a group of schoolboys had done almost the exact same thing. The memory of their sneers and crude laughter as they pointed hurtful fingers her way, made the back of her eyes abruptly sting. It had been the reason her family up and moved from their little house inland and into the small blue house along the river.
She immediately looked away while a rush of uneasiness crept into her bones. Her eyes darted around the crowded hall in search of Ryan. Where the dickens was he? He said he’d be right back. He knew crowds made her uneasy and she didn’t like being alone in them.
She spotted her parents in the far back of the hall and contemplated heading their way but bit her bottom lip when she acknowledged how many people she had to weave through to get there. Her pulse picked up and her chest heaved in shallow breaths.
“Filled your card yet?”
She gave a start, having not seen Ryan appear from out of anywhere, and nearly collapsed in relief. “Er, um, yes.”
“Is that right?” He actually sounded incredulous.
She decided to ignore him not caring if he believed her or not, she didn’t have the energy to fight him at that very moment.
“Let me see.”
She hesitated a few seconds, then after having fooled George Hastings, she confidently handed him her card for scrutiny.
Taking it from her, he opened it and read it silently before slowly closing it and handing it back.
“Have you never been to a dance before, Evelina?”
She nearly choked but quickly made it sound like a harrumph. “Of course I have. Several.”
“Is that right? Well then, you leave me in quite the conundrum.”
“What do you mean?”
“An X on a dance card is reserved for a lady’s escort.”
