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Chapter 10
“Annie, cannot you find a reason to smile?” Barbara asked with a laugh as she pointed at the dance card on Annie’s arm. “You have been favoured tonight greatly! It has been a fine event for you.”
“I know. I am truly grateful.” Annie forced a smile to her cheeks and gave her full focus to her mother, abandoning her effort to look across the room and seek out one man in particular. All evening, she had been asked to dance and favoured with pleasant company, including enjoying one dance with Mr Knight, but that was all it was. It had been pleasant, nothing more, and even at times, a little dull. “Have you seen Peggy?”
“Yes, it would seem Mr Barton has favoured her with another dance tonight,” Barbara declared excitedly and used her punch glass to point across the room at the dance floor. Annie followed the gesture to see Peggy was dancing for a second time with Mr Barton that night, and the two seemed to be drawn into a rather attentive conversation.
“Peggy’s cousin will be happy. If Mr Barton continues his attentions, Peggy is very likely to be wed before our ball, let alone betrothed. It is a pity you are not so far along with Mr Knight.”
“Mama! Surely this is not a conversation for this moment.”
“Then when else shall we discuss it?” Barbara took her hand and leaned toward Annie. The scent she wore was overwhelming and far too fussy, full of roses and sugar, making Annie lean away to try and escape the scent.
“Annie, do I need to remind you of the budget we are living on at the moment? If you do not marry soon, then next year, we will have to economise. I hope you are prepared for cooking our own food and cleaning out our own chamber pots.”
“If it comes to it, we will do it.”
“Nonsense!” Barbara waved away the idea. “All you need is someone who has a keen interest, as your friend has in Mr Barton.”
“Mama, Peggy’s cousin does not exactly approve of Mr Barton.”
“Does he not?”
“Well, he says there are….” Annie was about to say the wordrumourswhen she caught her mother’s expression. There was excitement there, as if interested to find out some gossip she did not know. Annie felt guilt sway within her.
Other than Peggy’s cousin’s claim, she’d heard nothing bad about Mr Barton, and she had no wish to be part of the rumour mill that condemned people to the edges of society. “Oh, it is nothing important. I just want to make sure Mr Barton is right for Peggy.”
“I think Peggy is the only one who can decide that,” Barbara said with a giggle and pointed toward the floor again.
Annie followed the motion with her eyes to see Peggy and Mr Barton walking round one another, hand in hand in their dance. Their gazes were only on each other. Such a sight made Annie smile.
Perhaps there is more here than Peggy wishes to reveal after all.
Annie’s eyes were drawn away as another gentleman stepped into view. He was not the man she had been seeking out, but she smiled all the same.
“Miss Storey, Lady Maybury,” Mr Knight said, bowing to the two of them. “May I have the honour of the next dance, Miss Storey?”
Annie stiffened in surprise. A second dance would certainly profess more of an interest than just a friendship. When she felt her mother stepping on her foot, urging her to accept, the words fell from her lips.
“Yes, of course,” she said and placed her hand in Mr Knight’s. Her mother took her wine glass from her hand, and she followed Mr Knight to the dance floor. The music began with a cotillion and as they began their figures, she felt eager to speak to him of a subject she hadn’t yet spoken to anyone else about. “Mr Knight, I must thank you for your reading recommendation the other day.”
“Which one?”
“Moll Flanders,” Annie said as they circled one another. “I understand perfectly what you meant by a different world to our own. Different indeed!” She giggled at the idea. So far, she had hidden the book under her bed to prevent its discovery by her mother, and she was glad of it.
Moll Flanders’tale of a woman born to thievery and debauchery was an eye-opener for Annie, a life she had never seen. Moll was an interesting character to her, too, for she was both as trapped as Annie felt at times, yet freer. “I cannot thank you enough for the recommendation. I am enjoying it more than any other book I have read in years.”
“Hmm?” Mr Knight said distractedly. Annie frowned as they parted ways and circled other couples, for Mr Knight had apparently not heard her. As they came back together again, she saw clearly this time that he was looking elsewhere, as if seeking another out in the crowd. “My apologies, Miss Storey. My mind was on another matter. Were you speaking ofMoll Flanders?”
“Yes. I find her plight something that is so interesting. The dual binding of being trapped and free, it is so illuminating.” Yet Annie paused as they moved side by side in a two-time step, for she could see once again that Mr Knight was not looking at her. His eyes were elsewhere on the crowd.
She abandoned trying to speak of the book at all, rather disappointed that the one person she thought she could speak of the book to now had no interest in speaking to her at all. As they circled other couples and came back together again, Annie finally had a chance to see just who he was looking at. She turned her head back and forth, trying to get the perfect angle. She, at last, found it.
There was a young lady standing not too far away, her arm looped with another gentleman’s. Miss Storey didn’t recognise the lady, but she was certainly beautiful, with dark auburn hair exquisitely curled at the back of her head, with a few loose ones framing her cheeks. She had rather elfin-like features, the prettiness emphasised by the enthusiasm with which she spoke to the gentleman beside her.
“Who is that?” Annie asked. Her words clearly caught Mr Knight’s attention. He snapped his gaze back toward her.
“Who?” he asked innocently. “What were you talking of, Miss Storey?”
