Chapter 11
Alice would have been more than happy to have followed Lord Warrington right off the dancefloor. She was unsure as to why she had allowed him to guide her on in the first place. Yet, Nancy had insisted and so that was her excuse. It seemed that while she had been preoccupied with the Earl her friend had been hard at work, filling her dance card.
Even as she’d danced with Mr Tulk, she had caught Nancy out of the corner of her eye several times, talking and laughing animatedly with the other male guests and the way that she glanced in Alice’s direction made the young woman’s gut hurt. It was not hard to tell exactly what they were talking and laughing about: her.
As if he sensed her discomfort during their dance, Philip had pulled her close, glancing over her shoulder at his cousin before whispering into her ear, “You know, Alice, there’s one way you could put an end to my cousin’s tirade right this instant.”
There had been an amused tone to Philip’s voice and even before she had looked into his dark chocolate eyes, she was almost certain that he was about to be his usual charming, flirtatious and yet easy-going self.
“And what might that way be, Philip?” Alice asked, knowing that nobody else was close enough to hear them speaking in such a friendly manner. Having been friends so long, it often felt stiff and forced to call him by his formal name and it was a relief now to find a moment to talk to him simply as a friend. Even with all the people surrounding them, all the eyes she could feel upon her, Philip was a grounding force and always had been.
“Well, Miss Skeffington, you could do me the honour of a courtship.” Philip chuckled into Alice’s ear and for just a moment her breath caught in her throat, worried that for once he might not be joking. As if he heard her, he pulled back just enough to look her in the eye and a mischievous smile spread across his face. Sensing without need of his confirmation that he was indeed only playing with her, Alice instantly began to relax and returned his smile.
“Mr Tulk,” she grumbled playfully, “you are a cruel man to offer such an easy way out when we both know that courtship would lead to marriage, and I could never marry you!”
Philip’s mouth opened wide though Alice could tell from the amused glint in his dark gaze that he was most definitely only feigning the offence. “How could you say such a thing, Miss Skeffington?” he exclaimed even as he spun her gracefully around the dancefloor. “I would be the perfect husband, a true gentleman.”
Alice squeezed Philip’s shoulder with affection and smiled at him even as she responded, “I know very well you would be perfect, Philip, as you always are, but I could never marry you! We are much too good friends for that and besides, I could never marry Nancy’s cousin. However, would I manage to get away from her?”
Philip laughed haughtily at that and assured her, “I will likely still try to charm you as always, Miss Skeffington,” and it was their conversation she tried to focus on even as man after man stepped up to offer her their hand for a dance. With the eyes of both Nancy and her mother watching her from opposite edges of the dancefloor and every other guest besides, she knew there was no way that she could possibly deny even one man, especially after having said yes to both Lord Warrington and Mr Tulk. If she were to say no without a valid excuse, someone might take it as a slight and she was all too aware of how the Ton liked to talk.
Even with many of the guests being acquainted with one of her closest friends, she was not certain that one of them would not try to smudge her family’s good name for her mistakes. After having been caught playing with the dogs in the garden, she was all too aware of just how close she’d come to a true scolding from her mother. She shivered as she remembered how Lord Warrington had tried to help her with her mother after she’d been roused from her patio chair.
I was far too harsh with him,she thought, even as she drew to a halt on the dancefloor with the quite uninteresting Baron Colton. The man had done nothing but talk of his produce business for their entire dance as though he could entice her into marriage by talking of oranges and peaches.
Just when she was beginning to feel like she might actually get a break, her feet aching from dancing with three other gentlemen besides Lord Warrington, Mr Tulk and Baron Colton, another gentleman stepped up to greet her at the edge of the dancefloor.
“Miss Skeffington, I fear I may have come too late to dance.” Mr Gouldsmith sighed even as he approached, bowing respectfully before offering her hand. “Though I would ask that you honour me all the same.”
Dashing as he always was, Mr Gouldsmith smiled with perfectly pearly teeth and awaited her answer almost expectantly as though they both knew she could not possibly deny him after already dancing with so many of the other gentlemen.
Gritting her teeth against the urge to huff and complain that her feet were hurting, Alice forced a smile and placed her gloved hand in his, curtseying slightly as she did to accept his offer to dance, “I would be happy to dance with you, Mr Gouldsmith.”
Even as she allowed him to guide her out onto the dancefloor, she found herself glancing over her shoulder at the gentleman who had caught her eye as she’d turned around.
He had been a quiet presence the entire evening, a shadow always seeming to have one eye upon her, and yet his were the only eyes she did not mind on her. His eyes were the only ones that she wanted to meet, and she offered him a gentle nod, unnerved by the way his gaze darkened.
For a moment, Alice thought that perhaps she might have done something to upset Lord Warrington, but she quickly came to realize that it was not her he was scowling at, but Mr Gouldsmith.What could Mr Gouldsmith possibly have done to upset the Earl?she wondered even as she was forced to focus on her current dance partner with the way he spun her into his arms and placed his hand upon the small of her back.
Just seeing the way that Lord Warrington looked at the man caused Alice to feel uneasy. At the beginning of the week, when she had first met him, Alice had thought that Mr Gouldsmith might be a gentleman she would be pleased to spend a little time with. He was clearly handsome and quite charming.
Yet now, after only a few short conversations in passing and seeing how overly charming he was with every guest, she could not help but feel as though there was something else hiding just beneath the surface. Lord Warrington’s seemingly growing distaste for the man did not help matters.Why should I care for his opinion?she asked herself.
It was not long until she came to understand why. Mr Gouldsmith was quite pleased with himself, standing tall and leading Alice around the dancefloor with a loud confidence that suggested he thought very highly of himself. As if that were not enough, the conversation that would usually have made dancing closely a little less awkward only began to make things more so.
“Miss Skeffington, I feel I must be forward with you,” Mr Gouldsmith announced as they made their way into the centre of the dancefloor, well away from the ears of the onlookers. “I find you remarkably handsome and quite intoxicating.”
Alice’s stomach clenched at his compliment. The lady-like and feminine side of her was all too willing to accept it, but there was a small part of her that his comment rubbed the wrong way and so she merely smiled up at him and responded, “Thank you, Mr Gouldsmith.”
A part of her wondered whether she ought to offer him a compliment in return, but his open self-confidence told her that he certainly did not need it.
“I do hope that you are having a fine evening, Miss Skeffington, as I am quite sure you have made the night of quite a few of the gentlemen here,” he continued, spinning her, and expertly guiding her around the dancefloor in a move that would have caused any other young lady to swoon in his arms.
Though Alice appreciated his athleticism, she could not help but see right through him. He was openly attempting to charm her. Though it was likely true of a few of the other gentlemen, none were quite so forward as Mr Gouldsmith.
“Yes, Mr Gouldsmith, I find the evening quite fine,” Alice responded, her face beginning to feel as though it was going to cramp up with all the fake smiling she had been doing all evening.
The conversation continued much the same and Alice was more than a little relieved when the music finally ended, and people began to disperse a little. Seeing that several of the guests had left the ballroom, Alice quickly became hopeful that the evening would not last much longer.