She was about to imagine the feeling of his lips upon hers when she was rudely reminded of what the gentlemen had been discussing before. The door to the ballroom closed loudly downstairs, and Beatrice pursed her lips, remembering what Mr. Grayson had suggested the men do in honor of Mr. DeLancy. Somewhere, a clock chimed eleven, and Beatrice knew she would not have much time to find Minnie to convince her of these horrible truths, so she flew down the stairs.
For the second time that evening, Beatrice found herself colliding with Miss Saumon in a manner unbefitting of two young ladies. “My goodness!” Beatrice cried out, steadying her best friend gently. “We simply must stop colliding like this.”
“I agree,” Minnie said, then clutched the shoulders of the young woman opposite her. “Where have you been? I have been searching all over for you!” Beatrice’s eyes shut in embarrassment as Minnie took in the state of her dirtied gown and flushed cheeks. Her friend lifted a knowing brow, “Beatrice Ivanry, what sort of mischief have you been causing?”
They kept their voices low, though they would have never been heard over the din in the ballroom, and Beatrice whispered back, “I have just overheard some vexing news that I simply must share with you, Minnie, no matter how much it hurts your heart.” Miss Saumon stared at her confusedly, so Beatrice continued with a gentle voice, “My dear friend, I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it would seem that Mr. Grayson has engaged some other gentlemen, including Mr. DeLancy, in findingotherentertainment this evening.”
When Minnie did not appear to understand Beatrice’s meaning, the young woman added in a disgusted murmur, “They are going to a house of ill repute.” Beatrice felt most distressed at the look of shock and dismay that passed over Minnie’s face, and she almost pulled her friend close before remembering the state of her dress. Instead, she settled for holding the poor girl’s hand.
Minnie fought back tears – tears which Beatrice would have said were justifiable and righteous, even if Mr. DeLancy was loving toward his bride-to-be – and sighed heavily. She appeared to compose herself, saying, “Then we must follow them. I will not marry a man who parades himself around that part of town so brazenly. Oh, Beatrice, he is seeking my ruin!”
Beatrice’s mouth formed a hard, determined line, and she actively ignored her lip’s present swollenness to harshly declare, “It is all that Mr. Grayson’s doing! He is most definitely a cad if ever I was to know one.” That seemed to make Miss Saumon regard her friend with suspicion.
“How did you come to find out about these things?” she questioned, looking intently into Beatrice’s eyes as though they would reveal her guilt. “First, you disappear for half an hour, and then you come rushing downstairs to tell me about Mr. Grayson’s rakish ideas.” Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh, Beatrice, you cannot possibly have spent time with Mr. Graysonalone, have you?”
Minnie looked horrified and Beatrice felt her own terror rising in her throat but she swallowed it down and lied, “Please, Minnie. Do you think I would so readily give myself to a man who thinks so lowly of our sex?” She placed a reassuring hand on Miss Saumon’s elbow. “I simply overheard their conversation while I was taking a small stroll around upstairs. It has been a while since I have had the pleasure of being here, and I wanted to see if they had hung any new paintings.”
There were sudden calls of their names from the ballroom, and Beatrice looked at Minnie with determination. “We must sneak out of here and follow them. Do you want to marry a man whom you do not even know the true intentions of?” Minnie chewed on her lip and shook her head, wordlessly agreeing with Beatrice.
“Then we must get our cloaks and leave just as they did,” the young woman said, leading her best friend over to where the servants had hung everyone’s outer garments. Minnie reached for hers with shaking fingers, unused to such behavior, and slipped it on.
The two ladies quietly made their way to the back of the ballroom and opened the door to the servants’ entrance to venture out into the inky, black night. They had made it several feet into the street when Beatrice stopped them both and with a distressed look on her face, declared, “We have forgotten to disguise ourselves, Minnie! How can we possibly hope to know the truth if we are spotted before it is uncovered?” Wordlessly, Minnie procured two scarves from the deep pockets of her cloak and offered one to Beatrice.
“If we cover our faces, how will anyone know who we are?” she said with an air of slyness that quickly faded when they heard drunken singing down the street. They quickly wrapped the scarves around the lower half of their faces and pulled their hoods over their heads, only allowing a narrow sliver of their countenances to be readily seen. “I do hope he is merely playing along,” Minnie whined, frowning against the wool at her mouth. “It would be a tragedy to see my future husband indulging, no matter how natural the urges may be.”
Beatrice scoffed, quickening her pace when the gentlemen they were following began walking again after pulling one of the men from the ground. “If it were so natural, women would be allowed to partake,” Beatrice said logically. “I see no issue with exposing men who would rather find company in the arms of another woman and neglect their own wives.”
Minnie sighed dejectedly. “But it is not your lover who you are speaking of, my friend. Tell me, how do you think it would feel to see the man you have wanted most in your life enjoying the company of another woman?”
Beatrice thought on this for a moment, her stomach churning with jealousy at the idea of another woman, alady of the night, no less, perched upon Mr. Grayson’s lap. Laughing at his jokes, wrapping her arms around his neck, enjoying the heady, blue gaze of his eyes. She subconsciously touched her lips at the image of said woman kissing Mr. Grayson and knowing, as Beatrice now did, that those lips were indeed as soft and plush as they appeared to be.
Minnie caught the small movement out of the corner of her eye and hummed. “It would hurt, wouldn’t it? Perhaps someday, you will have the decency to tell me who it is you are thinking of, if not Mr. Grayson. But until then, you must mourn Mr. DeLancy with me if he is indeed partaking in this sordid excursion.”
They were close to the gentlemen’s destination now, the cold night air nipping at what little skin was exposed on the young ladies, and all around them, the city grew more vibrant. Or at least, that would have been the polite way to put it, for as they neared the gaming hall, Beatrice and Minnie were shocked to discover how debauched this side of town seemed to be. There were men staggering in the street, clutching bottles of dark liquid, women wearing what Beatrice would have thought to be their underclothes, and couples pressed together without any care for decorum.
Instead of being disgusted, Beatrice found herself becoming entranced with this other world. “Even though we are here on serious business, this is terribly exciting, is it not, Minnie?” Miss Saumon could only nod, staring at the open displays around her, nearly as enthralled with the scene before them as Beatrice was. These fascinations were shattered when the young women witnessed the gentlemen they had been following begin entertaining themselves.
No longer were Beatrice and Minnie spellbound by these people’s freedom, but rather they were appalled by how quickly Mr. Grayson, Mr. DeLancy, and the other gentlemen seemed to succumb to it. The gaming hall was lit like hell itself, glowing red and orange and yellow, and seemingly just as enticing to those who did not seem to know any better. But Minnie Saumon knew that Mr. Solomon DeLancy knew exactly what he was getting into. Though he did not have a woman on his lap, she had no doubts that one would appear shortly.
“This is just awful, Beatrice! I cannot explain what I expected to see, but it was certainly not as horrible as this den of sin!”
“Calm yourself, Minnie,” Beatrice said soothingly. “Let us wait here awhile and learn the true nature of Mr. DeLancy’s other engagements.” It must have looked very odd to the people passing the young women in the street, for their gazes were entirely fixed upon the gaming hall, nearly pressing their noses to the glass like children admiring toys in a shop. Beatrice and Minnie tried to remain hidden in the shadows and merely observe, but as the night wore on, that became increasingly difficult.
“The nerve of them,” Minnie muttered with disdain, “to wander off from the ball thrown in mine and Mr. DeLancy’s honor so that they may behave like savages.” Mr. DeLancy had yet to accept the advance of any of the women who passed by the table full of raucous gentlemen, so Minnie at least took comfort in that.
Mr. Grayson, on the other hand, had one woman on each knee and one behind him, massaging his shoulders. Though Beatrice could not show her distaste without Minnie finding out about their kiss, she certainly tried to express it under the guise of “immoral behavior.” The youngest Ivanry gestured toward the bawdy display, lips twisted in a grimace when one of the women leaned over to kiss Mr. Grayson’s cheek. “This is certainly unbecoming of a gentleman. Now, there is no doubt in my mind that he deserves the rakish status he has earned himself.”
Minnie agreed, though she was becoming less and less vexed the longer the ladies watched. “Do you suppose we ought to find our own way in? Give the gentlemen a taste of their own medicine by surprising them and catching them in the act?” Beatrice thought on this a moment, picturing herself and Minnie putting on rouge and taking off nearly every stitch of clothing to fit in with the women in this establishment. Though she considered herself to be open-minded, Beatrice despised the idea of presenting herself indelicately for the pleasure of a man, regardless of what Mr. Grayson seemed to imply earlier.
Certainly, there was something to be said for kisses and wanton touches, but to masquerade as aprostitutewas quite another shameful venture altogether. “No, I daresay that would be beneath us, Minnie,” Beatrice concluded, ignoring the disappointed look of the girl next to her for having her brilliant idea shot down. “A lady as fine as you and as clever as I have no business lessening herself to get the attention of a man. Though I do not wish to pass judgment on the women in that hall, it is most decidedly not how I would comport myself, even if the Prince Regent himself commanded me to do so.”
“But it is humiliating to sit here and watch him spoil himself before our wedding,” Miss Saumon said tearfully. “Perhaps we shall not even have one at all.”
CHAPTERFIVE
Anthony was becoming quite tired of his and the gentlemen’s exploits after sitting there for nearly an hour and a half, nursing the same, lukewarm glass of whiskey. Mr. Bartholomew Laughton had all but jumped on the opportunity to have the company of a woman whom he did not have to expressly charm. The other two gentlemen, with whom Anthony and Mr. DeLancy were not acquainted well, followed suit until their table was the busiest in the establishment.
For themselves, Anthony and Mr. DeLancy did not expressly seek out female attention, claiming that they were simply enjoying the less stuffy atmosphere. “You gentlemen have your fun,” Mr. DeLancy had said, waving off Mr. Laughton’s offer to buy the future groom a room for the night. “Miss Saumon is the only woman I wish to caress. After all, she is to be my wife, and what sort of husband would I be if I did not treat her like the finest creature I have ever known?”