He could be a rake if he steals a kiss from you in the garden and doesn’t ask you for a dance at the ball.
MISS HONORA TRUTH’S WORDS OF WISDOM AND WARNING ABOUT RAKES, SCOUNDRELS, ROGUES, AND LIBERTINES
Marlena stepped down from the carriage Justine was so fond of, and a feeling of awe almost took her breath. The Great Hall was glimmering from the windows and open doors. It was teeming with beautifully gowned ladies and splendidly dressed gentlemen walking up the wide steps to the entranceway. She heard chatter and music coming from inside, and the clip-clop of horses’ hooves and carriage wheels grinding on the road behind her.
The air was crisp but she wasn’t cold wrapped in her black velvet cape. Her underdress had been made of a warm soft velvet and overlaid with the most beautiful alabaster-covered silk she’d ever seen. The trim on her capped sleeves and the band of her high-waisted gown was a gold-threaded brocade that also banded the hem of the three flounces of her dress and her headpiece.
“When I come here I always feel as if I’m eighteen and starting my first Season all over again,” Justine said as she walked up beside Marlena. Her black cape opened to reveal a puce-colored gown that had small silk roses trimming the neckline, and the crown in her hair.
Marlena turned to her cousin and smiled. She definitely seemed to have the same look of awe about the Great Hall that Marlena was feeling. Still, she laughed softly and said, “Justine, you always feel eighteen. I’ve never known you to act, talk, or look as if you were a widow ready to take your place sitting around the dance floor watching all the other beautiful ladies dance and enjoy themselves.”
“Thunderbolts and lightning. I hope I never shall, but tell me, since you have never been to a ball, how do you know about the wall of widows?”
“The tutor who Mr. Olingworth employed for me told me everything about balls. She was quite thorough, I believe. She was very good at teaching me to dance, which is why I really needed no further lessons though you insisted. She explained what I should expect, whom I should speak to first, how to sip my first glass of champagne, and that I should never have more than two glasses. I should never have two dances with the same gentleman in one evening and no more than two rides in the park with the same gentleman until I was sure I wanted to marry him.”
Justine harrumphed. “Only two glasses of champagne? That wouldn’t do for me. But I suppose she’s right since you aren’t used to it yet and have no idea how it will affect you.”
“A headache,” she said.
“For some,” Justine added. “Thankfully not me. Now my toes are beginning to feel the cold. Let’s go inside.”
If Marlena thought the outside of the Great Hall was a masterpiece of inviting warmth, the ballroom far exceeded her expectations. Light from what seemed to be hundreds of chandeliers and thousands of candles lit the room with a bright golden glow. It took her a few moments to realize it was tall mirrors that made the room seem as if it had so many crystals hanging from the ceiling and so many tulle-and flower-draped Corinthian columns outlining the dance floor. She had never seen so many statues of Greek gods and goddesses in one place. There were more urns of beautiful fragrant flowers than she could count.
Already many people filled the dance floor enjoying the melodious tune. The swirl of ladies dressed in jewel-colored gowns mingled with gentlemen clothed in black and white made for a scene no tutor could have prepared her for. The precision with which they all took each step made her wonder if she was indeed as ready for the dancing as she’d always thought.
The duke came easily to her mind. She let her eyesight land on each gentleman on the dance floor and then to those she could see standing around the room. There were a few she couldn’t see but Rath wasn’t among those she could. A sudden streak of disappointment struck her. She’d never asked Rath if planned to attend the first ball of the Season. It had always been her assumption he would.
“Tell me, dear girl. Do you feel like a princess? As you look out over the gentlemen, do see any you think might be your prince?”
“I really can’t say, Justine. I have no idea which of them might already be spoken for or even married.”
“Let’s remedy that right now, shall we? I see Lord Henry walking this way.” Justine breathed in deeply.
“Lord Henry?” Marlena said and let her gaze follow Justine’s.
“Yes. He’s the most handsome of all the eligible bachelors. He’s one gentleman you can depend on to treat you properly and not step on your toes or your sensibilities. He would be a match made in heaven for any young lady. Lord Henry,” Justine called to him as he passed.
Justine was right. The man had the fine-looking classical features of the paintings she’d seen of Michelangelo’s David in one of Mr. Olingworth’s books of art. Lord Henry’s hair was cut in the same style, complete with the same thick waves. But Lord Henry was also the man Lady Vera had to pound with her parasol. Obviously Justine didn’t know about that and Marlena wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.
“Lord Henry, do you mind if I stop you or are you in a terrible hurry?”
“Not at all, Mrs. Abernathy.” He reached to kiss her hand as his eyes shifted to Marlena.
“So kind of you. I’d like to present my cousin, Miss Marlena Fast.”
They greeted each other and Marlena had to admit the man was filled with charm and perfect manners, commenting on her beauty as well as asking how she was enjoying her first ball. When he heard she’d just arrived he said he’d be honored to guide her through her first dance. Marlena hesitated. She’d hoped, wanted to have her first dance with Rath, but she hadn’t seen him and wasn’t sure he was attending the ball.
“She’d love to,” Justine said after Marlena failed to answer promptly. “Come for her when the next set starts.”
“Yes,” Marlena added. “Thank you, Lord Henry.”
He excused himself and Marlena turned to Justine. “I’m perfectly capable of accepting or declining my own dances.”
“Then you should have spoken up quicker. Thunderbolts and lightning, Marlena, what young lady wouldn’t want her first dance to be with Lord Henry. Ah, there’s Lady Bellehaven coming inside. Let’s go talk to her. Her nephew will be here tonight. She says he’s a handsome fellow and he’s looking to make a match. I’ll ask her if he’s here yet.”
Marlena looked around the room again. She didn’t see Rath or Eugenia and Veronica, but she saw someone else she wanted to speak to. “Do you mind if I join you in a few minutes, Justine? I see Lady Vera and would like to say hello to her first.”
“Yes, do. I’ll go with you.”
Marlena hoped Justine didn’t plan to hover over her the entire evening and make all her decisions for her. “No, best you find out about Lady Bellehaven’s handsome nephew for me, don’t you think?”
“Oh, yes. Let me do that and then I’ll join you and Lady Vera.”
Justine walked away and Marlena scanned the ballroom again as she walked over to Lady Vera, who seemed to be searching for something in her beaded reticule.
“Lady Vera, I hope I’m not interrupting.”
The lady glanced up at her and Marlena knew immediately it wasn’t Lady Vera. Her eyes were different. Softer. Her features a little more pleasant than Lady Vera’s when she smiled.
“I’m not Lady Vera. I’m Lady Sara, her twin sister, and who might you be?”
“I’m sorry, Lady Sara.” Marlena curtsied. “I’m Miss Marlena Fast. Lady Vera—”
“Yes, I know who you are. Vera told me all about you. She’s had such a grand time helping you prepare for the Season.” She looked Marlena over from head to toe. “It looks as if she took excellent care of you. Your gown not only fits you perfectly, it complements your hair and your countenance as well.”
“Thank you. She was very kind. I’ve been told you two look very much alike, but even more so than I’d expected.”
“Well, we won’t for long.” She took her hand and pressed her high-waisted dress against her stomach.
Marlena saw the small swell of her babe and realized she didn’t know what to say except, “How wonderful. You must be very happy.”
“Extremely so. And how is your first ball?”
“I haven’t been here long but I don’t think I was prepared for the opulence of the hall, the gowns, and the people.”
“Believe it or not, I felt that way my first ball, too.”
“You? The daughter and sister of a duke?”
“We are all human, Miss Fast.”
Marlena watched a tall, broad-shouldered, and quite handsome man approach Lady Sara and lovingly kiss her hand. Marlena assumed it was her husband until she heard him say, “How is my dear sister tonight? I didn’t expect you’d come.”
A shiver stole over Marlena. She was looking at Lady Sara and Lady Vera’s brother, the Duke of Griffin. The first rake she’d written about. Like Rath, he didn’t look like the ogre she’d always imagined him to be. He didn’t sound harsh. There were no piercing gleams of folly or meanness in his eyes. He looked quite normally, quite lovingly at his sister, and he was almost as handsome as Rath.
“I was just showing Miss Fast how my dress conceals my condition. Have you met her?”
The duke’s gaze landed on Marlena’s and she was sure he noticed she swallowed with difficulty. What had she written about him? A quote flashed through her mind. It is my hearty belief that most everyone in Society agrees that it is Lady Sara and Lady Vera’s misfortune that it’s up to their brother, the Duke of Griffin, to see them suitably wed. That the duke is now the protector of innocent young ladies is dismaying but may prove to be the punishment that long escaped him and perhaps force a measure of penitence upon him.
Marlena could weaken as she had the first time she found herself lost in the woods chasing after her cousins, or she could be as she had the second time it happened and not wait to be rescued. She reached deep inside herself and remembered her parents were watching over her. The boys had taught her to be strong and stand up for herself. Mr. Olingworth had seen she was taught the proper manners. Her shoulders lifted a little higher. She knew what to do and she would do it.
“I haven’t had the pleasure,” the duke said.
“Then may I present Miss Marlena Fast,” Lady Sara said. “Miss Fast, my brother, the Duke of Griffin.”
Marlena smiled, curtsied, and responded, “Your Grace.”
“I’ve heard much about you, Miss Fast.”
“As I have you.”
“Ah yes,” he said. “I fear I have a reputation I’ll never live down.”
“Lady Vera speaks highly of you,” Marlena said. “I’m sure Lady Sara does as well.”
The duke chuckled. “A clever answer, Miss Fast. I know you met Esmeralda, my wife, when you met Lady Vera, too.”
“Yes. It was an honor. She’s beautiful and was very kind to me.”
He nodded. “And how about the Duke of Rathburne? Is he treating you well?”
“I have no complaints, Your Grace,” she answered.
“That’s good to hear. I would be happy to speak to him on your behalf should that ever change.”
Marlena kept her gaze steady on the duke’s, feeling amazed. He wasn’t just making conversation with her. He wasn’t just telling her what he thought she wanted to hear. She could see he was sincere in his offer. That shocked her. Why should he care how she was treated by anyone? She always believed him to have no care for a young lady’s feelings—other than his own sisters, of course. But as Rath was not as she expected him to be, neither was the Duke of Griffin.
“There you are, Griffin, and Lady Sara.” He kissed her hand. “I’m surprised to see you tonight. Are you sure it’s wise for you to be out?”
Marlena found herself staring at yet another magnificent-looking man. She had looked around the room, more than once, searching for Rath, and most of the gentlemen she’d seen were not as tall and handsome as Rath, Lord Henry, or the Duke of Griffin, but here was another man who stood as tall, handsome, and powerful-looking.
“Wise and helpful,” Lady Sara said. “I haven’t received this much attention since my debut Season.”
“You know we only want to take care of you,” the new gentleman said, before looking Marlena’s way.
As soon as she looked into his eyes she knew he was the third Rake of St. James. Instinct told her no man could wear his title, privilege, self-confidence as strikingly as the rakes.
Another quote that Marlena had written as Miss Truth suddenly flashed through her mind. Rumors still abound that mischief is in the air. And said mischief could be directed against Lady Adele and Lady Vera because of their brothers’ past misdeeds as the Rakes of St. James.
“Lady Sara, may I do the honors?” the Duke of Griffin asked.
“Please do,” she answered.
The introduction to the Duke of Hawksthorn went as smoothly as the one to the Duke of Griffin. Marlena stood with them, trembling inside because they didn’t know who she was and what she had done. She didn’t want them to know.
“I remember your cousin Mrs. Abernathy. We had a dance a few years ago.”
“Really?” she asked.
“You seem surprised.”
“No. Not at all. I mean most ladies remember their dances with a duke. I‘m thinking she may have confused you with the Duke of Rathburne and thought she’d danced with him.”
Hawk quirked his head and smiled. “He probably told her it was him.”
She smiled, too. “Perhaps he did.”
Their conversation continued and Marlena answered their questions but at the back of her mind was the fact she’d written gossip about them before they married. Still wrote gossip about Rath. She’d always considered these men to be scoundrels of the highest order, having no care or even respect for a young lady. Yet here they were being considerate, asking about her well-being, the issue she had at her house with the rodents, though neither of them ever said that word aloud.
“Yes,” she answered quietly. “I feel certain we’ll be back in our home within the next couple of days. Justine is now feeling more comfortable the problem has been eradicated.”
“Lady Sara.”
Marlena turned to see Lord Henry bow to Lady Sara. He then turned, bowed, and spoke to the two dukes, and lastly he turned to her. “Miss Fast, they’ve called for the dance and I believe you promised it to me.”
Grateful for anything to get her away from the dukes and her turbulent feelings, she smiled and said, “Yes, of course.”
“Lord Henry,” the Duke of Griffin said. “I wonder if you might relinquish your dance with Miss Fast to me. You don’t mind, do you, Miss Fast?”
Yes! She did. She wanted to get away from him, Lady Sara, and the Duke of Hawksthorn, too. In truth, she wanted to get away from Miss Truth’s Scandal Sheet.
“No, let me have the honor, Griffin,” the Duke of Hawksthorn said. “You stay here and visit with your sister. You don’t mind, do you, Miss Fast?”
Feeling her insides turning over and over, the only thing she knew to say was, “I don’t, no, of course, but I, but Lord Henry asked.”
Lord Henry took a step back, gave a humorless smile, and bowed first to the Duke of Griffin and then the Duke of Hawksthorn. “Another time, Miss Fast.”
That’s when Marlena understood. The dukes knew how he’d treated Lady Vera and they were showing him that Marlena was under their protection and Lord Henry wasn’t to pursue her. If she hadn’t been so stunned, tears would have filled her eyes.
“This way, Miss Fast,” the duke said.
Marlena didn’t know how her legs were moving as she walked beside the duke. Her feet, her whole body felt numb. How was she ever going to manage a dance? A waltz?
As they took their place on the dance floor and waited for the music to begin, Rath came up beside the Duke of Hawksthorn. “I’ll take over from here.”
“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show up in time.”
“I had to make sure you were going to do your duty first,” Rath replied with a hint of a grin.
“It was my pleasure,” the duke said to him, and smiled at Marlena before walking away.
It always calmed her to look at Rath. Her jittering stomach settled down. She felt her legs strong beneath her once more as he took hold of her hand and they took the waltz stance just as the music began.
Suddenly they were gliding across the floor in perfect time to the music. The duke’s frame was strong and she felt light, protected; even though many couples swept, twirled, and passed by them, for a moment she imagined she and Rath were the only ones on the dance floor.
A couple bumped into Rath’s shoulder. He paid them no mind but Marlena noticed the lady staring at her. Marlena smiled and the lady’s eyebrows rose. Did she think it wrong for Marlena to dance with her guardian?
Marlena kept her gaze on the people surrounding the dance floor as they moved in a circular motion. Everyone was looking at them. Some were talking behind their hands, some their fans, and others were openly staring—but she felt sure they were all talking about Marlena and the duke’s dance.
“I believe everyone is staring at us, Your Grace.”
“They probably are. I’m sure they are thinking it’s scandalous of me to be dancing with my ward.”
“Is it?”
He smiled and led her into a twirl under his arm. “Not to me. You were looking tense before I arrived, Miss Fast. Almost the way you appeared the first day we met at your door. Disturbed I think is the word you wanted to use.”
The humor in his eyes and twitch at the corner of his mouth told her he was teasing her. “Not only did I find myself in the presence of Lady Sara and two dukes I had never met, this is my first ball, my first dance, and,” she emphasized, “I was looking for Eugenia. I haven’t seen her and I want to make sure she is here and enjoying herself, too.”
“Ah, yes. Miss Everard. I should have known she was your priority.”
“You know she’s delicate and—” Marlena hesitated. “And may not easily meet strange gentlemen.”
“Yes, but I saw her on my way inside the ballroom. She’s lovely in a dress with yellow bows on the skirt and four or five in her hair. She’s quite fetching.”
Marlena’s heart lifted. “Yellow? Good. You didn’t speak to her, did you?”
His eyes sparkled with mischief. “I admit I thought about it but didn’t know whether or not the Great Hall had smelling salts so I decided against approaching her for a dance.”
Marlena laughed. “You are teasing me.”
“About the dance, yes. That I saw her, no. If you are concerned I can discreetly see to it that she is asked for a dance or two.”
“Would you do that for her? Discreetly?”
“Consider it done.”
“I—don’t know what to say other than thank you. I’m grateful once again that you have come to her aid.”
“It is difficult for some gentlemen to approach a timid-looking lady. They don’t want to be turned down. All it will take is a dance or two and other gentlemen will start asking her to dance.”
“I’m thrilled. Thank you. I want her to feel beautiful. Tell me, does the gown fit her well?”
Rath laughed and led Marlena into a twirl under his arm. “Yes. As I said, she is lovely but not as lovely as you, Marlena.” His gaze stayed tightly on hers as they danced. “No one here is as beautiful as you. There is no one, no one I’d rather dance with than you.”
Her heart fluttered, her abdomen tightened, and his expression told her he meant what he’d said. She wanted to echo his words, started to, but then she remembered she was Miss Truth. She had to keep silent about that and about her feelings for him.