Chapter Four
Masquerade Ball…
Charlene adjusted her mask for the third time, the satin ribbon refusing to sit comfortably around her head. “I don’t want to be here.”
“What are you talking about?” Maddie asked, casting her a sidelong glance while ensuring her own mask sat perfectly across her face. “You’re the one who wanted to find a man, remember?”
“Not at a masquerade ball.” Charlene motioned toward her brother, Waylon, who was loitering a few feet away from them, his arms crossed and his gaze vigilant.
His fiancée stood at his side, her elegant figure draped in a gown that practically sparkled like glitter under moonlight.
Well, for a moment before he slipped away like a true gentleman who had no intention of torturing himself with feminine shenanigans.
“This is still the perfect place,” Ashley countered from the side. They had all dressed at Charlene’s house and set out together. “Consider it a trial endeavor.”
Trying, yes. But a trial? Could a woman’s reputation ever survive a trial?
Truth be told, she neither wanted to be there nor did she think it wise.
Still, she wasn’t going to leave.
Charlene broke into goosebumps at the thought of the scandal that night might have unleashed.
Oh, the Cross brothers. Or at least one of them.
“For what is this trial, exactly? Looking beyond the masks in the ballroom?”
Ashley chuckled, lowering her voice. “Flirting, dancing, and stealing kisses. Masquerade balls are the playground for romance and adventure. Practice!” Ashley winked at her.
Aha! Certainly not something Charlene felt her reputation could survive. And even that was an understatement!
Charlene almost groaned. She wanted to find romance and adventure, yes, but she wasn’t sure that was the way to go about it. Stealing kisses? That would mean being alone with a man she didn’t know, and given what had happened a year ago with a man she did know…
No, she couldn’t do it.
“I might just try all that,” Maddie said with a laugh.
“Can you two be serious?” Charlene tried to hide her exasperation.
Fighting back a smile, Charlene bit her tongue.
She was forever grateful for her friends and wanted them to be happy.
But she also wanted to be happy. Not merely wed.
Not merely shelved. Not merely anything, no!
She didn’t want to settle for anything less than bone-melting kisses and adventurous romance that was the material even most naughty books left out. And yet, her heart wasn’t complete.
“Oh, I’m very serious,” Ashley replied, her grin widening. “The men in disguises are your playground. You’re here to find one, aren’t you? What better place than a room full of masked ones to consider which traits you cherish the most?”
Anonymity was on the top of that list.
“Besides their faces, you mean?” Charlene asked.
Ashley shrugged. “This is the only way to be excused for considering the other qualities of a gentleman,” Ashley said as she twirled and flipped her hips.
“I can’t believe you just said that,” Charlene muttered.
Ashley leaned in, her voice brimming with mischief. “One never knows. Your gallant suitor might be standing just beyond that potted plant. Would that not be the very height of perfection?”
Maddie laughed and covered her mouth with her fan as she blushed. “You two are a scandal; no men are needed.”
“Many orchids are potted but not every potted plant is an orchid.” Ashley arched a brow. She ought to know, Charlene thought. Considering that she and Thomas… but well, that was another story entirely.
“You know,” Maddie murmured. “Rather than orchids, all you need to do is search for your rare fern, the steady and humble kind. Or perhaps flirt with some regular orchids and avoid all potted plants.”
See the men as plants? She could do that. Potting was the problem—and not merely metaphorically speaking.
“But there is a glaring problem. Orchids are rare and distinguishable. With men, it’s the exact opposite.”
“You are taking this analogy far too seriously, Char,” Ashley muttered. “Take your enjoyment. Don’t think, act. We are here. We have our eyes on you.” So history won’t repeat itself? Charlene thought bitterly of that night.
Perhaps she was thinking more than acting, but the more she thought, the more she wanted her rare orchid.
Maddie nodded. “You may rely upon our steadfast support. And you are allowed to amuse yourself again. On your terms. But given all of that, now I don’t even know where to start looking for my future husband!”
Charlene laughed. “He’ll breeze into your life sooner or later.”
“Or sneeze into it,” Ashley muttered. “What? Don’t look at me like that, Char. Maddie’s the queen of potions in her travel apothecary. Hidden potions and such…”
“Not hidden,” Maddie denied.
“Well,” Ashley said, grinning at Charlene, “needless to say, orchid or potted plant, just do what you do best with them. You kiss them, I mean, water them, plant them in different soil, and all those things you gardeners do. Go do that.”
Charlene raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re telling me to go around watering men?”
Or were they supposed to pot her, take her away from her family, and set her aside in a forgotten corner or household while they were off gallivanting like the Cross brothers?
No, thank you.
Speaking of garden, how far can a woman go without giving them her flower?
“Precisely,” Ashley said with a nod. “And while you’re at it, plant a few and see which ones thrive. It’s all about the effort, my friend.”
Charlene shot her friend a flat look. “Like your revenge effort with Linsey?”
“It all turned out for the best, didn’t it?” Maddie flicked open her fan and waved it lazily in front of her face. “Ashley’s gardening advice might be the butchering of plant comparisons, but it’s not that bad of an idea.”
Charlene sighed, a reluctant smile tugging at her lips. “Fine. I’ll water a bit. But if I have only a dead fern, or worse, it’s on you. You shall find the wrath of my brother.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Ashley said, looping her arm through Charlene’s. “I’ll be here to prune your scandals.”
Charlene laughed. “Why, thank you.”
Maddie let out a sigh. “I’m starting to feel the heat with all this talk of plants,” she said, glancing around the room. “Then again, with all these masked shrubberies, you have your work cut out for you.”
Charlene raised an eyebrow. “Should I be worried about you?”
Maddie shook her head. “I haven’t caught the wedding fever yet.”
“You might catch it tonight,” Ashley pointed out.
“No, tonight and the nights to come are all about Charlene and her man she wants to find.”
Yes, she should never have made that declaration. “We can all find someone.”
Waylon appeared then with the typical scrutinizing look of a brother, his imposing frame interrupting their fun like a general inspecting his troops. His dark eyes swept over the three of them, his brow furrowing. “What are you plotting over here?”
“Why would you believe we are plotting anything?” Charlene asked, turning to her brother with an arched brow.
“You have that look of plotting women.”
“Oh,” Ashley murmured. “And what does that look like?”
“Like this.” He gestured at them with a quizzical look. “Danger. I can feel it.”
Maddie waved her fan a bit faster. “And what does that feel like?”
“Like a shiver down my spine.”
“The best kind of shiver,” Ashley countered with a grin.
Waylon turned his attention to Ashley. “And you,” he added. “Don’t encourage my sister with reckless antics.”
“Who, me?” Ashley said, placing a hand on her chest. “I would never.”
Charlene bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning.
“Oh, stop, Waylon.” His fiancée stepped forward and smiled at them. “Let the girls have some fun.”
“I’m their chaperone.”
“Are you?” his fiancée asked. “Or are we? So long as they don’t leave the ballroom, give a lady some space.”
“All right.”
But Charlene wasn’t hearing her brother anymore. Her eyes had caught sight of a man. A man in a black mask casually speaking to another man… A man she had hoped she would never see again.
What was he doing here?
*
What was he doing here?
Adam’s gaze raked over the ballroom, filled with pretentious faces behind even more pretentious masks.
What felt the worst was that he was one of them.
Every polished detail about him bespoke an air of artifice.
He hated cravats. And what was with all this layering of clothes?
Not even to venture into colors. His mother didn’t enjoy drab, but he preferred it.
He didn’t belong here. “I don’t want this; let’s leave. ”
“Have you seen your mother’s hawk eyes on us?
Leaving is not an option without dancing.
And stop scowling,” Jack Cavendish, wealthy, a hotelier, and the sort of acquaintance who showed up when least expected and vanished just as easily said.
“You’re here, I’m here, and let me tell you, I’d also rather be at home with my wife. ”
“Your wife? She hasn’t agreed to marry you yet.”
“She will.”
“It’s been two years.”
“I’ll wait a thousand; I’m patient.”
Adam’s lip curled in disdain. “I cannot believe her brother is allowing you to live in scandal with his sister.”
Jack waved his comment aside. “Stop diverting the topic that’s really on your mind. She is here. You have a chance. And your brother is on his way back.”
Adam’s blood froze, his head whipping to his friend. “Say that again?”
A sigh. “I just received the news myself. It’s ten percent accurate. The spare has boarded a ship back to England.”
“Ten percent? Why even mention it in the first place?”
Jack shrugged. “As duke, you should know this. This is why you should act ten percent faster to secure your love.”
“She is not my love.” Not yet. Not anymore.
There was that sharp pain in his chest that surfaced every time he thought of Charlene.
“You cannot still be denying this? But you love her.”
Adam scowled. “Don’t speak of love so casually. She chose my brother.”
“And how did that end?”
Adam cursed, glaring at his friend. Horribly. It bloody ended horribly.
You are all the same.
That one sentence would probably haunt him forever. “We are not compatible,” he simply said. They were not, no matter what the feelings. They were one-sided anyway. And she thought him the same as his brother. No, whatever may be his dreams at night, they could never be his reality in the day.
That sunny chance of love had set forever. Every sunrise that followed was subtly different, for no two suns or sunsets are ever the same. Unless, of course, one was to stand in the exact same spot for an entire lifetime.
And what human could do that?
He felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Come now, old friend, let’s make the best of this, eh?” Jack made a sweeping motion over the crowd. “You’re not going to stand here all night, looking like a masked statue. Not that I mind. I don’t care for this sort of affair either, but your mother will skin us both alive if you do.”
True. “She might. She might not. What the eye does not see, the heart cannot fuss over.”
“You believe she doesn’t have eyes and ears everywhere?”
Oh, she most certainly did. He couldn’t refute that either.
Adam sighed. His gaze was locked on the dancers gliding effortlessly across the floor. The kind of life that never seemed to touch him. So poised, posh, and pompous. At least that was what he had thought while growing up. He much preferred the open seas. Vast. Raw. True beauty.
“Go on,” Jack prodded again. “Pick a woman. Ask her to dance. You’ll forget all about your brooding by the end of the waltz. Also, it should get your mother off your back.”
“She wants me to engage, too. Form connections.”
“I’ll introduce you to the Duke of Mortimer later. That should please her. You dukes should have some influential friends.”
“Much obliged.”
Jack gave Adam a friendly shove. “Now, go dance with someone so we can get out of here quicker.”
Adam sighed. “I don’t know who.” The last thing he wanted was to give any woman here the wrong impression.
Jack’s grin widened. “It’s a masquerade ball.
Everyone’s wearing a mask. Half of them are strangers.
Who’s to say who’s who? Just ask one of them.
Dance with her. Well, ask three if you must. You know as well as I do that women can’t resist a man who looks like he doesn’t care.
And frankly, if you are recognized, I’ll jump into a bush of thorny roses completely naked. ”
Adam smiled at that. “I feel like a fraud asking anyone to dance. I don’t belong here.”
“You do belong here,” Jack said, his voice firm. “Whether you like it or not, you have a place among all of them. If you want to nitpick, I’m the one who doesn’t belong.”
“The difference between you and me is that you don’t care.”
Jack chuckled. “True.” His friend clapped him on the back. “So, stop looking so miserable. Your mother and I are the only ones here trying to get you out and into Society. Be grateful to us.”
Sometimes he wondered how they became friends in the first place.
But that was one of the things he enjoyed about the man and why he didn’t mind his friendship.
His mystery. That, and he never once judged Adam on any score.
In fact, if you don’t want to talk about duty, and family, and David, Jack was your man.
But Adam barely registered his friend’s words.
His gaze had locked on a group of three women. One in particular.
Charlene Fielding.
He knew it as he knew the sky was blue.
Well, black in the darkness of night, but still… She’d illuminate the night as her sight made his pulse quicken.
Of course, it shouldn’t.
But it did. She did.
Every time.
The only woman capable of truly making him question everything.
Adam drew in the sight of her, his chest contracting. She wore a green dress with a sparkling green mask, and he just knew her eyes sparkled the same green. Still not able to catch his breath at the mere sight of her, even after one year.
For a moment, Adam stood there, torn between thought and action.
His mother’s words, his heart, and his head all collided at once.
Without thinking, and then, before reason could hold him back, Adam moved. It wasn’t a conscious decision—more like an instinct, a pull he couldn’t resist.
“Adam?” Jack called, but he ignored him.
He couldn’t think about why he was approaching her or what he would even say. It didn’t matter; his feet carried on, every nerve in his body on edge.
She turned slightly, her profile illuminated by the soft glow of the candles.
So beautiful.
Could he be so lucky and remain hidden or would she recognize him if he asked her to dance?