Chapter Twelve
Rose frowned at the embroidery in her lap, for the stitches wouldn’t lay down quite right tonight.
Why couldn’t she concentrate? Dinner had been over for about an hour.
Since then, she’d parted ways with Laurence, who’d gone out to check a couple of stall doors in the stable he’d repaired earlier that day.
She should have felt relaxed. The meal was simple but filling, and the dessert of a plum tart was one of her favorites. Conversation with Laurence had been as uplifting and challenging as it ever was. Even John, as attending footman, had been reduced to laughter at one of the captain’s jokes.
It had been far too domestic and… peaceful.
So much so that she craved more of it. Did that make her a desperate woman or a fool?
Or did it mean she was ready to invite a man into her heart once more?
Try as she might, Rose couldn’t quite keep the thoughts at bay.
Why the captain, though? He certainly wasn’t anything like the man that the earl had been.
Perhaps that was the point.
“Miss Landry?”
Her head jerked up at the sound of Mrs. Henderson’s voice at the door.
“Yes?”
“Captain Danbury has requested your presence in the ballroom.”
That made absolutely no sense. “He is out at the stables.”
“That might have been so, but now he’s back in the manor house, and he wishes you to join him in the ballroom.” A soft smile curved the housekeeper’s lips.
“Why? We’ve not used the ballroom in ages.”
“I couldn’t begin to say, Miss Landry.” Mrs. Henderson gestured at her with a hand. “But the captain was positively giddy with anticipation.”
“I don’t understand.” Yet Rose set aside her handiwork and struggled into a standing position.
She smoothed her hands down the front of her gown of maroon taffeta.
Though three years out of style, it was a favorite due to the tiny clear glass beads around the scooped bodice and the bottom hem of the skirting. “Why would he be in the ballroom?”
“Oh, good heavens,” Mrs. Henderson said with exasperation clear in her voice as she shook her head. “Just join him, Miss Landry! The poor man is trying to do something lovely for you. Now is not the time to question it.”
One of Rose’s eyebrows went up in surprise. What was the housekeeper playing at? And why? “To what purpose?”
“Does he need a reason?”
“No, I suppose not.” She joined the other woman in the corridor. “Am I dressed correctly at least?” Since she had no idea what the captain was planning, she was a bit out to sea.
“You are lovely, dear.” Kindness sparked in the housekeeper’s eyes as she looked at Rose. “He would be a fool to not fall for you.”
Panic warred with pleasure within her chest. “I don’t know if I want him to fall for me.” Though it might be a lovely thing, since that earl from three years ago had only lied about having feelings for her.
“You have reservations regarding men due to that last one.” Mrs. Henderson walked beside her along the corridor toward the stairs. “Not all of them are like him, may maggots rot his soul, and the captain is quite a dear.”
Well, he had shown himself to be quite different than the earl. “All right. I’ll admit, I’m curious, so I’ll go down to the ballroom. Is anyone else with him?”
“I shouldn’t think so.” Mrs. Henderson’s smile was mysterious. “He was quite adamant that it was you he wished to share the surprise with.”
Rose frowned. “Is he attempting to… court me?” This curious something in the ballroom hard on the heels of the games of bowls yesterday were slowly coalescing into a distinct pattern. “Even though I’m a social pariah?”
“I’m not privy to the captain’s thoughts, but if he is, where is the harm?
” The housekeeper shook her head. “I’m a firm believer that a person’s past should remain there.
Oftentimes, it has no bearing on their future.
” She leveled a gentle glance on Rose. “Your mistakes don’t define you.
And when you allow another person close, you’ll see that you have much in common with Captain Danbury.
” With a wink, the housekeeper drifted away.
“He’s a baron, dear, and he will work hard to build a life for himself and whomever wants to go along with him. Nothing to sneeze at.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Henderson.” After worrying over the possibilities for a few moments, Rose hurried down to the lower level and then made her way through the corridors until she arrived at the ballroom.
The double doors were closed, but Laurence stood in front of them, clad in evening clothes, including a tailcoat.
And she couldn’t keep her gaze from his person, for he was so very handsome.
“Laurence? Mrs. Henderson said you wished to see me?”
“I did indeed.” His grin was this side of cheeky, and something twinkled in the depths of his dark eyes, something she couldn’t quite identify. “Thank you for indulging me.”
“I’m not sure in what?” As she clasped her hands at her waist, she frowned.
His dark brown hair had been set into the latest style, the folds and knot of his cravat were pristine, and the jacket and evening breeches fit him as if elves had fashioned the clothing for him.
“And why did you want for me to meet you here?”
Laurence held out a hand. At some point, he’d removed his gloves, but then, so had she after dinner. “There is something I wish to show you.”
Flutters of anticipation went through her belly. “I’m both intrigued yet worried.” As he watched, she slipped the fingers of one hand into his palm. “Why are we here?”
“I wish to ask you for a dance.”
She frowned as she bounced her gaze from the closed doors to his face. “Whyever for?”
“Because I’ll wager you haven’t indulged in such exercise since you’ve been exiled here. And since you’ve been out of society for years, perhaps it’s time to reintroduce yourself to the exercise.”
Try as she might, Rose couldn’t understand why he would do this. “Do you enjoy it? Dancing?”
A chuckle escaped him and the sound tickled through her chest. “Not at all, but I suspect you do, so I will make the sacrifice.” Then he raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back. Flutters danced in the pit of her stomach. “Ready?”
“I rather suspect I am not.” When he pressed the latch on one of the doors and pushed the wooden panel open, she followed him into the room that she hadn’t stepped foot inside for more years than she could count.
“If a dance is what you truly wanted, we could have done it in the drawing room. My parents haven’t opened the ballroom for at least three years…
” Her words trailed off as she took in the state of it.
Instead of an empty room devoid of life as she expected, the space had been transformed a bit into a veritable fairyland that smacked of romance and dreams a young woman might have.
Ones that she had kept in her heart years ago.
The Roman shades at the two windows on the side of the room that looked out onto the rear terrace and back lawn had been rolled up to reveal the darkness of the night outside.
Candles were lit on the sills as well as gathered in clusters around the perimeter of the room.
The soft illumination highlighted the thin layer of dust over the parquet flooring, but she didn’t care about that.
On the two Roman-style pedestals were medium-sized vases full of autumnal flowers.
But the reason her breath caught in her chest was the glimmer of the crystal chandelier in the middle of the frescoed ceiling, for a handful of tiny candles had been lit within.
A few yellow and brown ribbons had been woven through the branches of the chandelier along with a handful of flowers.
The light scattered dear little rainbows over the walls and floor.
“Oh, goodness. Did you do this?”
“I did.” He winked as he tugged her further into the room. “Do you like it? Of course, I had help from the maids and Mrs. Henderson.”
“It’s wonderful.” And then she didn’t know what to say, for a ball of unshed tears was lodged in her throat. “But why would you do this for me? No one has ever done anything remotely lovely like this for me, especially in the past three years.”
“That is exactly the reason why I did this.” His intense gaze bore into hers, leaving her almost weak in the knees. “Never think you aren’t worthy, Rose. And you deserve to be made to feel wanted, regardless of what has happened to you.”
She worked against another wave of emotion in her throat. “I don’t know what to say.” It wasn’t often that a man managed to impress her, and Laurence had certainly done that.
“Don’t say anything. The look in your eyes is thanks enough.”
“Oh.”
“And since you’ve worn an exquisite gown that personifies autumn, there is no reason why we shouldn’t take a few turns around the ballroom. Society and your family’s judgment upon you can go hang.”
“That is one of the loveliest things anyone has ever said to me,” she whispered in a broken tone as he led her into the middle of the empty dance floor.
In the softly flickering candlelight, she stood staring up at him in the emotionally-charged silence that followed, and oddly enough, in that one moment, all her doubts and fears regarding him melted away.
In that one perfect second of time, they were merely a man and a woman brought together by unusual circumstances, and she hovered on the razor’s edge of possibilities.
It was enough and didn’t require too much thought regarding the future.
When he tugged her into his arms, she went without resistance.
“Just know that I have spoken the truth in every one of our meetings.” As if he couldn’t help but touch her, tease her, he gave her nipple a fleeting tweak through the fabric of her gown.
Heated need streaked through her body from the attention.
“You could grace any drawing room in London. Perhaps you will in the future.”