“You told me, remember?” Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. “Over there. See her? Go ask her to dance. No one is asking her. She looks lonely.”
“How can you tell?” The woman’s mask was a dark velvet purple and covered most of her slender face.
Elizabeth laughed.
“Who is she? What’s her name?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just go ask her to dance. I was talking to her, and she seems very nice.”
“Has she been here before? Have I danced with her before?”
“Will you just go over there? Don’t make me take you by the hand and lead you, brother, that would look very strange, I think.”
Richard sighed. This was the Elizabeth he was used to. It appeared he’d gotten a short reprieve from her nagging.
“All right, all right.” He stood up and crossed the room, moving around people politely. When he reached her, he leaned over and held out his hand.
“Would you like to dance, my lady?”
Without a word, the woman smiled and gave him her hand. He led her onto the dance floor, where they waited a few seconds for the song to begin. Richard’s first thought when they began to dance was that the woman felt very comfortable in his arms. He wondered about her silence but was enjoying the dance too much to say anything about it. It was the first time he had danced in comfortable silence with a woman. His arm felt good around her waist.
He was surprised when the song was over. He didn’t want to stop dancing with the silent woman. Unable to contain himself, he bowed low to her and said, “That was a lovely dance, my lady. May I have your name?”
She smiled and laughed softly. She had been nervous the entire time but had enjoyed the dance more than she ever would have imagined. Now she would have to tell him who she was and had no idea how he would react.
“Please?” He prompted with a laugh of his own.
“It’s Rose,” she said softly.
He stared at her from behind his own mask. “Rose? My Rose?”
His use of the word “my” delighted her. She giggled and lifted her mask slightly so he could see who she was.
“Rose!” The way he said her name made it clear he was not unhappy that she was here. “I thought there was something familiar about you! I am glad you are here. I suppose Elizabeth brought you?”
“Yes, she did.”
“We must dance again, Rose. Would you like that?”
“I would very much like to.”
When the music started, they began to dance, his arm around her waist again. She thought she enjoyed that more than anything else.
“I have been thinking about you, Rose,” he said.
“Have you?”
“Yes. You are…you’ve been so good to me and my children. I wish I had seen it before. I wouldn’t have…wasted much of the time I have spent looking…” He stopped talking, and she felt his hand on her waist gripping her a bit tighter. It made her heart skip a beat. “You’re lovely, Rose. I would like to spend more time talking to you.”
“I would like that, too.”
He leaned down and when he whispered to her, his lips brushed her ear lightly, sending chills over her arms.
“The children will be delighted.”
They both laughed.
*****
THE END
CLEAN REGENCY Romance - A Sister’s Plan
Chapter One
Marie Downing glanced at herself in the mirror, pushing her dark hair back and away from her forehead. She looked with disappointment at her face and sighed. She had seen no improvement with the makeup her sisters wore to hide their flaws so she chose to wear very little of it. The blush only made her washed out face look like she’d just been slapped on both sides and lipstick only brought attention to the fact that her lips were thin and her mouth wide.
Marie painted a picture of herself in her mind as a side show clown and felt very heavy in her heart. She could hear her sisters upstairs. It was time for her to get ready, as well, but she was delaying it. Her sisters took a lot longer than she did, with all of their lace and layers. They did their hair up in fancy dos and painted their faces. Marie didn’t do those things. It was a waste of time. She kept her dark hair back in a bun and only used a bit of powder to add color to her whole face and some pencil around her eyes at the insistence of her older sister, Lucinda.