And just as the two men approached, Joan caught James's eyes again. His ocean deep eyes. He raised both his eyebrows in greeting, giving her ample space to plunge into his depths. Her breath caught.
“Lady Joan,” more depth rumbled out of him, this time in the form of his voice, as he made the introductions.
And Joan almost forgot the concern that had been a flag in her mind from a moment earlier. Except she couldn’t forget the concern because all of a sudden James was flicking his eyes at Sally. And then back to her. And then at Sally. And then back to Joan.
Joan was confused.
James cleared his throat.
Joan was still confused.
James canted his head toward Sally. And raised his eyebrows again.
Finally Joan looked over at her friend.
And…
Oh.
My.
God.
The flag of concern was raised. It was blowing in the wind. It was quite the largest flag she had ever seen. And it was crimson red.
Jacob was staring at Sally. Besotted. Predicted. Expected. Going according to plan.
Joan was staring at Sally. Questioning. Dumbfounded. Because while James was staring at Joan, also questioning, Sally was staring atJames. Dreamily.
This was all wrong.
This was all so wrong that Joan didn’t think it could be worse.
Wait. It was getting worse. Sally was slowly raising her hand toward James.
This was what Joan had feared but not enough, and not toward the right man. Joan had thought it would cause scandal if Sally were to ask Jacob to dance. A respectable gentleman. But oh—Joan cringed—it was going to be so much worse if Sally asked a notorious rake to dance.
So Joan did the only thing she could think of. The only action that made sense in the moment. The only action that could save her friend from scandal, and more importantly, inevitable heartbreak later. James was a rake. He would never settle down, especially not for shy, quiet women like Sally and Joan. She wasn’t quite sure whyshe included herself there, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that she needed to act quickly. Before Sally could embarrass herself, Jacob, and James.
Joan threw a fake smile on her face and extended her hand toward James, “I believe this dance belongs to you.” She didn’t want to outright lie in front of the group, but she would deal with her conscience and this misleading white lie later.
It took James less than a second to reply. In fact, no one could have guessed that she had just sprung this on him.
“I do believe it does,” he said, taking her hand. And he turned to his friend, “Don’t you have something to ask Sally?”
Jacob beamed at Sally, thankfully oblivious, “May I have the honor of this dance with you?”
Joan was shocked that Jacob had managed so many words. Given his earlier state, she would have thought his words would have been a jumbled mess.
But no, it was Sally’s words that were the jumbled mess.
“Oh, erm…the dance? Well—”
Joan looked at her friend and mouthed the word,yes. She tried again with,say yes, but still no reply.
“What she means is yes,” Joan answered for Sally as her friend gave her a bewildered, and perhaps a little disappointed look.
“Yes, thank you,” Sally finally said, but the dejection was solid in her tone. Joan felt compelled to act quickly again. She couldn’t go forward in the dance knowing she was hurting Sally. Rather, with Sally feeling hurt. They were different. Really, because Joan knew that in the long run she wasn’t hurting Sally. She was protecting her.
