Lillian pushed through the last wall of people to reach the outer reaches of Waterford’s circle. She went up on tiptoe to see inside. Abigail curtsied, and Lord Waterford bowed and asked the girl something that Lillian, standing at the edges of the chatty crowd, could not quite hear.
Abigail tilted her head and tapped her chin. Then she grinned slightly and spoke, Lord Waterford grinned and nodded, and then they were off chatting like bosom buddies who had known one another for years.
“A success, I think,” Lillian said. She smiled over her shoulder at Lord Adam, then chuckled. “Still stuck, I see.”
He grinned wide, not at all perturbed.
“I’ll help.” It wouldn’t look quite right, and if anyone saw her, the mysterious whispers flying about her might build to a furious storm. But needs must. She placed the very tip of her toes on the only bit of chair still visible beneath the sleeping dowager’s skirts. Slowly, grasping the column in one hand and Lord Adam’s hand in the other, she reached up and held the fern steady. “Quick!” she hissed. “Make your escape!”
Lord Adam slipped from his quandary with the grace of a practiced athlete. He distanced himself from the dowager and the column and straightened his clothes. “Much thanks, Lady Pennworthy. A right hero, you are. Never know when you’re going to encounter Odysseus’s Moving Rocks in a ballroom.”
Lillian returned to the ground and backed away from the now snoring dowager. “I didn’t take you for a reader, Lord Adam.”
He shrugged. “Thank goodness. Looks like your girl is doing well. It’s all about finding the right people, isn’t it?”
“I think you’re right.” Lillian said. It was not about having everyone see you, but about having theright peoplesee you.
Had Lillian chosen the right people to see her?
She stored the question away to chew on later.
“Lady Pennworthy.” Lord Adam bowed low. “Would you care for a dance?”
She would but… “Perhaps later. I would like to stay nearby, in case Lady Abigail needs me. Just for a bit.”
“A cozy friend, you are. If Devon had not snapped you up, I would… maybe… possibly… consider it… for a moment or two.”
Lillian tapped him on the arm with her fan. “Not one for marriage, Lord Adam?”
Lord Adam's eyes flicked toward Lady Georgiana, and his face darkened. “Not at all. Well, I’m off to the card room to wipe away the thoughts of matrimony.” He shivered, kicked one leg forward, then swung it back, letting it turn his body in the other direction.
“Good luck!” Lillian called.
He lifted a hand in salute and looked over his shoulder. “Tell Devon to join you next time, so I can lighten his pockets a bit.”
Lillian nodded and waved as he sauntered away and bumped right into a portly baron who bellowed his displeasure. “Hm.Perhaps he needs spectacles.”
She returned to the edges of Waterford’s group and tried to hear Abigail’s conversation. She could not make out the specifics, but the tone was happy. Confident. Lillian felt… she felt… proud.
She wanted, more than anything, for Devon to join her. He had been markedly absent from her life for the past… she counted on her fingers… almost a fortnight! Well, at least her daytime life. And when he returned to their bedroom, it was with a crash and a groan and aching muscles she had quickly learned to rub until he groaned some more, but this time with pleasure rather than pain. The rubbing made him feel better in all kinds of ways, and that led toherfeeling very good, indeed.
But when she spoke with words instead of with her body, asking where he’d been, he always said “work” or “those damn offices.” Her father had told him to make a nuisance of himself in the patent office, so they would do anything to get rid of him. Devon was apparently taking that advice to heart.
“Pardon me,” a stiff voice said from behind her.
She knew that voice. She turned. “Lord Littleton. How lovely to see you.”
“Yes,” he said, “are you enjoying marriage? I see your husband is not here.”
“I am. He is not. I mean to say, I am enjoying marriage, and he is not here. I cannot speak for him, of course, on the matter of enjoying marriage, but I suspect he is.” Or some aspects of it.
She waited for him to continue, and he made her wait, scanning the crowd behind and around her, making her feel invisible. Oh yes, there it was, that familiar stabby feeling. She hadn’t felt it since she’d broken their engagement.
Finally, he said, “I thought it best you know what they’re saying.”
There was no question in her mind whotheywere. The Whisperers. The excited energy behind them.
“I’m all ears,” Lillian said.
