Josette (24 page)

“There is nothing keeping him here,” Josette said, and too sharply, before looking out as if something had caught
her
fancy.

If the carriage ride had been strained, the overcrowded townhouse made feelings between the would-be lovers positively taunt. Carter escorted his aunt inside with Caroline, then Josette, and Amy trailing behind. It was very loud and warm. Josette looked back at her sister and gave her a hopeful smile.

Millerd was loitering at a tall potted shrub as if he'd been waiting. “Carter!” He grasped his friend's hand, shook it,
then
walked around the trio of young ladies examining them.

“Good lord, Millerd,
am
I a horse?” gripped Caroline, and she strode off toward the tea room.

“You promised me a dance, Miss Price,” he said, and Josette looked to see if he meant her but he did not. “I must claim you before dinner, for I have already seen Fitzgerald, and he is with his friends who all admire you.”

Amy nodded as if resolved to accept his attention. He asked to show her the ballroom where they would be dancing and Josette moved aside, ruefully realizing that she was now alone with Carter.

He stood behind her and she brushed against him when she stepped back for Amy to pass. Her shoulders thunked into his iron chest. For a moment she wished his arms would go around her in an embrace, but she shook her head to clear it.

“I beg your pardon,” she mumbled and stepped forward, her cheeks on fire. She twisted the fingers of her glove uneasily, feeling quite the wallflower. There was almost relief when she saw Edward dodge Lady Berclair after taking a knee and making what most assuredly was pretty talk that she did not buy. The lady still fumed it seemed over the fact that he had joined them at
Almack’s
.

“Captain Carter.” He bowed and Carter returned it, albeit stiffly. “I see you've returned to once again keep company with my cousin.”

“It's good company to keep.”

“Indeed.” He grinned devilishly at Josette who melted into a puddle of mortification.

“Millerd has not claimed all of your dances?”

Remembering the unhappy path of their last conversation, Josette did not smile but only made a small noise of disagreement.

“
It's
Amy then,” he said, almost to himself as he turned to follow the couple on the way into the great room where dinner would be served.

In the glow of candlelight, Amy looked angelic. Her neck and figure were formed to be admired.

Josette’s sisterly pride dissolved into distaste however as she watched Edward rake the ladies around the room. “I thought you would be playing cards,” she said coldly, “or holding court with Mr. Sparrow.”

“Yes. Later,” said Edward, crossing his arms, suddenly scholarly. He put a thumb to his chin and bit his lip.

Carter stared and the unwillingness to engage him any further pressed the awkwardness of the occasion upon the pair.

Josette struggled for something to make him go.

Without warning, Carter reached for her elbow, saying, “I should take you in before there are no chairs to be found. Excuse us, Mr. Price.”

A flash of surprise lit up Edward’s face, but he bowed. He gave Josette a churlish look then raised his chin as if someone had called his name and strode off into the din.

≈
≈
≈

Josette could hardly eat with the hour so late and her unmentionables so tight but she managed to put something in her mouth saving her from the obligation of any conversation.

Captain Carter, though frequented by acquaintances with many questions, seemed to have latched onto her as if to prevent her from having any comfort the entire evening. He did not let her escape when the orchestra struck up the first dance but said, “We must dance the next dance, Miss Price, before your admirers secure all of your promises.”

They stood at the edges of the crowd and waited for the next reel. The angst at having to bear such closeness to Carter had now surrendered itself into a galloping heartbeat. Josette was aghast at her reaction to a simple request to take the floor. She had spent many evenings in the company of Carter. Her nerves had no precedent for such behavior, and she could not think what to do. She was scarcely able to draw breath, and her hands were trembling as if she were still a young miss.

The dance began. He simply took her fingertips and she was overcome. Only one pass from behind was necessary for her to be aware of his entire being--from his wide shoulders down to his waist, his long strong legs moving behind her, his big black boots dodging her slippered feet. She could feel his breathing and imagined his heart strumming with the melody as they reached for one another and came together before turning reluctantly away. She could not keep from searching his expression, and her heart fluttered like a falling feather when their eyes met, and he did not look away.

The stone façade he wore dropped and he followed her gaze with the same open sincerity she had not seen since he had visited her in Bedfield. She could not make polite conversation for her mind melted into a warm, buttery haze and her throat knotted with the anxiety of wanting to know his mind.

It was over too soon, so soon that her legs did not want to stop. She took an extra step before catching herself and trying to dip appropriately and deeply in front of her partner.

He wordlessly took her hand and led her toward the punch.

Her throat had never been so dry. The warmness of the room felt like a deep, burning heat, and she fanned herself while trying not to gulp the punch down.

An officer came up, another captain she understood, but when Carter introduced him the name went over her head in a cloud and she could only stand silently, willing herself not to be faint like a ninny.

He asked her to dance again, and she merely nodded. No one around them seemed to notice or to care. Perhaps it appeared perfectly natural to see them together for they had arrived in the same party, and she was after all the sister of the captain's most favorite lieutenant.

Josette had never had such a night. She reveled in every dance, every turn around the room, with Carter at her elbow. She smiled and talked happily with acquaintances and though she could find little to say to Carter besides
yes
,
no
, or
thank you
, she began to feel that she had never felt
so
happy as she did in this moment.

Millerd, quite alone, found them and asked for a dance.

Josette happily accepted, for she and Carter had already danced two, and she didn’t want to scandalize his aunt. Millerd still wore his congenial grin and she adored him all the more for his devotion and the flattering attention to her sister.

“I think Amy is feeling better,” she said kindly and his eyes agreed.

“I'm afraid I had to share her with some of the other gentlemen in the room,” he said pretending to be generous.

“You are a good sort of man, Millerd,” laughed Josette. She looked for Amy but did not see her. “And does she dance well tonight?”

“She dances well every night and grows more beautiful every time we meet.”

“Which is often,” Josette teased.

He chuckled shyly and would not meet her gaze.

She asked whether he had seen Edward, and he nodded. They discovered they were both broiling in their many layers, and she dared claim she had it the worse.

Carter was waiting for her it seemed, though she tried not be presumptuous.

Millerd betrayed her perspirations and discomfort to his friend, and in a sudden burst of gallantry Carter asked if she would like to stroll out into the garden.

“Walk outdoors?” she mused, surprised at herself. They had already dined and danced too many dances. To be sure a turn about the garden in the darkness would not fare well with the chaperones. She wished them all a little drunk as Carter guided her toward the set of open doors that led out onto a paved pavilion over a modest, manicured and fragrant Eden.

They had no sooner stepped down into the cool of the evening when Captain Wilkins came striding from the shrubbery. He stopped at the trickling fountain where Josette and Carter stood, ignoring the floating candles beneath the cherubic sculpture. He was breathing heavily as if in somewhat of a hurry. “Miss Price,” he said fervently. “Caroline told me she saw you step out.”

Confused, Josette looked for her friend but did not see her.

Ignoring Carter, Captain Wilkins reached for her hand and gave her an urgent tug. “I must speak with you.
Privately.”

Josette heard Carter’s sharp breath from behind her. “Captain Wilkins,” she said, trying not to be cold, “I cannot imagine what you have to say to me that
is
so important.”

He made a cavalier face and jerked his chin at Carter as if to send him off. “We have had many important things to say to one another before.”

And before Josette could stammer, “No, indeed!” he pulled her toward him. “I insist,” he said in a voice laced with intensity.

“Miss Price does not appear interested in a private conversation with you, Wilkins.” Carter’s voice was unmistakably threatening.

“My conversations with Miss Price are none of your affair,” said the scoundrel as he stood his ground.

Josette's stomach almost lurched right out her throat. She looked desperately back at Carter and saw only an iced mask. What could Wilkins possibly need to tell her she wondered? Then she realized the man knew much more about Carter than she ever would. Did he need to warn her of something? Was it about George?
The child?

She gave Wilkins a brief nod and turned coolly to the man standing taunt beside her. “Captain Carter, please excuse us,” she said quietly.

The look of fury that streaked across his face made her step back. She tried to find something to say to make him understand, but he turned and pounded up the stairs toward the music before she could proffer any excuses.

≈
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≈

Josette whirled on her interloper but had no time to berate him before he dragged her into the labyrinth of tall shrubbery. She slapped at his hands and balled a fist to strike him. “Let me go!”

“Miss Price,” he said and not without amusement, “Caroline begs that you meet her in the tea room. She has gone to speak with her mother.”

“What is it?” Panic crept into the edges of Josette's heart.

“It's your sister.”

“What?”

“Private Fitzgerald took her out for some air.”

“Fitzgerald!” Anger ripped through Josette, and she did not care to contain it. She grabbed Wilkins by the cravat and narrowed her eyes. “What has he done?”

“The boy's blameless, unless we should condemn the fool for blundering across another man's dalliance.”

“Dalliance?”

“I'm afraid they crossed paths with your cousin Edward and that smarmy Rose Sparrow.”

Josette gaped. Rose Sparrow? Plain, quiet, and bless-her-heart—dull Rose Sparrow?

“He didn't,” she said with a shake of her head.

“He did. He has. And your sister has taken it all in and fled.”

“And Caroline saw her?”

“Saw her emerge from the hedges in hysterics and run flying from the house.”

“She's gone?”