“I saw him,” Anne said, and then blushed. “I mean, I saw Horace, too.”
“I’m sure you did,” Tina soothed her, but she couldn’t help but smile. Was Anne still enamored of Charles despite her parents’ warning? Whatever her own feelings in the matter, it seemed unlikely she would go against their wishes when it came to marriage. Anne was a practical girl—the sort of girl Tina had always believed herself to be—and romantic love would take second place to duty and practical considerations.
“Mr. Richard Eversham.”
The name was announced by a footman at the door, and at once Tina went hot and cold. If she were being dramatic, she’d say those three words struck her like a sliver of lightning, lodging in the region of her heart. She actually couldn’t find her breath and struggled to maintain a normal demeanor. When she finally felt able to, when she’d regained some control, she turned to look.
It was him. He was here, just as Maria had warned her.
He was wearing gray trousers and a well-fitted black jacket over a jade green silk vest and a gray cravat. His gaze caught Tina’s, and a smile curved his mouth, almost as if the instinctive movement were beyond his control. Before she could stop herself, Tina was smiling back.
“Tina!” Margaret hissed. “Why are you smiling at the disreputable Mr. Eversham?”
“Was I?” Tina answered vaguely, but her heart was thumping in her chest.
“He is handsome. And charming. What a pity he’s so unsuitable,” said Anne.
“Is he really all that unsuitable?” asked Margaret, somewhat wistfully.
“Only if you value your reputation,” Anne retorted.
If only they knew what she and Richard had done together! How very intimate they had become. Would her friends refuse to speak to her? Probably. Tina wondered if she would be cut off from society and branded a scarlet woman. Perhaps, she thought, watching Richard as he talked to Sir Henry and Lady Isabelle, but perhaps it might be worth it.
Tina half listened to her friends chattering and laughing, her thoughts miles away. For a practical girl, she was sho
wing some alarming tendencies to daydream about matters that were most improper.
The last to arrive and be announced was John Little, who had, he explained, been delayed on business matters. He came and greeted Margaret with a solemn smile before turning to Tina.
“Miss Smythe, your parents aren’t here?”
“No, they were unable to attend due to another engagement.” Tina spoke the lie smoothly. She’d been telling a great many lies recently, and it was becoming easier each time.
“I must call upon them in London, to thank them again for their hospitality.”
Tina smiled but couldn’t help but wonder if he would find the house in Mallory Street closed up and shuttered, and no one home, and what he would think when he did. Would he seek them out at their hovel? Mr. Little did not seem like a snob, but he was a businessman, and if fraternizing with the bankrupt Smythes caused his business to suffer, she imagined he might make the hardheaded decision to drop them.
Tina glanced around, looking for Richard. There he was, by the windows. She thought about seeking him out, but every time she moved toward him, she was waylaid by her friends, until she finally gave up. Soon it was time to go upstairs to change for dinner.
Maria had laid out one of her new dresses, a deep buttercup taffeta with dropped puffed sleeves and a décolletage just short of scandalous—it was a sign of Lady Carol’s desperation that she had not quibbled over it. With the new dress Tina wore her garnet necklace and earrings, presented to her by her parents on her eighteenth birthday. She fingered the stones, wondering if she should have offered to sell them. Well, if Horace didn’t come up to scratch, she would have to, but for now she resolved to set aside her guilt and enjoy wearing them.
Maria was attending to her hair, watching her with a little frown, as if she was worried her young mistress might do something reckless.
She is right to be worried tonight, Tina decided, for she felt reckless. She felt as if she might set aside all the rules, everything she’d been taught about decorous behavior, and do exactly as she pleased.
“You were right, Mr. Eversham is here, Maria,” she said. “I saw him in the salon although I didn’t speak to him. I thought it might not appear proper to speak to him in front of all those people.”
“His reputation—”
“I won’t speak to him in public, and yet I am quite willing to kiss him in private. Don’t you find that a little deceitful, Maria?”
“I find it very sensible, miss.”
“He’s a very good kisser, Maria.”
Maria tightened her lips and said nothing.
Tina smiled. “Have you seen Archie yet?”