Madcap Miss

She pouted. “Oh … is it not?”

“Allow me to rephrase that. A confirmed bachelor, when finding himself undone … is confirmed no more.”

“Oh, I like that. I do so like that, then,” she declared.

As Daffy was ushering everyone towards the duke’s coach, which waited just at the curbing, there was no time for more, but Felicia knew, for her, having the duke at her side had quite made her evening.

~ Twenty-Five ~

ALMACK’S WAS FULL to overflowing. The orchestra played sweetly from its balcony. Corinthian gentlemen walked about, and many sported a toe on the dance floor with the season’s new debutantes.

Gossipmongers sipped their Negus and whispered about the latest ondit. Conversation flowed, and Felicia, fascinated, gazed at everything with wonder and told her friend, “Becky, just look at that w

oman … over there. Is she not the most beautiful creature you have ever seen?”

The duke, standing near Felicia, grinned oddly as she lifted her face to him and asked, “Do you know her?”

“Too well, I am afraid,” he answered truthfully.

“Ah, she was your lover,” Felicia concluded. “Did it end badly?”

“It ended and, for a woman who is not ready for that to happen, my dear, then, yes, badly, but you should not be speaking of such things.” His eyes twinkled at her.

“She has the heart of a tart, and for all her breeding will never be anything else,” Daffy stuck into the conversation.

Felicia giggled. “Who is she?”

“She is the Lady Amkirk. She married a man thirty years her senior and makes no secret of her numerous affairs.”

“Well, at least she is honest,” Felicia said.

“Indiscretion and honesty are two very different things. Ask Daffy, she will tell you that society may forgive her infidelities but not her indiscretion,” the duke answered, very amused.

“Ah, still that makes it a sin that she is honest?” Becky stuck in.

“Touché!” Felicia said and laughed.

They were interrupted at that point by two zealous young men who applied for their hands for the next cotillion.

Felicia gave the duke a saucy look over her shoulder as she left him and heard him sigh and say to his sister, “Were it not for my minx, this would be a sorry affair.”

“Indeed, she is lively and good fun,” Daffy answered happily. “Ah, there is Freddy. I thought he would not miss Felicia’s first night at Almack’s.” She eyed her brother. “Tell me, Glen, is she not absolutely stunning this evening?”

“She is that and more,” he said from the heart.

“Indeed, you know a few beau have already come calling …?” she told him, and he noted an odd look in her tone.

“Really? I hope you have sent them on their way,” he returned with a touch of irritation.

“Now why would I do that? She is here for her season to make a match,” she said quietly and smiled sweetly.

“Because I have seen no one who is good enough for her yet!” he snapped.

“No one, eh? Hmmm,” his sister replied. “Now, you cannot know then that Reinhart—ah there he is now, cutting in to dance with her—has already paid her two morning calls, and, Glen, he makes her laugh right out loud and has sent her flowers every day since he met her at the rout.”

“Does he, by damn!” her brother responded.

“Yes, and he is quite a catch, don’t you think? Titled and wealthy …”