I had tried to argue with him a little bit, just for the fun of it - but in truth, I could have sung with joy! The guards were staying? Did this mean that he still cared, even after I’d turned him down? Did it?
Or was it just that he didn’t want to lose to Lord Daniel Eugene Dalgliesh?
Right now, I couldn’t find the energy to care! Lord Dalgliesh was gone, and Mr Ambrose wasn’t going anywhere. I would have plenty of time to figure out what was going on between the two of us. With a tired sigh, I tottered over to the bed and sank down on it. Time for a little break. After all, there was no hurry. Most of my problems were over, and the ones that weren’t could wait for a little while, right?
Wrong.
In that exact instant, the door burst open and a dervish danced into the room. A dervish that looked suspiciously like Lady Adaira Louise Jannet Melanie Georgette Ambrose. She made a last whirl and then came to a stop in front of my bed, beaming down at me.
‘Isn’t this just fantabulous? Dalgliesh is gone! Really, absolutely one hundred per cent gone! And Mother has given me carte blanche! Oh, we’re going to have so much fun!’
‘Fun?’ I blinked up at her. ‘Fun with what?’
‘With finding the right dress for you to wear! After all, you want to look your best for the ball tonight, don’t you? For the ball, and…’ She winked. She winked! ‘…and for my brother?’
Oh blast!
Groaning, I sank back onto my pillow. My problems weren’t over. They were just beginning.
Insignificant Other
‘Crap, crap, crap!’
‘Miss! I must protest! Your language…!’
‘Oh, pardon. I meant horse dung, of course. Or do you prefer faeces?’
The sputtering shop assistant bustled away to bury her scolded ears in folds of muslin. Behind me, Adaira disguised her giggle as a cough.
‘You do have a rather colourful way of expressing yourself.’
‘Well, colourful is good, isn’t it?’ I held up the brilliant orange ball gown against my front. ‘What do you think?’
‘Um…I think maybe not in this case. Try that one.’
I glanced around, and was nearly blinded. Adaira was holding up a brilliantly gleaming dress that was, from neckline to hem, a shiny golden colour.
She grinned at me. ‘I bet he won’t be able to take his eyes off you in this.’
I returned her smile with one eyebrow raised. ‘I see you know your brother well.’
‘Indeed I do. So, what about it? Are you going to try it on?’
‘Hmm…thanks, but I think I’ll politely decline. I don’t really wish to spend the entire evening with him fiddling around on an abacus, trying to figure out how much my dress is worth.’
‘But you do want to spend it with him.’
I glanced down, biting my lip. Usually, I was a pretty plucky girl. I didn’t easily get afraid. But when it came to answering questions like this one…
‘Yes.’ The word was hardly more than a whisper. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Hm.’ Adaira tapped her chin. ‘So…you want to spend time with him. You want to be with him. But you don’t want to marry him.’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s a pretty tough conundrum.’
‘Yes.’