by Abby Ayles
“It seems that lilac is the color this season,” Jasper said, looking around at the young women who were in the room already or joining the gathering by the minute. Almost all of them wore some variation on the shade, excepting a few who stood out in last season’s dresses.
“I do not envy them,” Christopher said, shaking his head. “So much effort to keep up with the trends, and for what? Only to look like everyone else. While we have our own uniform picked out for us, and it marks us out just fine.”
“I like it,” Jasper said. “It makes those ones who are not up to date with the fashions feel as though they have performed miserably, and that makes them all the more susceptible to my charms.”
“You are incorrigible,” Christopher said, and meant it.
“Lieutenants,” a voice came from behind them. They turned to see Major Jeffords, who was in full regalia and surrounded by a posse of young women already.
“Major,” Jasper greeted him with a salute, at much the same time as Christopher. “How are you this fine evening?”
“Very well,” Jeffords nodded, his mustache moving up and down with his words. “I have been badgered incessantly since the moment you came in to arrange an introduction with my young friends here.”
Jasper laughed, and Christopher found it in himself to smile. Things were looking up already, weren’t they? Perhaps Jasper was right about needing to simply enjoy himself.
One by one the young ladies were introduced, with the necessary bows and scrapes, though their names went almost immediately into Christopher’s left ear and out of his right again. At least two of them were called Elizabeth, which seemed unnecessarily confusing, and another two were sisters.
“And this is Miss Kitty White,” Jeffords finished, proffering a final young woman with hair the color of autumn leaves.
She gave him a smile that was anything but shy, and suddenly Christopher found himself paying a little more attention.
“Tell us, is it terribly lonely being in the military?” one of the sisters asked. “You are so isolated out there without your family or any young ladies at all.”
“We get by,” Jasper said, flashing her a smile. “Of course, the heart pines. But it is ever so gratifying to receive a letter from a beloved. Some of the men will even hang a portrait of their intended in the barracks to remind them of what they fight for.”
“Oh, how wonderful!” one of the other girls exclaimed.
“And do you have an intended, Lieutenant Rivers?” an Elizabeth asked.
“No, no,” Jasper said, doing an admirable job of pretending to be bashful. “I am a sorry singleton, I am sad to say.”
“Will you dance with us?” asked the second Elizabeth.
“All of us?” put in the sister, as quickly as she could.
“My fair ladies,” Jasper said, spreading his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I am at your service. Please, tell me where you need me to be and I will be there.”
“And you, Lieutenant Hardwicke?” asked Kitty White, prompting all of the girls to turn to him at once with beseeching eyes.
“Yes, of course,” Christopher agreed, quite beset by them. “How could I refuse so many delightful ladies?”
“Don’t forget about me,” Major Jeffords protested.
“Oh, but Major, surely you will dance with your wife?” put in Kitty.
Jeffords turned an entertaining shade of pink. “Well, of course,” he muttered, trying to backpedal quickly.
“Then we shall not invoke her jealousy by trying to steal you for ourselves,” Kitty informed him, turning her large, dark eyes back towards Christopher. “We shall set our sights on available officers only.”
After two mostly forgettable, but nonetheless enjoyable, dances with one of the Elizabeths and another young lady, Christopher found himself cornered by Kitty, who demanded that it should be her turn.
“It’s rather inhospitable of you to leave a young lady without a dancing partner, don’t you think?” she asked.
“Quite right,” Christopher said, bowing. “Please forgive me, Miss Kitty. I shall endeavor not to make this same mistake again.”
“Good,” Kitty said, and then clapped her hands in glee at hearing what dance was to be next. “Oh, I do so enjoy this one. Come, let’s take our places!”
Christopher did as he was told, and they were not five steps into the dance before he turned and saw a familiar shape entering the hall.
At that moment he faltered, missed his footing, and found himself standing stock still whilst the dance continued around him.
“What are you doing?” Kitty hissed, just loud enough for him to hear. “You’re falling behind!”
“Oh,” Christopher said, looking around him to get his bearings and joining the steps once more. “My apologies.”
“Who is she, then?” Kitty asked. There was a level of bitterness in her voice that Christopher had not anticipated.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Whoever it is that has you distracted from me,” Kitty said.
“I was simply taken aback,” Christopher said, shaking his head. “I had heard tell that she was not in Bath at all this season. I suppose it must have been a lie.”
“A lie? Told to you by a love rival?” Kitty asked, her eyes sparking up. She evidently found the idea quite exciting.
“No,” Christopher said, musing on it as he mechanically followed the steps of the dance. “It was her own aunt, the very lady with whom she stays in town. And she told me this lie yesterday. I do not think it possible that she thought it the truth.”
“Then the lady is no longer interested in your pursuit,” Kitty said.
“You think so?” Christopher frowned.
Kitty stepped towards him in time with the other dancers around them.
“Trust me,” she said. “It is how we women think. She is trying to tell you that she does not want your attentions without having to say it to your face. She was probably behind a door somewhere, sniggering as her aunt did as instructed.”
The mental image was cruel. Christopher felt almost as if he had been dealt a blow. “We were supposed to meet, here in Bath,” he said feebly.
“Ah, so you have known her from before. Then certainly, I should ask whether she has ever dismissed your attentions before.”
Christopher hesitated, and his mouth twitched at the corner. “I suppose you are very well-intuited,” he admitted. “In fact, last year when I had thought to court her, she gave her hand to another.”
Kitty almost stopped dancing in shock. “Then you were pursuing another man’s bride?”
“No, she called off that betrothal,” Christopher said.
“Ah. Then we have it right. She is a minx, no more. You are better spending time away from such women,” Kitty said, giving him a warm and inviting smile as the music ended. “You should spend it instead with those of us who are willing to be courted.”
Christopher hesitated, and looked around. He caught sight of Juliana then, and saw that she was watching him. Not only that, but she did so with a sour expression, and her arms crossed over her chest.
“To that end,” he said smoothly, returning Kitty’s smile. “Might we go sit and talk for a while? I am quite parched, and you should rest your feet now and then.”
“Of course,” Kitty acquiesced, holding out her arm.
Christopher took the hint and the arm both, and escorted her to where they might take a drink and find a seat. As they went, he looked over his shoulder, and saw Juliana watching them still.
Well, good! Perhaps this would be a dose of her own medicine. She had done nothing but infuriate him and make him jealous with that damned Lord Drevon, and paraded him like a prized cow.
Christopher would not accept that she could play with his emotions, leading him on and then turning him down.
So, this was how she wanted it, and this was how it would be. He knew Juliana well, and he knew that she hated the thought of sharing anything. She had been that way f
rom girlhood, with two older sisters always vying to take away her toys.
There was no better tactic he could think of than to make her jealous with a pretty young woman.
And Kitty was pretty, truly. Her blazing hair was matched with delicate features, and a smattering of freckles across her nose which were not at all unflattering. Together with her large, dark eyes and a rather attractive figure under her lilac dress, Christopher knew that he could do far worse.
“Have you ever been called Kit?” Kitty asked as they sat. “I hear it is a nickname for Christophers, from time to time.”
“I confess I have not,” Christopher said, a smile playing around his lips.
“Imagine if you were,” Kitty said, and threw back her head to laugh. “Kit and Kitty. What a pair we would make!”
“A regular pair,” Christopher agreed, shaking his head with mirth. “We should be the very life of any ball.”
“All that would be missing is a daughter named Kat,” Kitty laughed.
“For Katherine, or for Caitlyn?”
“I have not heard the name Caitlyn.”
“It is Irish, I believe.”
“Oh, you soldiers do encounter such interesting knowledge!” Kitty exclaimed. “Did you learn that on your travels?”
Christopher laughed. “I have not traveled anywhere with the army, not just yet,” he said. “We are not needed in battle in another country at present. I traveled some with my family when I was a boy.”
“Were you born into a noble family, Lieutenant?”
“As a matter of fact, I was,” Christopher said. “My brother is now an earl. I am a second son, however.”
Kitty clapped her hands with glee all the same. “An officer and a lord!” she said. “I wonder that you have not been snatched up by some eligible young lady already.”
Christopher felt an inkling that he should perhaps have been concerned at the joy with which Kitty met the news of his status.
However, it was a point of pride for him, and he was pleased to have it displayed. Not all officers were born well, after all. Some of them actually had to earn their commissions, as Jasper had.
“It is a mystery,” Christopher agreed, leaning slightly closer to her. “Perhaps this is the very night on which I will find my bride.”
“Perhaps it is,” Kitty giggled, but a shadow had fallen over her.
She looked up and blinked, and Christopher turned his head to see who it was. His mouth fell open with a total loss of all words, however, when he saw that it was Juliana.
“Lieutenant Hardwicke,” Juliana said coldly.
“Lady Juliana,” Christopher responded.
He hesitated. What was that fire in her eyes? Had he done the wrong thing? Well, of course he had wanted her to be jealous, but there seemed to be no reason for her to be angry.
Juliana waited, looking at him. Then she turned her gaze over to the center of the floor, and back at him, tossing her head and sighing impatiently.
Christopher was not so stupid that he did not get the hint. “Perhaps you would do me the honor of allowing me the next dance?” he suggested.
“I would,” she said, though her tone implied that she did it with reluctance – and that she was offended at having been made to wait so long.
“If you will excuse me, Miss Kitty,” Christopher said apologetically, getting up and trailing after Juliana to the floor. Kitty pouted admirably, but in truth, she was no match for the woman he now followed – even if she was displeased with him.
They bowed and curtsied to one another as was customary, and the first stirrings of the music prompted them to begin their assigned movements. Christopher looked into Juliana’s face with caution, but everything there seemed hard edges and cold stone.
“Are you quite well?” he ventured after they had gone a number of steps without any communication whatsoever.
“I am in good health,” Juliana said, almost spitting out the words. The edge to her voice remained, and Christopher understood that he was walking upon unstable ground.
“And in good humor?” he asked, wincing as he did so. He knew what the answer was, but his real question was as to the why.
“I am quite upset,” Juliana declared. “One finds that emotion when an agreed-upon meeting is eschewed and forgotten.”
“But,” Christopher began, then floundered for a moment as to which way he should continue. Thank goodness that the dance was one he knew well, he thought. If they could only give him the steps to this conversation, he would follow those as well.
“There can be no excuse, Lieutenant. I was awaiting your greeting for quite some time. I know you saw me enter.”
“But I was told you were not to be here at all,” Christopher managed. “You would have had me return to the barracks disappointed, rather than discover that you were here.”
“Why should I want such a thing?” Juliana demanded. “It was I who wrote to you, inviting this meeting.”
“It is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind,” Christopher said darkly. At that moment he had but one idea in his head: that she meant to play with him. And if that were so, he would not allow himself to be a mere plaything. He had more pride than that.
He was Christopher Hardwicke, and if she did not want his affections, then she would not get them. She would not see him fawning and begging for attention that he would not be allowed to get!
Chapter 8
“It is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind,” Christopher said, giving her such a meaningful look that she could not help but be cut to the core.
So, he wanted her to change her mind, did he? Well! She would not beg him to like her. No, such a thing was beneath her – and it was not as though she was lacking in marriage proposals already. Leaving one courtship behind would not disadvantage her at all.
“And a man’s also,” she countered. She would force him to admit what he truly meant even if it injured her. “It merely takes a brave one to state when it is the case.”
“Why should you believe that my mind has been changed?” Christopher asked. There was no trace of affection in his tone, and she almost wanted to laugh. Right there was his answer – the fact that no man who loved her should speak in such a way.
And he had implied it himself – himself! Not one moment ago! She barely knew which way to attack him first. It all overwhelmed her, and she returned to the thing that had had her stomping over to him in the first place.
“All it took was one announcement that I was not present,” Juliana said, displaying her hurt for him to see and for the moment not caring that he would. “You were quick to abandon thoughts of me and dance with another. I saw you laughing together with that common girl. I wonder how many others you have talked to when I am not by your side? Do you attempt to win over as many girls as possible to see which will give you the better match when you are ready to marry?”
“Why should I retain thoughts of one who has already made it clear that they have no affections for me?” Christopher shot back. His face had quite changed, and it was fierce now. She barely recognized the young officer she had been expecting. “You played a deliberate trick on me, having your aunt inform me that you were not here.”
“I did no such thing!” Juliana gasped. People around them were beginning to turn and look. “I had to argue my case to be allowed to come here so that I might meet you. You do not know how perilously close I was to being forced to stay home.”
“How terrible it would have been for you to miss the chance to socialize,” Christopher sneered. “After all, that is your real interest here – the reason you have been coming since before we met. It is nothing to do with me at all.”
“I don’t know why you are so pig-headed,” Juliana said. She was running out of ways to tell him that he was wrong.
“I don’t know why you deliberately torment me so,” Christopher retorted. They were both out of time with the music now, stumbling rather than dancing, too angry to keep up. “I am only a toy to
you. A plaything that you may mistreat as you like, to be discarded as a thing of the past when you take a husband.”
Juliana stopped dancing altogether, glaring at him. “If you think so little of me, sir, then I wonder why you bothered to come at all.”
With those words, she turned on her heel and stormed away.
She could not bear the thought that not only had he insulted her so, and tarried with another girl, but also that everyone had seen. They had seen, also, how much it affected her. She had never in her life missed a step during a public dance. He was making a fool of her, that much was clear. What was also clear to her was that she could not allow it.
