The Fire's Center

by Shannon Farrell

  "I’m sorry, Antoinette never did assign me to another room," he apologised, looking as though he were about to walk out again.

  But Riona waved him in, declaring, "There’s probably a shortage of space with all the other ladies getting ready."

  "Well, so long as you don’t mind," Lucien said, entering and closing the door behind him quickly.

  "Here, could you hook up the back of my dress?" Riona asked as she finished adjusting her hat.

  "Lovely, truly lovely," Lucien breathed, encircling her tiny waist with one arm and bending his head to kiss one bare shoulder. "And what a figure. Without any corsets too."

  Riona turned around in his arms and kissed him passionately for a brief moment, before scolding playfully, "Hurry up or we’ll be late."

  "I suppose there’s no chance of us just going home and having a nice quiet evening alone, is there?" he said with a meaning look.

  She shook her head. "Afraid not, my dear, tempting though it is. It would definitely excite too much comment." She smiled up at him, her eyes glowing as she gave him one last peck on the cheek.

  Riona helped Lucien undo his stock and studs with nimble fingers, and then helped him tie his ruff at the back and hoist on his thigh length boots. Next Lucien tugged on his cavalier’s coat.

  Riona criss-crossed his sword belt and dagger belt over the front of the royal blue velvet jacket, and stood by to survey him from top to toe. She had never seen him look more handsome, like something straight out of one of the old masterpieces hanging on the walls below.

  Lucien took a candle and some cork over to a dressing table, and burnt one end of the small brown circle. He drew a moustache on carefully, and then Riona handed him the black curled wig he had got specially for the occasion.

  "You look like one of those Cavalier King Charles spaniels," she teased, tweaking one of his curls.

  Lucien looked at her balefully, and tugged on the matching blue hat bedecked with ostrich plumes.

  Riona’s eyes glowed with admiration. "Stunning, really, Lucien. Perhaps we should just head home now," she murmured shyly.

  "I would love to, my dear, you know I would, but as you so rightly pointed out, duty calls. Besides, anticipation is part of the pleasure. So we will have to content ourselves all evening with looking forward to what I'm going to do to you once I get you home."

  He smiled broadly, pulling her to him for one last kiss. Both giggled as they took one final look in the mirror and saw that Riona had ended up with a black cork moustache of her very own.

  "Here, let me," Lucien offered, wiping the smudges away with his handkerchief.

  While he ministered to her, Riona smoothed out the shoulders of Lucien’s coat, and then reflected to herself that they were acting just like a married couple.

  She looked up at him as he declared, "Maybe I should forgo the moustache all together. You look so lovely, I don’t think I can resist kissing you at least once more tonight."

  "All cavaliers had them, so you’ll just have to behave yourself in front of the others. Propriety, remember?"

  "Damn propriety when you wear that dress," he muttered, stroking her sides intimately.

  "Come along, Dr. Woulfe, I hear the opening strains being repeated," Riona said as seriously as possible, taking one of his hands in her own. She kissed it briefly, and then put her arm in his.

  Lucien rested his other hand on her forearm then, and moving out into the corridor, they descended together, Riona’s silk gown whispering softly down the carpeted stairs.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Riona and Lucien were indeed a most striking couple, resplendent in their elegant Cavalier soldier and 18th century lady costumes.

  Every head in the room turned and all the chatter dwindled to silence for a few seconds as they made their way down to the foyer where all the guests were laughing and talking.

  Antoinette, outraged that her Venus costume had not been so admired, grasped Lucien’s hand and said, "Thank goodness you’re here at last, Lucien. Now we can start."

  Before Lucien could utter a word of protest, Antoinette dragged him into the ballroom and onto the dance floor, so that Riona was left standing by herself at the foot of the stairs completely forgotten

  Lucien offered her an apologetic look over his shoulder which she smiled back at wanly.

  She felt completely eclipsed by the manipulative blonde, and was about to go into the refreshment room to hide her embarrassment when someone came to tower over her.

  "There you are, Miss Connolly," Charles Durance said breathlessly. "Will you do me the honour of the first dance?"

  Riona was grateful to the tall young man for being kind enough to rescue her from so awkward a situation.

  She tried to tell herself to brush it off and just enjoy herself, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from following Lucien around the ballroom as the evening progressed.

  Out of pure spite, Antoinette made sure that Riona didn’t get near Lucien nearly the whole night except in passing down the sets, for when she wasn’t dancing with him herself, she was insisting on him dancing with all the single and elderly ladies in the room.

  Riona had enough offers at the start of the evening, due to her beauty and her vivacious manner, but she certainly couldn’t compete with the wealthy girls in the room, and so once the men learned more about her, she was left at the wall more and more.

  Antoinette did her best to see to that. She waspishly took great pains to answer every enquiry as to the lovely girl’s identity with the lurid details of her being a poor penniless country cousin of her husband’s whom she had taken pity on.

  Riona didn’t trouble to get close enough to Antoinette to speak to her, for even if the woman had not been staring resentfully at her ever since her entrance at the ball, Riona noticed that Dr. O’Carroll seemed to always be near Antoinette no matter what group of people she was talking to.

  He was one person whom she most wanted to avoid. Riona only hoped he wouldn’t make an unpleasant scene with Lucien in front over everyone over his dismissal from the clinic.

  Later in the evening he approached Riona, and in such an obvious way that she could not turn him down for a dance without causing a scene.

  He took her arm before she had even walked off the floor with Mr. Benn, and put one arm firmly about her waist for a polka.

  "Really, I had thought to sit this one out, Dr. O’Carroll," she said coolly.

  "Beggars can’t be choosers, Riona. You might as well show off the dress, and the rest of your wares as well," he sneered as he promenaded her around the dance floor.

  "And what was that about breaking my arm I if ever touched you again?" he added after a time.

  "You’re baiting me now when you know full well I wouldn’t dare make a scene. You're nothing but a bully and a coward," she hissed.

  He grinned sardonically. "Always the little wildcat, aren’t you? It’s a good show, but no woman has ever disliked me, I can assure you of that."

  She looked daggers at him. "You mean they didn’t get a chance to say no before you forced your attentions on them!" Riona snapped as he held her impossibly tightly, causing a buzz of comments from many of the people standing on the side of the ballroom.

  "What a handsome couple," Lucien heard one older woman remark. "But really, these young lovers have no discretion nowadays!"

  Lucien glowered as he followed her shocked gaze and saw whom the woman was referring to,

  Once again, he felt the jealousy surge through his veins, and tried to manoeuvre his partner over to them with a view to cutting in.

  "Can I just speak to Miss Connolly for a moment," he shouted above the music. "I'm sure you will oblige me by changing partners."

  Dr. O’Carroll smiled suavely, squeezing her so hard he though her ribs would crack. "The lady is fine where she is."

  Riona gave Lucien a pleading look, but it was too late, and before she knew it she had been whisked off, not only away from Lucien, but from the dance floor altogethe
r.

  "Damn you, let go of me!" she protested loudly as he continued to stride forward with her still pinned to his chest.

  "Only if you give me a kiss."

  "Never!" she fired back as she tried to knee him.

  He clung onto her like a vine, so tightly that Riona feared the seams of her gown would come apart in his hands. Any defensive moves to get free lost their power, she was pressed up so tightly to him.

  Still in the ballroom, but with the dance now over, Lucien dodged Antoinette’s possessive hand almost rudely and went to search for Riona.

  He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw her and Dr. O’Carroll alone behind a pillar together.

  But Riona had had very little say in the matter, for Dr. O’Carroll had used his superior strength to back her up against the wall, and with his fingers digging into her shoulders, he had begun to kiss her brutally.

  Riona tasted blood, and almost gagged at the contact of his tongue trying to insinuate itself between her lips. She managed to move her head away, gasping with the effort of her struggle, just as Lucien let out an outraged gasp of his own.

  Dr. O’Carroll stepped back and grinned, "Oops, caught in the act. We’ll resume this later, my dear."

  Riona and Lucien stood staring at each other as though across a wide gulf, and then Lucien turned on his heel and stalked away angrily.

  Riona tremulously tried to call out to him, but found herself waylaid by Charles Durance, who proceeded to take her arm and insisted she sit down and have some fruit cup with him.

  She soothed her swollen mouth with the cool drink he gave her, then he led her away from the pointed stares of some of the more gossipy tabbies.

  "Really it’s so crowded here, the library would be quieter," he urged, leading her out of the packed ballroom.

  Riona, still appalled by the brutal assault she had been subjected to at Dr. O’Carroll’s hands, gratefully clung to him for fear she would faint. She numbly allowed herself to be conducted to a more private spot where she could think straight and try to make sense of what had just happened.

  Meanwhile, Lucien, fuming over what he had just seen, stalked up to his brother in the ballroom and said, "That offer to find Riona a job here and give her a place to live. Does it still stand?"

  "Yes, of course. But I thought you were in need of her?" Quentin asked, completely puzzled.

  "Well, let’s just say that she would be better suited to life in the country. You know, she was good for the children today, and I suppose she can’t have much of a life at Merrion Square West. I’m a crusty old bachelor. It can’t be much fun for her to be cooped up in my townhouse all the time," he said almost angrily.

  "She seems happy and contented enough with you there and at the clinic, from what I've seen."

  "Would tomorrow suit?" Lucien asked abruptly.

  Quentin raised his eyebrows but could see his brother was in no mood to argue. So he simply said, "Yes fine. Come to Sunday luncheon, and you can both help us clean up all this mess."

  "Prior engagement, old chap," Lucien lied, "but I'll send her out with her things in the morning if I may."

  "Fine, fine." Quentin nodded, at a loss as to how to interpret his brother’s expression.

  Why did he look so angry? He and Riona had seemed so happy on the lawn that morning, playing with the children, hugging, and even kissing. Yes, Quentin had seen them under the tree after luncheon.

  Was it possible that just as Antoinette had tried to do, Riona had got too close to him?

  Quentin was sure he had never dared allow himself to love anyone since their sister and mother had died so many years before. Was Lucien throwing away his one true chance of happiness because he was afraid?

  But Quentin knew this was neither the time nor the place for a heart to heart with his grim-looking brother, even though he disliked the thought of letting him ruin his life without at least trying to talk some sense into him.

  As Lucien swerved left away from him, Quentin followed hard behind.

  Lucien marched into the library without bothering to check if anyone was there, only to meet with the sight of Charles Durance down on bended knee asking Riona to marry him.

  Quentin nearly crashed into his paralysed brother, and with a quickly muttered embarrassed excuse, he tugged Lucien away and shut the doors before the glowering doctor had time to react.

  "Well, that certainly is sudden," Quentin sighed. "Did you have any idea?"

  "No, none," Lucien gritted out, audibly grinding his teeth together.

  "Well, perhaps she won’t be looking for a job tomorrow after all." Quentin shrugged and moved away to join his wife.

  Lucien stood stock still for a moment, the dual impulses of running away, or racing back inside to demand an explanation warring in his breast.

  He opted for the former course of action, and stalked out into the garden to be alone with his murderous thoughts.

  What kind of woman was Riona? She was dallying with not just one man, but two?

  He had been a fool not to have realized that what he had taken to be a warm and affectionate nature was actually a wanton one.

  He paced up and down amongst the trees for a few moments, and was about to storm back into the library and confront Riona and Charles Durance, when he heard scurrying near the conservatory, and saw Riona come into view.

  Taking long angry strides forward, he shouted, "Riona! I want a word with you."

  Closing on her like a greyhound after a rabbit, he declared furiously, "I saw you! With both men! How could you, after all we’ve shared together?"

  He grabbed her by the elbows angrily, and shook her so roughly that her hat flew off and her hair slipped out of its ribbon and went tumbling in every direction.

  After having been mauled by the revengeful Dr. O’Carroll, and an incredibly ardent Charles, Lucien accosting her was the last straw.

  "I haven’t done anything wrong, damn you! Let me go, Lucien, just let me go!" Riona cried hysterically.

  Using all of her strength, Riona broke away from him, and ran down the avenue into the darkness.

  Lucien shouted after her, but Riona, kicked off her dancing slippers and ran like the wind away from him. She kept on running and running down the long drive until she could barely draw breath.

  She was numb after the events of the evening. The day had been so wonderful! How had the ball turned into such a nightmare?

  Chapter Thirty

  The sound of carriage wheels on the main road behind her finally reminded Riona that she had fled from the ball in her eighteenth century gown like a blue ghost and was walking around in the dark without a cloak on in her stockinged feet, with her hair tumbling down around her shoulders like a mad woman.

  For a moment she shrank into the shadows, sure that Lucien was coming after her. Even worse, it might be someone from the fete, who would see her in such a state and gossip….

  But no, it was a carriage passing on the way into the city.

  "Are you going into town, my dear?" an elderly woman’s kindly voice suddenly called from the interior of the carriage. Before she could wave it on, the brougham stopped and the door opened.

  "Get in. We'll take you home, child," the darkly-clad woman insisted in a tone which brooked no refusal.

  She looked up, cheeks flaming, but was reassured by what she saw. Judging from the woman's clothing, and that of her elderly male companion, they had not attended the fete.

  Riona was deeply embarrassed by her predicament, but it was better to accept their offer now than have any of Lucien's friends or Antoinette's snobbish set see her in such a dishevelled state as they left the ball.

  With a few murmured words of thanks she took the proffered hand and stepped up.

  It was only once Riona was inside the coach that she found herself recognizing Mr. and Mrs. Crozier, whom she had last seen on the way down to Dublin from Donegal.

  "My child, what are you doing out here at this time of night? Where's your husband?" Mrs. Croz
ier asked with obvious concern.

  "He’s not my husband, and my life has become a terrible mess," she blurted out before she even realized she'd opened her mouth.

  "Oh, my dear, surely it can't be that bad!"

  "It is," she wailed.

  "Tell me, then, and let's see if we can help."

  She looked uneasily at the gentleman sitting across from her, but Mr. Crozier nodded encouragingly.

  Amid heart-rending sobs, she told the older couple the whole story of how she and Lucien had come to meet, and what she had been doing since she had last seen them.