"This way, please," he said as he stepped aside to allow them through the elegant, carved doors.
"Do come along,Lucien," the first gentleman called to his companion. "We don't want to miss anything." He was answered only by a cough as his companion joined him.
"Lucien!" Lucy whispered beside her. "Where the devil did you come up with that?"
"I couldn't very well go around calling you, Lucy. Our disguises would soon be undone." A trace of a smile appeared at the corners of a mouth disguised by an impeccably groomed mustache.
"We're both crazy," Lucy whispered again with a look about. "This will never work."
Stepping through the double doors into the foyer of the exclusive club, they were greeted by another man who offered to take their hats and capes. Lucy looked at her with rising panic.
"Come now, old chap," Elyse told her, keeping with their disguises. "They'll give it back to you when we're ready to leave."
"Which just happens to be now!" Lucy muttered as coat and hat were surrendered, revealing a head full of gleaming black hair, a wig she wore, while Elyse wore one in a blonde shade.
Elyse glanced down at the polished toes of the boots just there at the cuff of the perfectly fitted trousers and tried to smother back a fit of laughter.
"Do come along," she said with a lowered voice.
Together, they followed a young attendant to a single door across the hall. And together, like the two perfectly dressed'young men'they appeared to be, entered the elegantly furnished, faintly smoky, male domain of White's Exclusive Club.
"We're both out of our minds!" Lucy whispered. "And this damn glued-on mustache is driving me crazy." Her upper lip twitched back and forth.
"Everything will be fine. No one will ever know it's you underneath all that makeup. People see what they want to see. And those whiskers look quite marvelous," Elyse teased.
Then, as they passed a large adjoining room, "Look at this," she commented. "Have you ever seen anything like it?"
Gold-embossed paper covered the walls above the wainscoting, while below it was crimson velvet. Several small alcoves were sectioned off around the perimeter of the room with heavy, crimson velvet drapes edged with gold satin and bound back with braided satin cords.
There were tables in the alcoves with anywhere from four to eight chairs around each one. In some, gentlemen could be seen enjoying conversation along with their drinks. In others, a lively game of cards was underway.
A few were hidden from view, heavy drapes discreetly closed. Only an occasional movement of the drapes indicated that anyone might be behind them.
Immaculately dressed young men wove in and out of the tables in the main room, entering the secluded alcoves, replenishing containers of brandy and whiskey. Gas lamps gave just enough light to the tables but left the remainder of the room in shadows.
Elyse recognized several gentlemen. Faint streamers of cigar and cigarette smoke, curled into the air to mingle with the fragrance of pipe tobacco. She hardly saw anything to cause any excitement. It all seemed quite boring.
"Oh, dear!" Lucy said with rising panic.
"What is it?" Elyse turned, trying to see what it was that had managed to upset her.
"Jerrold is coming this way. Someone must have told him about us. Why on earth did you have to use his name?"
"I had to use a name that would get us in the door," Elyse told her. "I could have used Andrew's," she reminded her friend.
Lucy only groaned. "Well, it's too late to do anything about it now. We'll be found out. I just know we will."
Elyse smiled from beneath the sweep of the fake mustache she'd painstakingly applied. It perfectly matched the wig that concealed her hair.
"Now is as good a time as any to find out if this will work?'
Rolling her eyes heavenward, Lucy seized a tumbler of whiskey from a tray as a uniformed young man passed nearby. Whoever belonged to the drink would just have to ask for another. It was quickly downed, causing her to breathe in sharply.
"Good evening." The polite greeting came from behind Elyse.
She hesitated as Lucy was seized with a fit of coughing due to the hastily downed drink. With a gesture she'd seen more than once, she clapped her friend heartily across the back.
"I say, Lucien, you've really done it this time. You must be more careful," she pretended to admonish her.
