A swarm of guests was filing in and out of the drawing room as they awaited dinner to be announced. Fortunately, all evening meals here, much like breakfast, were informal in nature. With many guests electing to remain anonymous, place settings weren’t set, aside from those established at the head of the table for their hosts, including Rhiannon’s brother Rhys, the Duke of Whitby. With two of the founding duke members recently married—the Duke of Brandon and the Duke of Camden—that left Richford, Kingham, and Riverdale to round out the four.
And equally fortunate for Rhiannon was that she didn’t need to find Lady Blue herself.
“There you are,” said her friend from breakfast with a smile beneath her half mask as she approached Rhiannon. “I was beginning to wonder if you would be joining us for dinner.”
“I couldn’t decide upon a gown,” Rhiannon confided quietly, casting a glance around the room in search of Richford and trying not to be too obvious about it.
She didn’t see him just yet, and she would recognize his tall, lean form anywhere.
“You have certainly chosen a lovely one,” Blue praised.
“Thank you. Your gown is beautiful as well, although I reckon I ought to call you Lady Green now instead.”
Lady Blue was wearing an emerald-green gown with a gold underskirt, the bodice ornamented with gilt sequins and jet beads. Her mask matched.
She laughed at Rhiannon’s lighthearted joke. “Whilst you are still fully capable of being called Lady Pink. Tell me, are all your gowns this color? It will make it easier to find you in a crush.”
Rhiannon smiled back at her friend, thankful she had found at least one amiable person with whom she could converse. “I do admit to a partiality for pink. However, I also own dresses in other colors.”
Most of which were presently scattered across her floor and bed. She truly was a dreadful mess without Monford to keep her in order. It had taken Richford’s unexpected presence in her bedchamber to make her realize that, however.
The gong sounded then, and their fellow revelers began filing from the drawing room in search of the dining room and their dinners. Rhiannon was in no hurry to be seated anywhere in the vicinity of her brother, so she intentionally stayed where she was on the periphery of the drawing room.
Her friend gave her a questioning look but didn’t comment upon her hesitation. They chattered about their afternoons, with Rhiannon intentionally leaving out any mention of the Duke of Richford or the observation room. The less she thought of what had occurred in that narrow viewing chamber earlier, the better off she would be. Rhiannon had no wish to reignite the fires of longing that she had so recently banked. If last night was any indication, dinner would take at least two hours to complete with all the courses and guests in attendance, and she would be forced to sit at the table in pained agony for the duration.
“Are you ready to go in to dinner now, my dear?” Lady Blue queried with a solicitous air.
Richford hadn’t come to the drawing room. Rhiannon tamped down the fresh surge of disappointment that rose within her at his absence.
“I suppose we had best do so if we wish to be seated,” she said with a sigh.
“You didn’t happen to be looking for a certain duke, did you?” her friend asked slyly.
Was she that obvious?
“Merely because I wished to avoid him,” she lied airily as they began moving together toward the drawing room door.
“I understand the feeling, believe me.” Lady Blue’s voice possessed a wry note.
“Has your husband discovered you’re here yet?” she asked her friend, keeping her voice low so that it wouldn’t travel to any prying ears as they journeyed down the hall.
“He remains blissfully ignorant,” Lady Blue said. “And that is just how I wish for it to be until I’m prepared to enact my plan.”
Ah, yes. Her plan to incite her terrible husband into divorcing her.
“Have you found anyone of interest?” Rhiannon asked, hoping for her friend’s sake that she had.
What kind of a husband would fail to notice his own wife beneath the same roof? And what manner of man would be so terrible that he’d drive his kindhearted wife to adultery just so that she could obtain a divorce?
“I have a few gentlemen in mind,” Lady Blue said with a sigh. “Alas, engaging in a wild, passionateaffaire de coeurisn’t nearly as easy as I had previously supposed.”
“Surely there are more than a few eligible potential suitors.” They were almost at the massive dining room now, and their conversation would necessarily have to revert to a far less personal nature given the proximity of others at the table.
“My dear, I have seen you, and you’ve only eyes for one of the men here,” Lady Blue said slyly. “I daresay you haven’t even taken a single look at the rest. But I can assure you, they are all well enough.Untilthey open their mouths and begin speaking.”
Her grim pronouncement won a startled laugh from Rhiannon, even if Lady Blue’s observation about her having eyes for Richford alone had cut rather close. “That seems to be the problem with most gentlemen, I fear.”
Richford included.
