“No,” Marjorie replied.
“Then I cannot tell you what you wish to hear. Sorry.”
“Oh, dear Edith,” Marjorie turned to her friend. “Sometimes, I wish I could turn back the time, just so I could do some things differently.”
“What would you do differently?”
“I’d try to understand him better, instead of accusing him of being a pampered, spoiled brat,” Marjorie explained. “It could not have been easy on him either. Besides, he apologized for all that.”
“He has?” Edith was shocked. “And you still doubt whether he has feelings for you?”
“No more of that talk,” Marjorie decided to halt this conversation. “My mind is made up. At some point during the ball, I shall tell Percival that I accept his offer. It is for the best. I may not feel that right now, but perhaps, if I repeat that enough times, I will start to believe it, too.”
Edith did not say anything to that. Instead, she just looked at her friend with sympathy in her eyes. Life did not always turn out the way someone planned it. Difficult decisions needed to be made, and for Marjorie, marrying Percival would be the most difficult decision of her life.
“Could I ask you a favor?” Marjorie trembled, her fingers intertwined with Edith’s.
“Anything,” Edith smiled tenderly at her.
“Could you spend the night here?” Marjorie’s voice threatened to break under the burden of the decision she had just made. “I doubt I will be able to fall asleep now, after this conversation, and the last thing I want right now is to be alone.”
“Of course, I shall stay,” Edith replied gently. “Now, how about we ask Annie to make us some light dinner? Good food should help us forget all about our woes.”
Marjorie smiled, although she smiled there was any veracity in Edith’s words. She doubted there was anything in the world that would make her forget about her woes.
Chapter 25
Watching her that evening had been the most difficult endeavor Alexander had ever experienced. Marjorie looked stunning. He sent her a dress that afternoon, but it was not a dress he had bought. It was a dress which belonged to his mother. It was slightly out of style, with its length and loose fitting, but the lilac-colored gown only seemed to emphasize Marjorie’s pale complexion and the fiery chignon she wrapped her hair up in.
As they walked into the ballroom, he knew that all eyes rested on them. Namely, on her. He might have been invisible for all they cared. They were all drinking in the sight of her, while Marjorie herself trembled like a frozen sparrow in his hand. Tonight, he would not be letting go of her hand, not until Percival himself came for her. He would not allow anyone else to have her for a dance. He had made up his mind about that ardently, and he did not care who would look cross-eyed at him for it.
He brought her over to the refreshments table, planning on offering her a drink, but that very moment, he caught an old acquaintance of his walking over to them.
“Dance with me,” he pulled her closer to him. “Please.”
She looked at him as if she were seeing him for the first time, concerned about the urgency of his request. She barely even had the time to respond, when they flew to the center of the ballroom, to seize their position before the music commenced.
“Is everything all right?” she wondered, as they adjusted their poses opposing each other.
His hand gently held hers, while her other hand rested on his shoulder. He yearned for a more intimate dance, something that would allow him to wrap his arms around her, and the fates acknowledged his desire. The first notes of the waltz filled the ballroom. Immediately, Alexander thought to himself that Marjorie should never ever dance the waltz with anyone whom she did not feel an attachment to, for this dance was intimate and to some older members of the ton, even blasphemous with its embracing by the waist and the risk of dizziness with the speed change of the music.
One of the reasons why he was glad that the waltz was their dance was the uninterrupted eye contact. He could stare at her for as long as he wished, without feeling guilty over it. She did the same, refusing to take her eyes off of him, which sparkled like diamonds.
The circle they were standing in was great, and as per the instructions of the waltz, Alexander held Marjorie by the elbows at this point. The dance commenced. He danced round with her, turning towards the left. He made sure never to stop touching her, even if it was just to hold her by the tips of the fingers. The repeated turning started quickly, and Marjorie looked more elegant than any other lady in the ballroom, even as the rapid motion increased. Once it slowed down, he seized the chance to whisper a few words in her ear.
“Have you made up your mind about Percival?”
The time for small talk ended with that question. They spoke of the orphanage on the carriage ride over. They shared a few anecdotes regarding the children. They laughed. But he could sense tension between them, and he knew the real cause of it.
“No,” she replied immediately, without hesitation. “I haven’t yet.”
He swirled her away from him, then the moment their eyes met again, he continued. “Why not?”
He could not deny the rising hope inside of him. It was a hell of a thing dancing with her like this, his heart clenching inside his chest, as he asked her whether she had decided yet to promise to spend the rest of her life with another man.
Her lips twitched before she spoke. “Percival is a good man, a decent man.” She paused. He sensed there would be a but coming. His eyes wrung more words out of her. “But in all honesty, I am not certain whether marriage to him is what I want.”
“No?” His lips parted as he watched her tipping her head back, following the rhythm of the music. He feared that his gaze would reveal the depths of his feelings for her, because it was an impossibility not to love the woman he was now holding in his arms.
