Would she? “There’s nothing to forgive.” She forced her lips into a cool smile.
The music flowed like water while she floated on air. Your first kiss holds the answer to all that you desire.
“Are your parents here in London as well?” His question, such an innocent one.
“They passed some time ago.” But the loss is always in my heart, she wanted to say to him. Again, she felt that she’d known him forever. That he’d understand who she was without her having to explain…
The look he sent her was sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”
Or perhaps he did not understand. He didn’t even know her. He never had.
“Their carriage turned over on the road to Brighton.” She would tell him something of it. “The day after I met you, as a matter of fact.”
He missed a step and they both stumbled to recover.
Enough Tilde! Leave it in the past.
“And not that it matters,” she added, ignoring her own inclination. “But I would have told you, had you come.”
“May I call upon you tomorrow?” He’d whispered the words when they had broken apart from one another in order to catch their breath. She had nodded, unable to speak.
“It was a long time ago.” She’d make the excuse for him. “And you were young. As was I.” But at the time she’d believed in magic.
He cleared his throat. She’d made him uncomfortable.
“I can only beg your forgiveness.”
He raised their arms and twirled her effortlessly, bringing a surprising gasp of laughter to her throat.
“That’s twice you need to be forgiven, then? Am I correct?” It made sense for her to be lighthearted about this. They were dancing for Heaven’s sake. The time to question him would have been over a decade ago.
Not in a ballroom, when anyone could overhear…
“Why did you not come?” As much as she would have liked to recall the question to her lips, a part of her needed to hear it. Knowing he was nobody special after all might put an end to any regrets she had about gentlemen in general.
About wondering if she ought to have flirted more? Compromised some of herself in an attempt to pursue love…
He grimaced. “I was a stupid young fool?”
She couldn’t help but smile at that. She’d appropriated far too much significance into their meeting than she ought to have.
“I was quite naïve, myself.” She admitted.
But she could tell she’d made him feel guilty. “If it matters, my memory of your name, and your face faded, but I never forgot that evening. And after seeing you again, it all came back to me.”
Ah, but that arrow landed sharply. Why could he not have left it at his stupid young foolishness?
“I took advantage of your naivete. I owed you an offer.”
But she was shaking her head. “Only if we’d been caught.” The night had been a frivolous one. Her parents had barely lurked within the circle of genteel society. “And you oughtn’t remind me of my own bad behavior.” Heat suffused her cheeks upon making such an admission.
Throughout their conversation, though, they’d been staring into one another’s eyes.
It had not been uncomfortable. It had not felt improper.
“I was the one who behaved poorly.” His smiled disarmed her, just as it had before. “You, my dear Miss Fortune, acted with all required discretion.”
This time she allowed her laughter to escape.
