Stepping onto dry land, Axel’s hand at her back, Felicity could forget all the unpleasantness behind them. She forgot about his illness, his father’s insults, and even the wait between now and their coming nuptials—because the air was sweet and soft, and the evening promised romance and indulgence.
The evening couldn’t be any more perfect, she thought, until they rounded the corner to the entrance to the private box reserved by Lord Greystone. Both Bethany and Lord Chaswick sprang to their feet to greet them, and Felicity couldn’t quite hold back a squeal of delight.
“You are back!” Only a few weeks had passed since Felicity had last seen her dear friend, but so much had happened in that time, making it feel like she’d not seen her for years!
“I have so much to tell you!” Bethany drew her into an exuberant embrace until, catching herself, she stepped back. Etiquette required introductions be made all around.
Having been raised in society, almost right alongside Felicity, manners took over in both. While enjoying the thinly sliced ham, strawberries, and champagne, they enjoyed the first part of the evening becoming better acquainted with the other ladies. Despite an occasional stern glance toward Lady Posy, Miss Faraday was soft-spoken. She had made her come out over a decade before, but then taken on the responsibility of raising her deceased sister’s daughter. This was the first time since that she’d returned to London. In contrast to her petite niece, she was tall and slim, with the same dark eyes and straight golden-brown hair.
Whereas everything about Lady Posy was round and curvy—which included her personality. She made certain no one made the mistake that entering the marriage mart had been her idea.
She was, Felicity decided, something of a breath of fresh air.
Felicity also decided that although her future mother and father-in-law posed a considerable challenge, she was going to enjoy having Cordelia as a sister. Like Posy, she admitted to preferring country life to the city but valued the occasional visit to London. Doing so, she said, merely enhanced her appreciation of the fresh air and vast skies when she returned home.
“You are enjoying yourselves?” Axel touched her elbow from behind. All evening, she’d felt as though a secret line of communication existed between the two of them. She’d catch his gaze from across the box, and he’d send her a subtle grin or a sardonic lift of his brow.
“If I hadn’t told you already, Mantis, I’m telling you now that I whole-heartedly approve of your choice of wife.” The warmth in Cordelia’s eyes was similar to that of her brother’s.
Axel clutched his heart and wiped an arm across his brow. “Phew.” He blinked in mock relief before sliding a teasing glance in Felicity’s direction. “You don’t know how I’ve worried that we wouldn’t be able to go through with the wedding.”
Felicity was happy to note that the tired look was absent from his eyes, replaced with simple enjoyment.
She’d only had rare glimpses of this side of him since the incident in the orangery—untroubled, laughing, and at ease amongst people who cared for him.
He tucked Felicity’s arm through his, stroking the back of her hand in a most disconcerting manner. “Shall we join the merrymakers?” Chaswick appeared beside Bethany, as did Lord Middleton and Major Lockbridge, gentlemen of whom, Felicity presumed, the marquess had invited to even out the numbers.
Enthusiastic agreement had all of them setting aside champagne glasses, collecting wraps, and making their way out from beneath the tent.
Felicity and Axel lingered, watching the others pair up and also waiting for an opening in the parade of revelers. Several in the crowd wore brightly colored masks, but one particular gentleman dressed in all black, a cloth tied around his head with slits cut for him to see through, appeared and seemed to be watching them. She caught his eye a moment before he was swallowed up by the crowd.
“Was that Blackheart?” Felicity asked when she realized Axel was looking in the same direction. Aside from appearing at his twin sister’s come-out ball, the duke had been suspiciously absent this season.
Axel blinked but then shook his head.
“I’m certain it was,” she pondered. No one else walked like the duke. But it was his black eyes that gave him away. “Have you and Greystone had a falling out with him?” Because in the past, Blackheart had often accompanied Axel and the formerly elusive cocksure bachelors that he’d run with.
“Not at all.” Axel dripped his arm around her shoulders. “We meet to spar almost every morning.” But he did not elaborate, choosing instead to peer over the heads of those who’d crowded around them—which wasn’t difficult since he was taller than most.
Pressed against his side, Felicity forgot about the duke and curled her arm around his waist as well.
She remembered seeing other couples do the same last year when Westerley had hosted a party similar to this one. She remembered the feeling that she was missing out. She remembered thinking that the two of them were not like the other couples.
Axel leaned down, the heat of his mouth on her neck causing her heart to skip a beat. “I missed you.”
His whispered words exhilarated her.
Magic and Mischief
First, Mantis would dance with her.
Then he would take her walking on one of the shadowed paths.
The worry that had lurked in his mind had fled when, moments before, Blackheart informed him that nothing out of the ordinary had been brought to his attention.
Mantis’ lessening of worries had nothing to do with the champagne that had flown freely amongst them over the past hour.
The idea that someone wanted to harm him was a paranoid one. Mantis had no enemies and as far as he knew, had been fair in all of his business dealings. What reason could anyone possibly have? Perhaps he’d only felt suspicious because, for the first time in his adult life, he was actually looking forward to the future.
