This trip to England both excited her and made her nervous. She’d never had an opportunity to travel outside of the US before, and every couple of days, she’d pull out her shiny new passport, almost as though she needed to see it to believe she really had one. Even the tickets they had purchased together didn’t seem as real as that passport did.
Her phone chimed with Kaitlyn’s ring. Reese flung the hand towel over her shoulder and picked up her cell.
“Hey,” she said.
“You know how freaked out my mom’s been about us going on this trip, right?” Kaitlyn asked without any other intro.
“Yeah. Is she giving you a hard time about it again?” Reese asked.
“No. She’s perfectly happy now.”
“Okay.” Something in Kaitlyn’s voice made Reese pause. “What’s changed?”
“Jem!”
“Um . . .” Reese’s words died out. “Like your brother?”
“Of course, my brother. Seriously, how many guys do you know named Jem?”
“But, what does he have to do with our trip to London?”
“His tour finished, and he showed up this evening. He’s coming with us. Isn’t that awesome?” Kaitlyn’s words came out faster. “I’ve missed him so much, and when we started talking about it, Mom went off on her sob story.”
“Did your mother invite him along?” Reese asked, unsure. She had once thought herself in love with him, but that was ancient history. Then how come her heart was beating so quickly?
Jem, the buddy that she and his sister played with growing up. Being a couple of years older, he had turned into the cool one who’d run with so many different social groups. She’d felt like she had stayed the gawky Amazonian friend of his kid sister. All those years, in spite of her crush on him, Jem had never shown any signs that he thought of her in any other way than platonic, until the evening before he’d left on the Broadway tour.
She cast that memory aside. Two years could change people a lot, especially when one of them had been traveling around with a bunch of Broadway-level actors. And it wasn’t like he’d made any effort to contact her. The kiss had meant nothing to him. It should mean nothing to her.
“No, Mom didn’t invite him,” Kaitlyn said. “Idid. He seemed really interested when he found out about the trip, so I asked if he’d like to come along.”
“And he said yes.” Reese didn’t know how she felt about his inclusion. “Does he even have a passport?”
“He does, but it’s expired,” Kaitlyn said. “He’s going to pay to expedite it and should get it in two to three weeks.”
“All right then.” Reese knew it was too late to throw a fit now if he had already agreed to come. It would be a plus not to have to worry about Kaitlyn’s mother nagging her all the time.
“I’m hoping he’ll get there in time for the Regency Ball, but it might not be until after,” Kaitlyn said.
“The ball,” Reese said flatly. She had agreed to go along with the week-long Regency immersion experience, but she wasn’t thrilled about the dancing. Unless it was exercise-related like Zumba, she had never been into dancing. Besides, her height never made her a desirable partner. A Regency ball. Her stomach dropped as a thought occurred to her. “Were you able to order me something to wear?”
“I checked. Our clothing comes as part of the package,” Kaitlyn said. “They’ll fit us once we’re there. The hostess—she said everyone should call her Aunt Nellie—will have period gowns for us, and she’ll provide lessons on how to dance and act and everything. This will besomuch fun. Hey, I have to go. Talk to you later.”
Reese cringed internally and wiped her face with the towel. She hadn’t been looking forward to this part of the trip anyway, but now Jem was going to be there. The ball would be the perfect place for the too-tall American to make a total fool of herself.
In front of Jem.
Chapter 1
REESE TRIED NOT TO FIDGET.Again. She didn’t want another one of old Ashface’s disapproving looks. Reese had no idea where their hostess, Aunt Nellie, had found the comportment teacher, who had a killer ability to make everyone around her feelless. Or, in Reese’s case,more. More stupid. More clumsy. More the Amazon. The woman’s attitude reminded Reese of Professor Snape with the way she sucked all the self-esteem and confidence out of her students.
For Aunt Nellie’s Regency Ball, Lady Ashdown had determined to transform the lowly Clarisse Hamilton into a “lady of quality.” Reese sighed. She had learned to hate that particular phrase. Until this immersive vacation, she used to think skinny jeans came as close to wearing a corset as modern clothing could. Um, no. And it wasn’t even the waist that gave her the most trouble.
As Ashface droned on, Reese tried to ignore the increasing prickling at the top of the corset. The term “flayed alive” came to mind. Well, not that bad, but sitting there unable to scratch was torturous. If she could just make it stop—but it seemed aladydidn’t have itches in embarrassing places. She had to think of something else.
This was for Kaitlyn. Yes. Reese breathed a little easier. It hadn’t been all bad, the little jaunt into the Regency era, and it had been on Kaitlyn’s bucket list. Tomorrow it would end, and Reese could wear normal clothes again. All she had to do was get through tonight. But it better be worth it because the corset was a torture device.
“Miss Clarisse,” Lady Ashdown said, “have you attended to anything I have said?”
