If it all crumbled under the weight of her deception, she would deserve the very worst.
When the promised invitation came from him that day, she was surprised. Not a public outing where they could blend with a crowd of hundreds, such as a museum or park concert, he wished to escort her to an intimate dinner party for twenty.
By showing up together, Owen was proclaiming them a couple!
Chapter Fifteen
Smoothing her palegold dress trimmed with sapphire-blue ribbon and lace, and a matching blue underskirt, Adelia took quick stock of the other guests. Around her were established couples, some married, some engaged, and with them, her and Owen!
Although Penny accompanied them in the carriage, the maid had been sent with other chaperones to the servants’ quarters as soon as they arrived. Now, Adelia waited in the short receiving line in a magnificent townhouse on Cavendish Square with her insides fluttering as if inhabited by butterflies. Doing so without her father or brother was an unfamiliar experience.
Owen, perfectly at ease, introduced her to their hosts, the Earl and Countess of Cambrey, obviously well-known to him, as he’d told her in the carriage.
“You’ve never come to one of my soirées before, Lord Burnley,” Lady Margaret Cambrey said, eyeing Adelia with interest. “So glad you chose to grace us with your presence and this lovely lady’s, as well. Welcome and enjoy yourselves. There is good French wine in the drawing room.”
Adelia thought it might take an entire bottle of wine to relax her nerves. She didn’t say a word to either of their hosts, only curtseying deeply to the beautiful countess and her husband, who shook Owen warmly by the hand. She couldn’t risk a drawn-out stuttering humiliation, not even to tell them what a lovely home they had.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Owen as they entered the drawing room.
“What for?” he asked, looking down at her with those piercing blue eyes that seemed to accept her for who she was.
“I could not speak properly to Lord and Lady Cambrey.”
“It’s no matter,” he reassured her. “A lovely woman’s presence is enough without needing words.”
She rolled her eyes at his silly—and very welcome—flattery.
“Wine, please,” she asked. Hopefully, it would loosen her tongue.
After half a glass of claret, and with Owen’s reassuring presence, she managed the customary pleasantries as they greeted the other couples. He squeezed her elbow encouragingly with each couple she met, and while her heart still pounded too hard for something so banal as a dinner party, Adelia felt almost accomplished by the time they went into the dining room.
As he had done at the ball during which they’d dined together, Owen coddled her from the second he pulled out her polished rosewood chair. If someone threw out a question from across the room directed to her, he intercepted it like an experienced cricketer with a high-flying ball, adeptly protecting his wicket.
He was seated to her left, and thus, Adelia could hear everything he said. She only had one terrifying moment when the gentleman to her right leaned close to say something. He might as well have been in another room, mouthing the words. Luckily, Owen, her savior, leaned forward, nearly putting his ascot into the third course of braised mutton, and answered for her as he knew the man personally.
“Come now, Tosh. You cannot expect this lovely lady to know about such things. Leave that for the club.”
She would never know what Lord Toshlin, as she discovered his name, expected her to have an opinion about, nor did he seem to particularly care. Laughing at Owen’s remark, the man turned back to his own companion. After that, Adelia kept her shoulders turned toward Owen to discourage any further attempts from that quarter.
When the pudding course arrived—a massive display of desserts dispersed across the center of the long table, including a tall nougat almond cake, a macedoine of fruits with jelly, and a towering appleà la Parisienne, which was placed at Owen and Adelia’s end alongside a tray of dessert biscuits—they eyed each other with amusement.
Owen whispered in her ear, “I would far rather nibble on your neck.”
She giggled before she could stop herself. “I fancy a small piece of almond cake.” Then glancing at him from under her lashes, she whispered back, “And a large kiss from you.”
His eyes widened. And why not?It was her first real attempt at flirting, brought on by two more glasses of wine with dinner and the secure, confident feeling Owen bestowed upon her.
Following dinner, a concert would be given upstairs in a large drawing room. In such a relatively small venue, Adelia was sure to hear it properly and looked forward to the treat.
After she picked her gloves off her lap and pulled them back on, Owen pulled out her chair and escorted her up the stairs, following the other couples. Everyone was in a good mood, and Adelia considered how grand a time it was to be living in London. At that instant, with only minor skirmishes occurring in the British Empire on the other side of the world in cities she couldn’t pronounce, at home, all was peaceful.
They had plenty of food, more than enough if tonight’s repast was any indication. They had theatre and luxuries to spare. And she had Owen, at least for that night. She was beginning to think she might have him for a lot longer, too. Perhaps for the rest of her life.
While everyone else was shuffling around, claiming their seats in the blue-and-white wallpapered room, they lagged back, somehow having agreed upon it without words. Maybe it was the long, dimly lit hallway stretching past the drawing room door that had put notions of escaping from the concert into her head. And his—for undoubtedly, Owen had spied it as well, like a pathway to privacy.
Perchance, for a few minutes, they might slip away unnoticed. On the one hand, it was a rash notion, given there were so few couples. On the other hand, with the guests seated in casual rows, Adelia and Owen would be less likely missed than if they hadn’t been seated at the dining room table.
Adelia was ready to give Owen…everything. If he asked her to leave the party and go…well, wherever people went when they went off together, she would do so. What’s more, she wouldn’t care a fig for the consequences.
