Inside the ballroom, music swelled, chandeliers glittered, and dancers spun across the polished floor. Servants wove through the crowd with trays of champagne and laughter echoed from every corner.
Theodora scanned the room and walked farther in, weaving between guests, searching through every cluster of people, every doorway, and every shadowy corner. But everywhere she looked?—
Hewas not there.
CHAPTER 19
Dearest Rosalind,
It has been almost a week since I last saw you and heard from you. I am beginning to fear that London has swallowed you whole. I am starting to wonder whether you have run away to Scotland, joined a convent, or, heaven forbid, been abducted.
I hope none of these are true.
I simply wanted to ask if you are well. You disappeared after your first Corset Chronicles meeting, and it is making all the ladies anxious. I hope we did not offend you in anyway.
This week alone, you have missed three balls, two musicales, and one garden party in which a gentleman fainted into a rosebush. I wish I were exaggerating. I am beginning to think London Society has succumbed to mediocrity.
As for me, I have, sadly, been attending these events with my parents, and I must confess something rather shameful… I am finding it increasingly sickening to locate a gentleman who is both tolerable and capable of forming a complete sentence. I have been counting the number of times a gentleman trod on my toes and, being the scientist that I am, I began to connect that to the color of their waistcoats. I must warn you that gentlemen who wear red waistcoats are three times more likely than those who wear blue to step on your toes. In short, I miss you.
I hope you will come to the ball tomorrow evening which is taking place at Evelina’s. I will be there, and it would be infinitely more bearable if you were too. Please send word, even if only a line, so I know you are safe.
With affection and mild exasperation,
Miss Theodora Dowell
* * *
Theodora had been at Evelina’s ball for nearly an hour, and her nerves were beginning to fray.
She had come for two reasons only: to see Rosalind and Alexander. So far, she had located neither of them. Rosalind had not replied to her letter, and the silence gnawed at Theodora. She kept telling herself she should not have grown attached to the girl so quickly.
No, you got attached to the guinea pig,she scolded herself.And now look at you, fretting like a mother hen over his sister.
She turned sharply, distracted by her own spiraling thoughts of how she had failed as a scientist. If she failed at this then she had nothing at all to look forward to in the future. It was time for her to let go?—
“Oh!” She gasped when she bumped into someone.
A strong hand reached out and steadied her elbow. “My deepest apologies, Miss... Dowell?”
“Yes, that is I—” Theodora curtsied and smiled politely. “Lord Ebenezer. It has been awhile.”
“I could say the same thing.” He flashed another dazzling smile before he bowed. “Miss Dowell. Forgive me, I should have been watching where I was going.”
She looked up into the face of Lord Ebenezer, recently returned from his travels abroad. And the ladies were right. He was tall and strikingly handsome with a charming smile. Theodora noticed the number of heads that turned while passing him. But, although he was good to look at, she failed to see his appeal.
But perhaps flirting with His Lordship tonight is what I need in order to forget the Scarlet Duke.
“It is quite all right,” she said, smoothing her skirts. “I was… distracted.”
He smiled. “Then I am honored to have been the cause of your distraction.”
She nearly rolled her eyes.
Specimen number… what was she on now? Seven? Eight?
She was growing tired of observing men and studying their behavior only to end up comparing them to Alexander. Her expectations were low because every man she met now seemed duller, flatter, and less vivid than the one who had ruined her scientific objectivity entirely.
Still, Lord Ebenezer was handsome, educated, and well-travelled. And he was clearly interested in her because he did not leave her side as yet.
