For his next dance, he found a shy female dressed as a shepherdess lurking in a corner, the very image of a wallflower even when in costume. He coaxed her into a dance. She wasn’t as skilled a partner as Good Queen Bess had been, but she gained in confidence and by the end they were laughing together.
The beau monde needed more occasions like this, where people could simply enjoy each other oblivious of rank. It was a fine thing not to be a duke.
* * *
Diana had brought her champagne glass upstairs with her, and she emptied it as she and Rory entered Diana’s bedroom. “Given the amount of champagne your guests are consuming, our dancing is bound to be well received!”
“This far from India, no one will know if we’re any good or not,” Rory said cheerfully as she removed her voluminous green domino, then her mask. Underneath she wore her dance costume. The gold-and-burgundy-patternedsalwarwere like very full trousers but narrow at the ankles. Thekameeztunic was burgundy with gold-embroidered inserts and sleeves that ended midway between shoulder and elbow.
Diana’s costume was the same, and they both wore golden slippers. With her mask gone, Diana wrapped a long gold-patterned shawl called a dopatta around her head, face, and shoulders so only her eyes were visible. Then she donned her dark blue domino again to cover her costume. “Are you ready to dazzle or at least surprise those members of the beau monde who are still in London?”
“Indeed I am, though I so wish Constance was here! The opening movements are best with three dancers.”
“We’ll still dazzle them,” Diana promised. “This is not English country dancing!”
“And if we do badly, we disappear back upstairs and change our clothing so no one will know who the incompetent exotic dancers were,” Rory said mischievously.
Diana laughed. “It’s always good to have a line of retreat!”
Dominos billowing around them, they descended the back stairs to the ballroom, took their places, and waited for the music.
* * *
Midnight was nearing when Captain Vance signaled for the musicians to stop playing, then stepped in front of the curtained area beneath the small gallery. In a voice that could carry across a deck in an Atlantic hurricane, he announced, “We have something special for you tonight. A pair of dancers such as few of you have ever seen. Draw around and prepare to be enthralled!”
Curious, the guests gathered in a semicircle around the curtained area, shorter guests in front, taller ones behind. Anthony stood in back opposite the middle of the impromptu stage. Delicate flute music that sounded strange to the British ear rose from the gallery, soft at first but growing louder. A small drum began to beat, soon joined by a larger drum with a deeper tone.
The curtain drew apart to reveal a low stage with a motionless figure standing in the center. Good God, it was a colorfully garbed female with four arms! Two hands were pressed together in front of the female’s heart and the other pair of arms were lifted high, the fingertips touching over her head.
This was the image of a Hindu goddess, Anthony realized. He’d seen figurines of such entities, usually with six arms if he recalled correctly.
For long moments while the music intensified, the figure was motionless. Then the audience gasped as the pairs of arms began to move with stylized precision. The tempo of the music sped up and the figure separated into two identical females. They’d been lined up so perfectly that only when they moved apart that it was clear the goddess’s image had been formed from two women.
The dancers wore numerous gold and silver bangles on their wrists and the chiming of the bracelets joined flute and drum to invoke a sense of distant, fascinating lands. The dance that followed was enchanting as the veiled dancers spun and dipped and performed slow, erotic hip movements seldom seen in this part of the world.
Sometimes the dancers took identical steps, other times they mirrored each other in perfect harmony as the flowing fabric of their full trousers emphasized each movement. They were lithe, mesmerizing, and deeply sensual.
Anthony loved dancing himself and felt it was the only good reason to attend balls and assemblies. He also loved watching talented dancers, and these two women were creating magic.
After several enchanting minutes, the music slowed and the dancers moved back into their original positions, the woman in front casting her eyes downward as she pressed her palms together in front of her breasts, the woman behind visible only as a pair of arms raised heavenward with palms pressed together over her head.
The music faded to nothing and the dance was done.
There was a long, awed silence before the audience broke into enthusiastic applause. Laughing, the dancers separated and bowed together, their hands clasped. Anthony was wondering where the devil Vance had found these wonderful creatures when the musicians in the gallery struck up a waltz, the latest fashion in wicked dances.
Grinning, Vance moved forward and reached out to the left-hand dancer to help her down from the low stage. When she was on the dance floor, he tugged down her veil to reveal the laughing face of Lady Aurora Vance. “Wonderful, my lady bright!”
He brushed a kiss on his wife’s hair before they swung into the waltz with hands clasped as they gazed into each other’s eyes.
But there was still a woman unclaimed. Anthony cut through the crowd toward the low stage, hoping the dancer was as magical as her dance.
Chapter 5
Laughing and heated from dancing, Diana smiled under her veil as Gabriel swept Rory away. It was time now for Diana to withdraw and vanish before midnight.
Then a tall man dressed all in black as a corsair approached the stage and lifted a beckoning hand, his cape swirling around him as if he were the devil coming to tempt a maiden to sweet damnation. The eyes framed by the black mask were a piercing blue.
In a deep, lightly accented voice he asked, “Dance with me, mysterious exotic lady?”
