Mr. Archer opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say something silly, Katherine said, “I wouldn’t concern yourself over Mr. Kellen. He is a cad, but he grows bored very quickly. Even if he is serious in his attempts to woo Miss Flora, he’ll move along when someone else catches his fancy. However, if you cause a fuss, he is more likely to remain interested—to twit you, if nothing else.”
“Are you speaking from personal experience?”
“Heavens, no,” replied Katherine, not bothering to smother her laugh. The question was just so ridiculous, as was the tone with which it had been spoken. She couldn’t pinpoint precisely what emotions drove it, but if she were any other lady, she might’ve thought Mr. Archer was jealous. Which was ludicrous.
“I was speaking as one who has witnessed the comings and goings of many a ballroom and parlor,” she added. “When one is a wallflower, watching people is the only entertainment to be found in such gatherings.”
“No doubt you are more skilled at gathering intelligence than the Home Office, with all their spies,” said Mr. Archer.
“Didn’t you know that we are all employed by that venerable agency?” That earned her another laugh, which made Katherine’s steps all the lighter, but before he could divert the conversation towards more jesting, she said, “You really needn’t be concerned about Mr. Kellen. Your sister is a sensible young lady.”
“Isn’t it an elder brother’s duty to fret and fuss over his sisters?”
Katherine considered that. “All older siblings fret and fuss over their younger siblings. It’s in our nature. However, there is no need to work yourself into a dither.”
Standing side by side as they were, Katherine was close enough to discern his expressions, and she spied a grin he was all too quick to use when sloughing off others’ concern. His own troubles always remained tucked close to his heart.
“Do I look as though I’m working myself into a dither?” he asked.
“Yes. For all that you hide it well behind jests, smiles, and flirtation, you are almost always in a dither about something.”
*
It was such a strange sensation to have another profess such a personal observation without knowing the identity of the person who’d spoken it. David feigned a laugh, but the lady turned to face him, her lips pulled into a smirk, condemning his deflection more fully than with words.
“Perhaps you are correct,” he said with a wince. No answer followed that, but it was no introspective silence.
David couldn’t put his finger on the feeling wriggling through him at that moment, for he’d never felt such a thing upon meeting another for the first time. Granted, it seemed likely that he knew this lady in some fashion (however distantly), but as he didn’t know for certain, this counted as their introduction.
With his mother in a panic over his sisters, his father forever on the brink of economic failure, and his concerns over the health of the business, quiet and calm were in short supply. Yet as they walked the ballroom, muscles he didn’t know were tight loosened, and the pressure in his chest eased. No words needed to be spoken, for that peace seemed to simply seep from her into him. The Mystery Lady demanded nothing of him, content to simply be at his side as they circled the gathering.
And whether it was the connection he felt with her or the anonymity surrounding her identity, David felt himself saying something he hadn’t intended to say.
“I think I’ve been working myself into a dither since I was a young lad,” he admitted.
“I imagine it’s difficult not to when you feel such responsibility for them,” she replied.
He slanted her a look. “I am not sure whether I should be flattered or terrified that you seem to know me so well.”
“Flattered, of course,” she said with a haughty lift of her chin. But she lowered it once more and answered in serious tones, “Everyone ought to have someone who knows his true self. I know all too well how easy it is to hide behind a persona, much as I have this mask, and I am grateful for the few who go to the effort to peek behind it.”
The words made his chest burn, though David couldn’t say whether it was his own longing making itself known or sympathetic pains for the loneliness rife in her tone. For all that the Mystery Lady seemed to know him, there was no way for her to know how true that statement was. Or how much he longed to peer behind her mask.
Saints above, what was happening to him?
He fought to keep his hand at his side, though it longed to reach up and lift the bit ofpapier-mâchéand solve this mystery once and for all—but they had an entire night together, and he wasn’t about to break the spell.
As David led her along the edge of the gathering, their conversation moved about like a honeybee, zipping haphazardly between the silly and the serious, quickly touching on something personal and real before flitting off into the ridiculous, though it felt far less like the avoidance his Mystery Lady had mentioned than it was simply a byproduct of a personality that preferred amusement to tears. Not hiding from the reality of life but embracing the ludicrousness of it all.
Despite his better judgment, he found himself confessing far more than he ought to a relative stranger, but something within the lady begged him to trust her. He couldn’t explain it any more than he could find the words to describe this connection he felt with her.
David paid only the slightest attention to the others—only enough to ensure that they did not cross paths with anyone who might interrupt him. And with each passing hour, the urge to snatch off her mask grew.
Chapter 7
Good gracious, Katherine couldn’t stop smiling! It took every ounce of self-restraint not to beam like a fool as the evening wore on. Yet still, Mr. Archer remained at her side.
In the two years since their first introduction, they’d spent countless hours in each other’s company, speaking about personal subjects. However, there was something more to their conversation this evening. Deep in her bones, she felt it. Mr. Archer was finally seeing her. Truly recognizing that Katherine,his chum, was so much more than that. Try as she might, she couldn’t understand what had altered, but she wasn’t about to question her change in fortune.
