“For all the places you never plan to travel?”
The corner of his lips came up in the faintest smile, but then it was gone again. “And what do you like to do with your time, besides badger unsuspecting gentlemen?”
It was my turn to smile, though I didn’t try to hide it like him. “I like to read and sew and sing. I like a great many things, dancing among them. Do you not like to dance because you never learned?”
“I learned—I just don’t like it.”
“Perhaps you haven’t had the right partner.”
“Perhaps I haven’t.” I saw a challenge in his eyes. “Would you care to prove me wrong?”
I lifted my dance card and said, “Choose your dance, Your Grace, and I will be honored to prove you wrong.”
He looked over the card and then wrote his name next to the first dance of the evening.
“Are you hoping to get over the unpleasantness as soon as possible?” I asked, looking at his bold signature. “Or make a lasting impression on me to carry throughout the night?”
This time, he actually smiled.
I curtseyed and he bowed, and then Lady Mandeville led us away.
“Well done,” Aunt Maude whispered to me. “I can see that Alec has done a marvelous job teaching you the art of flirting.”
As she said the words, I glanced up and found Alec watching us.
He simply looked away.
16
The sun had just crested the horizon as I quietly left 7 Buckingham Gate the next morning. We hadn’t returned from the ball until after two, and Gallagher wouldn’t come into my room to wake me up until eleven, when it was time to get ready for luncheon. I would be expected to receive callers after we ate lunch, but it was a quarter to six, which gave me a few hours to get away and look for my mother.
Crisp spring air greeted me as I walked along Buckingham Palace Road. I had asked a maid if she knew where the Adelphi Theatre was located and she’d given me directions. My aunt and uncle had said my mother used to work there, but even if she wasn’t there any longer, perhaps someone had heard of her and could point me in the right direction.
Though it was early, the streets were already busy as I walked past Buckingham Palace and down The Mall toward the West End. I had also asked the maid if this was a safe area of London and her response had been, “The safest area you’ll find, miss, though nowhere is completely safe for a lady in London.”
I’d decided to take my chances without a chaperone. After all, I’d lived in Five Points and gone about my business on my own in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world.
St. James Park was beautiful as the first rays of daylight splashed the landscape. Ornamental bridges, winding paths, and elegant swans graced the serene setting. To my left was the formidable St. James’s Palace. I could still feel the Prince of Wales’s eyes on me as I walked past it. Lady Mandeville had arranged for him to come to a dinner at our home in one week, and he had accepted. It was quite the coup for Aunt Maude, and she’d already started making plans. No expense would be spared for the prince.
It didn’t take long to pass Trafalgar Square, where four large, bronze lions encircled a towering column. Behind it were two beautiful fountains and behind those was the National Gallery.
Just like in New York, the streets were full of people from every nationality and race. If the buildings didn’t look so different, I would have felt right at home. The other difference was the amount of attention I was getting. It was much easier to move about New York in rags than it was in London in a fine walking gown. A beggar stopped me, asking for money, and when I said I didn’t have any, he spit on the ground at my feet before moving away.
I continued down the Strand toward the Adelphi Theatre, my mind slipping to the Duke of Severton. The night before, he’d proven to be an adept dancer, and we had continued to spar as before, but he told me very little about himself. All I knew about him, I’d learned from Lady Mandeville, and she knew next to nothing. He had not danced with anyone else the whole evening and did not mingle with the others. Instead, he waited for them to come to him—and they had. Every eligible woman at the ball had been introduced to him, including Annabelle. Aunt Maudeand Lady Mandeville considered it a triumph that I was his only dancing partner.
Before the midnight buffet, Alec and I danced together, and then he took me into supper. But Lady Mandeville had intercepted me before we could talk and brought me around the room, introducing me to other eligible aristocrats, mentioning the queen’s comment about me to each of them. She said that we couldn’t be content with only one proposal this season.
I hadn’t spoken to Alec again until we were in the carriage on our way back to 7 Buckingham Gate. But even there, we had talked little, since Aunt Maude wanted to recount everything that had happened at the ball. She spoke of the duke ad nauseam, until I was so tired of his name, I wasn’t sure I wanted to ever hear it again.
The duke had seemed so aloof and disinterested in the people at the ball. I was convinced that Lady Mandeville had misunderstood his reasons for coming to London. Was he truly looking for a bride? Or had he come to show his disdain for society?
It didn’t really matter to me. I would let Aunt Maude and Lady Mandeville worry about capturing a coronet. Right now, all I cared about was finding my mother.
The theater wasn’t far from Trafalgar Square. It was a simple brick building with several white columns holding up a canopy over the main entrance that readAdelphi Theatre.
The only door in front was locked. Disappointment tried to dissuade me, but I had known there might not be anyone at the theater this early in the morning. I walked to the side of the building where a narrow alley led to the back and decided I’d come this far, I wouldn’t give up now.
It was darker the farther I walked down the alley. Garbage had been left where it fell and there was an odd stench. When Ifinally arrived at the back of the building, there was a door with a sign above that readSTAGE.
