“Better, I think. Are my eyes and nose red?”
“Just a little. Go splash water on your face, and that should take care of it. If they are still red, tell anyone who asks it was the champagne you drank. It makes a lot of people look flushed.”
She nodded. “Thank you for your help, Your Grace.”
He smiled. “I’m your guardian, Miss Gwen. It’s my duty to look after you. You may come to me with anything, and I will help you.”
She reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
Bray was so startled, he stepped away from her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that. Please forgive me for being so forward, but tonight I feel about you the way I always felt about Nathan. As if you were my brother taking care of me.”
She thought of him as a brother? That gave Bray the oddest feeling. Was he acting more like a brother than like a guardian? Was that feeling he’d had when he saw that she’d been hurt by Standish something like brotherly love? Did she feel like a sister to him?
Bray had that now-familiar tightness in his throat, and he didn’t know what to say except, “I don’t need gratitude for doing the right thing. Let’s go back inside.”
Somehow whenever he was around Louisa and her sisters, all the training that went into hiding his emotions left him. He didn’t know what to make of what was happening to him.
Chapter 25
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.
—Henry VI, part 2,act 3, scene 1
Louisa didn’t know how much longer she could pretend she was having fun. She wasn’t. The music was loud, the room crowded, and the constant roar from chatter and laughter had her wanting to look for Mrs. Colthrust and Gwen and tell them she was ready to go home. That this madness of parties would go on for another two weeks was almost more than she could bear to think about. As far as she was concerned, the Season was much too long. Surely a month of parties and balls night after night should be the most anyone had to endure.
She enjoyed dancing, conversing with people, and the glass of champagne she had each evening, but she was ready to return to her life of spending the evenings at home with her sisters, playing games, working on her stitchery, or reading. And she knew that Bonnie, Sybil, and Lillian were missing her and Gwen, too.
She thanked the young man she’d danced with and bade him good-bye on the dance floor, having to insist she didn’t need him to help her find Mrs. Colthrust.
“Miss Prim?”
Louisa turned to see a tall, portly gentleman she didn’t recognize standing beside her.
“Good evening,” he said. “I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at the first ball of the Season. I’m Mr. Alfred Hopscotch.”
“I met many people that first evening,” she said, knowing she had no memory of being introduced to him. “Thank you for reminding me of your name.”
“We didn’t have the opportunity to talk. The party was a crush, and everyone wanted to meet you for obvious reasons.” He ran his hand down the ends of his neckcloth and said, “I wonder if it might be possible for me to have a few moments of your time tonight?”
She looked around the room, hoping to spot Gwen or Mrs. Colthrust. “I was just trying to find my sister and chaperone.”
“I promise I won’t take much of your time,” he said. “I am a personal attendant to the Prince, and he has asked me to discuss something with you privately.”
“Are you sure it’s me?” she asked, thinking if the man attended the Prince, then he must have mistaken her for someone else.
“Quite sure. Do you mind if we step over to the side of the room and away from the dance floor?”
“All right,” she said, curious as to what the man wanted to discuss with her.
He led her over to a corner near a large urn. He looked around as if to make certain that no one was close enough to hear him and said, “What I have to say is of a most private nature to the Prince. At his request, I must ask that you keep anything I say to you in the strictest confidence. He wants assurances that what I say to you will go no further.”
Louisa looked suspiciously at the man, still not convinced he had the right person. “All right,” she said, and continued to stare at him. “But pardon me if I find it improbable that the Prince has sent you to a ball to talk to me.”
He smiled reassuringly. “When the Prince told me this afternoon to approach you, I suppose I could have waited and visited with you at your home tomorrow. But when the Prince asks me to do something, I don’t usually tarry.”
“Perhaps you should tell me what it is, then.”
