Ambrose watched her inhale and then exhale. Opening her mouth, she stuffed it in and then swallowed. The gelatinous consistency made her retch. Slapping a hand over her mouth, she kept it down.
“Nice?” Ambrose knew he was smirking now.
Her nose wrinkled, which made her look way too cute, and then the tip of her tongue appeared as she poked it out. The flash of heat was not welcome. Instead, he forced out a laugh.
“Hold out your wrists, please,” Miss Alvin said. In her hands was a blue scarf.
The woman then bound them together, and they were moving again.
“I will lead,” he said as Tilly lunged ahead of him.
“I can do it,” she snapped back.
Ambrose grabbed her around the waist and tugged her to his side.
“We will do it in unison.”
She muttered something which he could not decipher and was sure he didn’t want to.
The next table was the Varneys’. Tabitha had bright red cheeks, which Ambrose suspected were rouged.
“It’s amazing she doesn’t get an inflammation with her chest exposed like that,” Tilly said.
“Perhaps she is immune now,” he whispered back, which had her snickering.
“Hurry up, you two!”
Frederica Nightingale, also known as Fred, was to join their team now.
“What are you eating, Fred?” Tilly asked.
“Cake,” she said, hugging the plate close.
“Damn, I should have been quicker.” Tilly then lunged at the mug before Ambrose could reach it.
“Vi, don’t you think Ambrose would make someone a fine husband?” Charles asked his wife loudly.
Ambrose glared at him as Tabitha made a cooing noise.
“I’d marry him if I could, but unfortunately I’m taken,” Gray said.
“Seems he’s available, Tabitha,” Mungo added, smug now he was wed and no longer in her line of sight.
Looking around him, Ambrose noted he was the last single man, other than the younger men like Theo and the Acton twins.
“There is nothing for me to eat,” Tilly said, drawing Tabitha’s attention away from him just when Ambrose had begun to sweat. The woman was terrifying.
“I have a riddle for you,” Mrs. Varney said. She wore a bonnet that came down below her eyebrows. “What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?”
Tilly looked at Ambrose, who shrugged. Riddles had never been something he was good at. Violet was the sibling who could work those out.
“A cough,” Leo said in a feminine voice that was not even close to Tilly’s. Hers had a slight husky timbre to it sometimes.
“M,” she said.
“Correct. You may move on,” Tabitha Varney said, winking at Ambrose.
Fred was now tied to Tilly, and he to her. He moved first, and thankfully, they fell in behind him. If anyone in society saw him now, his reputation would never recover.
