And then there had been the dressing room.
She was all aflutter, confusingly attracted to the man she’d thought of as an obstacle to her happiness.
She wasn’t doing any writing. She chose a fresh sheet of paper and dipped her pen in ink.
Dearest Papa, she wrote.I’m to attend my very first ball tomorrow! How I wish you were here to present me in society. The man you’ve chosen for my guardian sets my mind into a whirl, I hardly know whether I’m coming or going. He’s infuriating, off-putting, arrogant, and domineering. And yet, at the same time, I sense that he cares about me. And not only because of the promise he made you on the battlefield. Oh, Papa. I wish I could have your wise counsel.
Would she dance with the duke at the ball? She pictured themwhirling around a dance floor, his expression stern, his huge arms holding her tightly so that she couldn’t breathe properly...
She set down her pen and folded the paper. There was nowhere to mail this letter.
And no one to talk to about her confusing feelings regarding her by turns hot-and-cold guardian.
She was alone.
Lady Claridge had been her confidante, as well as her mentor. She’d expected to have more time with the woman who’d become a motherly figure in her life. Finishing her final Clovercote novel was a tribute to her memory.
Attending the ball would help Ana achieve that goal. It wasn’t to be a romantic occasion.
She would be observing the ton, nothing more.
Chapter Fifteen
They’d spent most of the day exploring the countryside, swooping and diving and sending the tops of trees rattling as they passed. She gazed with interest about her. She’d never seen the country, having spent most of her life cloistered in the castle walls. It was breathtaking in its scope and splendor, gilded as it was by the setting sun.
“Oh, can’t we fly a bit longer? Won’t you take me to my family’s castle?” she begged when the dragon began its way back toward Mount Runemor. “I am filled with a longing to view it, and we are so very close...”
—The Dragon and the Blue Starby Analise Crewe
Ana paused at the top of the grand staircase, suddenly terrified. The crowded ballroom below was an intimidating tumult of candlelit crystal, garlands of red roses, ladies in pearlescent silk gowns, and gentlemen in crisp black evening attire.
“His Grace, the Duke of Warburton, Lady Glynis, and Miss Analise Crewe,” a liveried footman announced in a booming voice.
Every head in the room swiveled toward them, as if they werethe main attraction at the Theatre Royale on Drury Lane, illuminated by gaslights so that every member of the audience could make out their features.
The duke placed her hand on his arm. “Ready?”
“Why are they all staring at us?” Ana asked in a whisper, her stomach doing flip-flops. She was here to observe society, not the other way around.
“That’s generally the point of being introduced,” said her chaperone. “Remember our lessons and you’ll bring no shame on yourself or the duke. Keep conversation to a minimum. No flights of fancy. Smile demurely, showing no teeth. No slouching. I don’t expect you to sparkle, only to remain free from scandal.”
Not reassuring. Wide grins and flights of fancy were second nature to her. How could she pretend to be someone she was not? She may be wearing a ballgown, and have pink rosebuds threaded through her upswept hair, but she wasn’t one of them. They would sense it. Or, worse, they would know it. If any of the assemblage knew her past—knew where she’d been living when the duke found her—there was sure to be scandal.
“Don’t be frightened.” Warburton gave her one of his rarer-than-diamonds half smiles. “Think what Princess Amsonia would do if she was facing a horde of banshees or basilisks, or what have you?”
“Princess Amsonia would have a magic spell, or an amulet, or at the very least, a sharp dagger.”
“You have me.” His scarred face was unexpectedly gentle.
The space of only a few breaths. Enough time for the towering duke at her side to become something new... a sort of armor. The brooding beast promising his protection.
“But what if...” She gulped. How could she not have thoughtof this possibility before now? “What if Lord Claridge should be here?”
“He won’t be here.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“I paid him a visit.”