partners. And that there was a waltz and I was able to dance it with Lucius and see that you were dancing it too. Yes, it was all quite nearly perfect.”
“I will have a great deal to tell when I return to Bath,” Susanna said. “Among a dizzying number of other things, I will be able to tell Claudia and Anne-and Mr. Huckerby-that I actually waltzed at a real ball-or at a real assembly anyway-and with no less a personage than a
She had always made a joke with her friends of her determination to snare a duke one day. She smiled and then rested her forehead on her up-drawn knees.
“It
“Yes.” Susanna closed her eyes and remembered the glorious wonder of it. It had seemed to her that she had almost floated over the boards beneath her feet without actually touching them. It had seemed as if waltzing and her dream of flying free had become one and the same. Except that waltzing had not been done alone, but with a man who had held her in the circle of his arms and smelled of musk cologne and masculinity. For the space of that one set of dances dream and reality had touched and merged and she had known complete happiness-one of those rare interludes in any life.
It had been sheer magic.
She would
And then, quite unexpectedly and ignominiously, the tears were back and soaking into her robe and she uttered a quite audible hiccough as she tried to control them.
“Oh, goodness,” she said, fumbling in her pocket for her handkerchief and managing to produce a shaky laugh, “what an idiot you will think me.”
There was a brief but disconcerting silence.
“Susanna,” Frances said then, “you have not fallen in love with Viscount Whitleaf, have you?”
Susanna jerked her head upward and gazed horrified at her friend, wet, reddened eyes and all.
“No!” she exclaimed. “Oh, no, Frances, of course I have not. Whatever put such a silly notion into your head?”
But the trouble was that her tears seemed to be beyond her control tonight. Her eyes filled again, and she felt two tears spill over onto her cheeks. She mopped at them hastily with her handkerchief and held it to her eyes.
“Ah, my poor dear,” Frances said softly.
“But you are quite wide of the mark. Oh, this is very silly of me,” Susanna wailed. “I am not in
“Including Viscount Whitleaf,” Frances said softly.
“Yes.” Susanna smiled wanly as she put her handkerchief away again. “Including him.”
“But he
“Yes,” Susanna assured her, making her smile brighter. “Of course that is all he is, you silly goose.”
He had kissed her under the elm outside the church. Or was it pathetic to call that brief brushing of lips a kiss? She knew, though, that she would remember it for the rest of her life as a kiss-her first and doubtless her last.
Friends do not kiss.
But they
There was nothing else between them but friendship, in fact.
She did not want there to be anything else.
There
She rested her forehead on her knees again.
“Susanna.” Frances had got up from her chair and come to sit on the side of the bed. She set a hand between her friend’s shoulder blades and patted her back gently. “I am so sorry. I am
Susanna concentrated upon taking deep, steadying breaths and holding the tears at bay. She had never been a weeper. Tonight’s tears were quite uncharacteristic of her.
“He
“Your heart is breaking, then?” Frances asked.
“No. Oh, no, of course not,” Susanna said. “It is just a figure of speech. I will be
“I feel so very helpless,” Frances said after a minute or two of silence. “I feel absolutely wretched for you, Susanna. But I do not know what to say or what comfort to offer.”
It was obvious that Frances did not believe any of her protestations concerning Viscount Whitleaf. And because Susanna did indeed feel miserable about having to say good-bye to him-though truly they were only friends-she bowed her head and said nothing for a minute or two longer.
“You have been a comfort to me just by being here,” she said firmly at last, getting off the bed to stand beside it. “By being a friend. It
Frances took her hands and squeezed them, kissing her on the cheek as she did so.
“That’s my girl,” she said. “That’s my brave Susanna. Good night, then. I do hope you will sleep well.”
Susanna folded back the bedcovers as soon as she was alone, snuffed the candle, and climbed into bed. She pulled the sheet up to her chin and closed her eyes.
And was again waltzing with him.
And sharing dreams with him in the refreshment room and strolling with him in the fresh air outside, her arm linked through his, their hands clasped, their fingers laced together.
And again she was reliving that brief kiss.
In three days’ time she was going to be saying good-bye to him.
Her dear, dear friend.
Which was really a very foolish way of thinking about him when she had known him for less than two weeks and had not spent much longer than half an hour with him during any of those days. And when he was Viscount
She could hear him speak those words-just before he touched his forehead to hers