“Let me guess. Elizabeth?” At Rebecca’s nod, Evelyn rolled her eyes. “She didn’t tell you about the costume room, did she? We have access to all sorts of paraphernalia to create a great many different costumes. Why, there must be five shepherdess crooks hanging up in there,” she added, tapping the one in her hand on the floor.
Learning about the costume room, Rebecca should have got angry, but she was currently too nervous for any other emotion to take precedence.
“I suppose you could dance with me,” Evelyn said with a giggle.
Rebecca grinned. She couldn’t really imagine a man asking her to dance either, now that she thought of it, not with both of them wearing breeches. The poor chap would be far too embarrassed, she was sure.
But dancing was the least of her concerns. “It’s all right,” she said. “There will be other balls.”
She actually wasn’t displeased with her costume. At least it was unique, dashingly so in her opinion. Most of the other guests were wearing duplicates of the same costumes. Two shepherdesses had danced by while she’d been standing there talking to Evelyn, who was also dressed as a shepherdess. And Rebecca must have seen at least four gentlemen made up to look like pirates.
Rupert still hadn’t arrived. Perhaps he wasn’t coming to the ball. Perhaps he was only in the palace to spy and was wearing the dandy costume to look as if he belonged here tonight. What was she thinking? He was a member of the Locke family. He couldn’t be a spy. She’d seen him in the palace yesterday, too, and he’d been dressed normally.
It was regrettable that she’d met him for the first time under these awkward circumstances, it really was. But what was he doing in that fellow’s room? The same thing she’d been doing?
Rebecca paled slightly at the realization that she’d made some wild assumptions about Rupert based on the task she’d been sent to do. Sarah had never told her why she was to search that room, only that it was important. But important to whom?
“Shall we walk?” Sarah said as she approached Rebecca, giving a nod to Evelyn to excuse them.
Rebecca wasn’t given much choice in the matter, since the lady put her arm through hers and led her to the back of the crowd. Sarah hadn’t donned a costume for tonight, just a black domino mask.
“What do you have for me?” Sarah asked eagerly.
“The information that I was discovered.”
Sarah stopped abruptly. “By whom? A servant?”
“No. But he seemed to be well acquainted with the man who lives in the room. However, I had already made my search and found nothing of interest. The room was very neat. I would have thought no one occupied it, if I hadn’t found clothes neatly folded in the bureau.”
Sarah appeared a bit excited about that piece of information. “If it wasn’t a servant, it must have been the agent Nigel was expecting. That would account for his not calling the guard on you, which I assume didn’t happen?” When Rebecca shook her head, Sarah nodded. “I need to know who he is. I don’t suppose he gave you his name?”
Rebecca didn’t hesitate even a second. “No,” she lied. She didn’t feel guilty about it either. Whether the name Rupert gave her was accurate or false, she wasn’t about to brand The Angel as “Nigel’s agent,” whatever that suggested, unless she knew for a fact that he was up to no good. He was related to the Duke of Norford, after all! He couldn’t be up to anything nefarious or traitorous.
“A description of him will do just as well. What did he look like?”
An Angel, Rebecca thought, managing not to grin. She wasn’t sure why she was determined to protect Rupert St. John, if that was even his real name, but she was.
“I’d like to be helpful, Lady Sarah, but he was in complete disguise, dressed for the ball tonight. I’ve been watching for the exact costume he was wearing and I haven’t seen it yet. But that wouldn’t be conclusive since he wore a monk’s robe with a hood, and a full face mask. His hair was hidden under the hood, and his eyes were shadowed under the mask. He was even of average height. If he changed his costume, he could stand next to me and I wouldn’t know it. Or someone else could arrive wearing the same costume. Considering this is a night for hidden identities, it was a perfect time for him to come to the palace, I suppose.”
Sarah mumbled something under her breath, then said more loudly, “Total waste of time. If you had used your wits, you would have gotten that mask off of him so that you could recognize him if you saw him again.”
Incredulous, Rebecca replied, “I was lucky enough to get out of there with the excuse I used, so how could I have done that?”
“You could have used your wiles and got him to remove the mask to kiss you, that’s how. Or are you really so innocent that you don’t know how easy that would have been, a pretty girl like you?”
Rebecca didn’t respond immediately. She got caught up in the image of being kissed by him, which was quite easy to envision since he’d held her so closely in his arms. It really was too bad she didn’t possess those wiles Sarah was talking about…
“Answer me!” Sarah snapped.
Rebecca pushed the image away, realizing just how angry Sarah had become. Over what? Rebecca’s lack of worldly wiles? She was supposed to be lacking in that regard!
She felt herself getting angry. Was this how Sarah got the other maids of honor to do her bidding? By browbeating them and making them feel like complete incompetents? With displays of anger to make them think they’d lose their post if they didn’t jump to do her bidding? If anyone should lose her post, it was Sarah Wheeler. Rebecca had a feeling the woman far overstepped her authority.
“I’m not so innocent that I don’t know that kissing perfect strangers is not one of my duties here at court, Lady Sarah. I was apprised of what this post entails, and playing the thief was not part of the description either. Perhaps we should take this matter up with the queen.”
Sarah’s face turned livid. “Are you daring to threaten me?”
“Threaten?” Rebecca feigned a wide-eyed look. “Surely you have Her Majesty’s approval to use the maids in this manner. So why would you see it as a threat? But perhaps I overreacted. I wouldn’t presume to bother the queen with anything this sordid. And I’m aware that the duchess wouldn’t understand me if I spoke to her. But…”
She didn’t really need to mention the names of powerful people such as the prime minister who were acquainted with her mother. Sarah had gotten the idea and was still enraged about it. But Rebecca had probably gone too far. The woman would no doubt have her dismissed in the morning, which was going to so disappoint Lilly…
Rebecca sighed and said, “What you have just witnessed is my reaction to feeling like a criminal tonight. I apologize. But if you need to enlist spies for the kingdom, you will have to find someone more heroic next time.”
“I see,” Sarah said, and pursed her thin lips. “Useless as well as incompetent, but what more can one expect of someone barely out of the schoolroom.”
“Precisely,” Rebecca replied stiffly. Good grief, making peace merely invited more insults? “By the by, if you should be asked if you sent someone after a scarf tonight, I would suggest you say yes.”
Sarah gasped. “My God, you didn’t really use my name, did you?”
“The only excuse I had for being in a room I had no business being in was to take umbrage with the fellow who found me there and demand to know what he was doing in your room. I forced him to convince me that I was in the wrong room. So my presence there appeared to be no more than a mistake.”
“He actually believed you?”
“I’m rather good at taking umbrage.”
Sarah almost laughed, having just come under the fire of that umbrage herself. “Very well, perhaps you’re not so incompetent after all. But next time—”
Rebecca abruptly cut in, “There isn’t going to be a next time, not unless you provide me with a good reason to run one of your errands. Perhaps if you told me more about what tonight’s errand was about? Is the queen’s
life in danger? Is there some plot afoot that requires these unusual measures? I cannot believe that our kingdom doesn’t have people trained for this sort of mission.”
“Certainly there are such people, but they can’t be used for such trivial matters as this.”
“Trivial?” Rebecca frowned. “You said this was important, gravely important to be precise.”
“Important to me,” Sarah snapped, and marched off.
Rebecca was left dumbfounded. So her main assumption tonight had been false, too? There was nothing even remotely heroic about what she’d done? She was beginning to not like living in the palace.
Chapter Ten
REBECCA WAS ON HER way back to the front of the ballroom where she’d left Evelyn when a bright powder-blue satin jacket caught her eye. She quickly wound her way through the crowd for a better view.
It was indeed Rupert St. John in his dandy costume. He must have arrived while she’d been talking to Sarah. Even with his back turned to her while he leaned with one arm against the wall, she caught a glimpse of the side of his handsome face. He was with a woman. She could see a wide skirt pressed against his knees as he hovered over the lady. Though his shoulder blocked the woman’s face from view, the woman was apparently leaning back against the wall, no doubt looking up at Rupert with rapt attention.
He laughed, then leaned down to whisper something to the woman. Rebecca thought she heard a girlish giggle. He was obviously flirting with the woman. Well, she had heard vague allusions to his being a renowned skirt-chaser. It didn’t look vague to her, looked quite obvious. Rebecca told herself it was no concern of hers if his halo got a little tarnished in her mind.
She started to turn away, but Rupert straightened up, taking his hand off the wall. That gave her an unobstructed view of the woman he was flirting with. Rebecca just had trouble believing her eyes. Elizabeth Marly? Good God, he was flirting with her roommate?
Rebecca turned about with a huff, feeling—she wasn’t sure how she felt. Angry? Certainly not. Indignant? Whatever for? But she couldn’t for the life of her think what Rupert St. John could find attractive in such a mean, petty girl. He probably didn’t know what she was like. And Elizabeth had looked rather pretty with her adoring expression. Well, more fool him!
Rebecca went back to where she’d left Evelyn, but her new friend wasn’t there. She was on the floor dancing. Rebecca waited a few minutes to see if the musical piece the orchestra was playing would soon end, but it didn’t, and she really had no reason to stay, she realized. She wouldn’t be asked to dance because of her costume.
Feeling a bit forlorn, she made her way slowly to the door. She could stay to listen to the music, at least. The orchestra was the best she’d ever heard. They would have to be exceptionally good, she guessed, to play in the palace.
“Leaving so soon?”
For once, Rebecca wasn’t struck speechless by Rupert’s sudden presence as he fell into step beside her. He was just a man, albeit an extremely handsome one. Tall, strapping, oh, God, he was beautiful, a pinnacle of perfection in every way—but just a man nonetheless. His tarnished halo proved that.
“Yes, as it happens, I am definitely leaving,” she replied tartly. “I feel out of place in this manly costume, which your friend arranged for me to wear.”
“Nigel?” he asked in surprise.
“No, I told you, I don’t know who that is.”
“Then which friend are you displeased with?”
“Elizabeth Marly.”
“Ah, yes, little Beth. A delightfully artificial chit. She has no knack for duplicity. Quite easy to figure out. You on the other hand…”
He didn’t finish. He took her hand and led her to the middle of the ballroom. He was going to dance with her? Indeed, he kept her hand in his, put his other hand on her waist, and began to twirl them along to the exuberant melody of the current waltz.
How daring of him! Or did he forget she was wearing breeches? No, she had just mentioned her costume to him, so apparently he didn’t care.
“Much better,” he said as he glanced at the other couples who were watching them. “It is my bane to be gossiped about. But a dance is irrelevant and can occur for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with choice.”
It took her only a moment to grasp his meaning. “So walking with me is a matter of your choice, since I certainly wasn’t dragging you along with a chain to keep you at my side. But dancing can be no more than satisfying the demands of proper etiquette.”
“Precisely! I knew you were smart as a whip, m’dear.”
She wasn’t sure if she should be wary of that compliment. It could imply he hadn’t believed a word of her earlier excuse, and come to think of it, the warning he’d given her before she’d flown out the door of Nigel’s room said as much. Yet he’d let her go. Why?
She wasn’t going to ask, though. She could be attributing more intelligence to him than he possessed. In fact, much of what he’d said to her could be attributed to his being a skirt-chaser. Good God, he wasn’t subtly trying to seduce her, was he?
“So,” he began.
He looked down and his eyes met hers now. It was quite disconcerting when he turned his full attention to her like this. And was the hand he had on her waist caressing her there!? He’d placed it under her jacket rather than on top of it, so no one could tell that it wasn’t perfectly still as was proper—except her. Was it her imagination? Or was skirt-chasing so ingrained in him that he found it quite natural to caress a woman—any woman—in his arms?
Heat spread through her body. She could feel it on her face, though she didn’t think she was blushing. This tarnished Angel was indeed dangerous to her senses!
He continued, “Am I going to have your mentor breathing down my back? For keeping you from finding that scarf?” he added in a tone that said they both knew she hadn’t been sent to fetch any silly scarf.
So much for thinking he was on the path of seduction. This was going to be an interrogation! Very well, she was up to the task.
“No, I lied to her. I said you were short, fat, and dressed in a monk’s robe.”
She realized immediately that she shouldn’t have said that. It was a confession that Sarah had wanted information about him. It was also a confession that she’d lied to him.
But his brow went up in surprise, then he grinned. “Did you really tell her that?”
Since the only thing about him that seemed dangerous at the moment was his seductive charm, she saw no reason to lie. “She makes it sound as if you and your friend are criminals. I prefer to judge for myself.”
“I suppose you gave her my name though?”
“When I didn’t believe the name you gave me?”
“I appreciate your honesty, but what do you find wrong with my name?”
She didn’t answer immediately. She asked instead, “Do you realize the sensation you cause?”
She’d noticed how every eye in the room came back to him repeatedly. Men and women alike seemed fascinated by him. Some people were even tripping on the dance floor because they couldn’t take their eyes off him.
“Do you really think I could miss it?” he replied drily.
“Well, you see my point then?”
“What point? Am I a mind reader now? Usually a point is made before it’s mentioned.”
He was being facetious. Mere banter? She wasn’t adept at that, not in the least. The socializing she and her mother had done over the years hadn’t been with young men, and certainly not with prime seducers like her tarnished Angel. Besides, she preferred real conversation, not pointless repartee that went nowhere and revealed nothing.
But she shrugged, allowing him his point. “I would have thought you’d have a more exotic name, one that matched the way you look.”
He chuckled. “So now I’m exotic? I suppose that’s better than a hungry wolf.”
She grinned as well. Maybe she could get used to bantering after all. He certainly made an excellent teacher.
>
“It’s all a matter of perception, isn’t it?” she quipped.
“Well, damn me, I find I must agree. You should stop surprising me. I’m becoming quite intrigued.”
She finally blushed. He finally lost his jocular air and added, “Do you have anything else to impart about tonight’s debacle, before I proceed to my dire warnings?”
She was given pause, not over the “warnings,” which she didn’t take seriously, but over the question. Was all the banter intended to lower her guard so she’d answer him by rote? She recalled what Evelyn had said about distracting someone prior to asking a serious question. How very spylike.
But Rebecca had already concluded that Sarah Wheeler was the one in the wrong tonight. The lady had even admitted the task had been personal in nature, rather than political, so Rebecca saw no reason not to let him know how serious Sarah was about pursuing whatever it was she was after.
“She thought I should woo you into removing the mask I told her you were wearing.”
She’d managed to surprise him yet again, to go by his expression and the lambent look that entered his eyes. “That sounds entirely too interesting. You have my rapt attention. Woo away.”
“I wouldn’t know how,” she admitted, lowering her head and suddenly feeling embarrassed.
“Move a little closer, m’dear. I promise I’ll get the message.”
Her head shot back up. “You’re entirely too bold, Rupert St. John.”
“I know. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
She rolled her eyes. She supposed this Rupert was much preferable to the dangerous one she’d briefly met in Nigel’s room. But which was the real St. John?
Aware that the dance was going to end at any moment, she said, “Now it’s my turn. Are you really a spy?”
“Good God, do you really think I’d say so if I was?” he replied, aghast, which was obviously feigned.
“I thought we were being honest.”
“No, you are being honest. I’m merely being delighted by it.”
Rebecca gritted her teeth. He’d finally managed to provoke her ire with his evasiveness. She stopped dancing, pulled away from his hands, and walked away.