“So it is,” said Eddie after a moment of pause, staring up at the stately brick manor before him. “Well, wish me luck.”
“Good luck.”
“Thank you.” Eddie nodded to his friend once more. “I think I’m going to need it.”
Julia had wanted him to meet her out front of the home that the Morelands had rented for race week, but that would only cause more tongues to begin wagging, he knew. So instead he entered himself, grateful when he saw Lady Elizabeth was one of those greeting the guests.
“Mr. Francis,” she said with a fair bit of surprise. “Julia told me she had invited you, but I wasn’t sure you would come.”
“Not a place for me?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Any place can be yours if you make it so,” she said with a small smile and a spark in her eye. “As Julia made it so, did she not?”
“You’re right,” he said with a chuckle. “That she did.”
“She has not arrived yet, though she should be here shortly,” Elizabeth said. “Drinks are available and dinner will be served soon.”
Eddie grinned ruefully. “As much as I would love a good meal, Lady Elizabeth, I will have to return to your home in November if I am to enjoy such a thing.”
“Ah, that’s right. How dreadful it must be as a jockey, having to continually be so careful.”
“’Tis not the glamorous part of racing, to be sure,” Eddie said, wondering how much this woman knew of racing and horses. Enough, it seemed.
“Well, I will leave you to greet your other guests,” Eddie said, seeing them beginning to accumulate behind him the doorway. “Good night, Lady Elizabeth.”
“I do hope we have the opportunity to converse again,” she said, to which he nodded and continued into the throng of guests. One drink, he promised himself. He shouldn’t, but he would need it to get through the evening.
He saw a few men he recognized — Clarence of course, and he made sure to make a wide berth around Torrington, the man who could recognize him without question. Not that Eddie was breaking any laws by being present at a party.
Eddie took his drink and shrank back into the shadows, content for now to simply observe the behavior of the many people present — their flirting and their boasting, the cutting remarks that were so very different from the good-natured jesting amongst his own peers. Though he must admit, some of the conversations he overheard were those he himself would be open to partaking in. Not that he was ready to admit as much.
“Hiding in the shadows tonight, are we?”
Eddie started. How had Julia managed to sneak up on him yet again?
She giggled when she realized it herself.
“Jumpy tonight?”
“Slightly. I’m out of my typical element.”
“That I now understand, having spent nearly twoweeksout of my element.”
“True,” he countered, “but you are at home on a horse — particularly Orianna.”
She tilted her head. “That may be so, but are you not at home in a crowd of people?”
When he nodded ever so slightly, she grinned, knowing she had him there.
“It’s familiar… yet not,” she finished her thought, though he had nearly stopped paying attention to her words as she had stepped out into a bit of light. It was not as though he hadn’t seen her wearing a dress before, but he had never seen her quite like this. She wore a gown of deep, royal blue silk, though it was nothing like any racing silks he had ever seen before. The bodice gathered over her bosom, the sleeves puffed slightly around her arms. There was a band of gold about her waist that emphasized her slight curves, and gold embroidery around the hem at the bottom made her look like royalty.
The blue brought out the crystal of her eyes, which glinted at him from the light of a nearby sconce. Her lips were as red as they had ever been, her cheeks full of a pale blush. Her hair was pulled back, with loose tendrils of curls brushing her cheekbones like a halo. Eddie was enraptured. She was a goddess, and he was now happy he had attended this damn party, if only for this moment in which he could see her dressed as she was meant to be.
“You are beautiful,” he murmured, and her cheeks flushed even deeper. Eddie could hardly believe himself. It was not as though he wasn’t used to giving out compliments, but he knew they were typically well rehearsed, trite, and far too full of the charm. He usually accompanied them with a winning smile and a wink.
But not tonight.
Tonight he spoke only truth, and in the most reverent way possible.