Page 6 of His Scarred Duchess
Adeline stared at him, momentarily forgetting her steps. Barometric pressure? Was this truly the scintillating conversation she had been missing all these years?
“I’m afraid I don’t know much about barometric pressure,” she admitted, wincing as she accidentally stepped on her partner’s foot.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, more in surprise than pain. “Well, allow me to elucidate. You see, barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere…”
As the man launched into a detailed explanation of meteorological phenomena, Adeline found her mind wandering. Is this what she had been so eager to experience? Awkward dancing and dull conversation about the weather? She had imagined witty repartee, stolen glances, maybe even a spark of connection. Instead, she was getting a lecture onair pressure.
The dance seemed to stretch on interminably. Adeline’s feet ached, unaccustomed to the constant movement, and she was acutely aware of every misstep, every fumbled turn. Her partner, engrossed in his monologue about weather patterns, seemed oblivious to her discomfort.
As the music finally drew to a close, Adeline breathed a sigh of relief. She curtsied to her partner, murmuring a quick thank you, before hurrying back to the safety of the refreshments table.
Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. How naïve she had been, thinking she could simply step into this world as if shebelonged. She was out of touch and painfully aware of her shortcomings.
As she turned around, she caught a glimpse of Isabella’s peacock feathers disappearing into the crowd. Her heart began pounding again.
After just finding her sister, was she about to lose her again?
Without hesitation, Adeline set down her glass and plunged into the sea of masks and costumes. She weaved through the throng, murmuring apologies as she bumped into dancing couples and gossiping groups.
As she rounded a particularly boisterous group of revelers, she found herself at the edge of the ballroom. The crowd thinned here, giving way to shadowy alcoves and curtained doorways.
“Did you see Lord Weatherby? The man’s attempting to pass himself off as Bacchus, I daresay. Though I suspect the resemblance is more in girth than in spirit!”
A titter of laughter followed this remark, causing Adeline to glance towards a nearby cluster of elaborately costumed ladies. She sighed, adjusting her grip on the two glasses of punch she’d procured.
How little had changed, despite the anonymity the masks provided. Theton’spenchant for cruel observations remained undiminished.
Her eyes scanned the crowded ballroom, searching for the vibrant plumage of her sister’s peacock costume. Where had Isabella disappeared to? Adeline had only been gone for a few moments, surely not long enough for her impetuous sibling to find mischief.
A flicker of movement caught her eye—the distinctive sweep of a peacock tail disappearing through a doorway.
Isabella.
As she wove through the throng of revelers, snippets of conversation drifted to her ears.
“… and then he had the audacity to suggest…”
“… never seen such an ill-fitting waistcoat in all my…”
“… positively scandalous, my dear. You simply must…”
Adeline unconsciously cataloged the chatter, her mind already composing witty retorts she’d never dare utter aloud.
Oh, how she longed for true intellectual discourse! But such pleasures were rare in these gilded cages of Society.
Her search growing more frantic, she completed another circuit of the ballroom.
No sign of Isabella.
The jovial atmosphere suddenly felt stifling, the laughter too loud, the smiles too forced.
Her breath came quicker, her corset seeming to tighten with each passing moment.
Calm yourself, she inwardly chided.There’s no cause for alarm. Isabella is simply…mingling.
But the knot of anxiety in her stomach refused to loosen. Images of her father’s stern face and her grandmother’s worried eyes flashed through her mind. If anything were to happen to Isabella, if her reputation were to be tarnished…
Setting down the now-warm glasses of punch, Adeline squared her shoulders and made for the less crowded areas of the house.
