Page 1 of A Wallflower's Wassail Punch
PROLOGUE
June 1815
Almack’s, London
Lady Annette Page spied her oldest-older brother near the door, hoping for a quick escape.She narrowed her eyes at him—look at me, look at me, you coward—and their gaze connected from across the room.Shaking her head, she picked up her skirts and moved across the crowded room to cut off his exit.
With a wicked grin,Lucius, Viscount Page nodded back at her and slipped into the hall.Annette broke into a run, bumping into several gentlemen and almost colliding with one of the patronesses.
“I beg your pardon, Lady Jersey,”gushed Annette, leaning around the countess’s shoulder to see which direction her brother had fled.
“La, why in such a hurry?”asked the older woman, not budging from her place in front of Annette.“Your cheeks are flushed, child.Perhaps some lemonade?Ratafia?”
“No, ma’am, I-I must visit the necessary,” she whispered into the patroness’s ear.“Please, I do beg your pardon, but I waited too long and…”
“Heavens, Lady Annette, you really must be more subtle,” scolded Lady Jersey.“What would your father say?”
Her father, the Earl of Beecham, wouldn’t care.After the loss of his wife, Annette had been raised by a family of all-males and indulgent servants, who pitied the poor girl’s motherless state.As a ten-year-old, she’d been doted on by Papa and her four brothers.The oldest of whom was her chaperone this evening and had just escaped Almack’s ballroom.
Her lack of response gave Lady Jersey the opportunity to continue the conversation.The patroness was called Silence behind her back due to her lack of it.As Annette listened to the woes of a young girl’s upbringing without proper female guidance, how it wasn’t her fault, how her father should have remarried to provide her with a lady’s upbringing, her shoulders slumped.
Lucius would be long gone.And tipping his flask.If he didn’t return before eleven, he wouldn’t be admitted back into the ballroom.Almack’s rules were strictly upheld.The drone stopped, and Annette looked up to find Lady Jersey waiting for an answer.Horse feathers!
“Whatever you think best, my lady,” she answered demurely, biting her lip.
“Well, then.I’ll introduce you after the next dance.Now, go attend yourself and hurry back.A quadrille is next,” the countess said, her dark curls bouncing against her cheeks.“And splash some cool water on your cheeks to tone down that color.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Annette murmured, making her way to the door in the vain hope of catching her brother.She looked up and down the empty hallway, then flew down the steps to the next level.The hall here was shadowed, and she’d almost given up when she heard a stifled belch.Turning on her heel, she found him in an alcove, tipping his flask.
“You smell of whisky.”
“Good whisky.Expensive whisky,” answered Lucius.“Less of a headache tomorrow.”
“Brother, why do you torture yourself so?”Annette knew he was lovesick, though he’d never admit it.“I miss her too.She taught me all the ridiculous, intricate rules I needed for my first Season.Not that I remembered them all.I so wish she was here to help me through it.”
A low growl sounded from Lucius’s throat.The lovely Lady Christiana had stolen his heart when he’d met her several years ago at a Christmas ball.But after university, Lucius’s best friend and ever-charming rogue, the Earl of Winfield, had wooed, then married her.A few months ago, the noxious rake had died in a scandalous accident, leaving his wife childless and alone.After the funeral, Lucius’s flask had come out.
“Have you tried talking to her again?”she asked, placing a hand on his arm as he tried to take another drink.
“She won’t see me when I call or answer my letters.At the cemetery, she told me that men had been the cause of all her sorrows.She would never allow another into her heart.”He put the flask away.“Got herself locked away on that country estate of her mother’s.”
Annette sighed.“I’m sorry, but I’m sure she just needs time.Winfield was a terrible husband?—”
“I tried to warn her.Of course, it only made me look jealous of the scoundrel.”Lucius snorted, then handed her the flask as if she were one of his friends from the club.“Take a nip.It will make the night pass faster.”
Against her better judgment, but also thinking of her upcoming introduction, she took a swallow and gasped at the heat pouring down her throat.“Heavens, how can you drink this rot?”
“It’s an acquired taste.It gets better with each swallow.Try again,” he said with a grin.
She shook her head and handed it back with a shiver.“I don’t care for spirits.You know that.”
“The more for me, then,” he mumbled.
“Don’t get foxed.”
“Only mellow,” he promised.
“Papa says it’s time you start looking for your own wife.Shemay never come around, Lucius.”Annette reached up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.“Lady Jersey is introducing me to… someone, and I must dance the next quadrille with him.Please make sure you’re back before eleven.Please, Lucius.Don’t embarrass me by leaving me unchaperoned.”
