Page 28 of A Baron's Disguised Lady
“If you wish, yes,” Lavinia replied, though she was still not convinced the baron was being anything other than polite.
“Come and dance. Ignore what others think. It doesn’t matter. You’ve got as much right as anyone to be here,” Archie said, offering her his hand.
Lavinia was worried she would step on his feet, but now, they joined the throng, the baron’s left arm around her waist, his other holding out her hand. She was trying so hard not to step on his feet, and she kept her head bowed, her heart beating fast, but not only because of her nerves. Finding herself so close to him roused unexpected feelings in her.
He had been kind to her—hewasbeing kind to her—and it seemed this was no mere show of politeness. It felt to Lavinia as though he was actually making an effort. That he wanted to be with her. He had spoken of trust, and Laviniadidtrust him, as surprising as it was to admit as much.
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to step on your toes,” she said, glancing up at him.
He smiled and shook his head.
“The more you think about stepping on them, the more likely you are to do so, I think,” he replied, and Lavinia laughed.
“Your poor mother’s feet were quite sore after we danced the other day,” she replied, and now it was the baron who laughed.
“Then she shouldn’t have thrown you around as she did. I was watching you through the drawing room window,” he said, and a sudden blush came over his face, as though realizing what he was saying.
“I know, I saw you. I’m sorry we didn’t dance then,” Lavinia replied.
With the baron to guide her, Lavinia found dancing far easier than she had expected. It surprised her, and as the waltz came to an end, she smiled, grateful to him for his unexpected kindness. She felt guilty for her harsh words of earlier, and wanted to apologize, but before she could do so a haughty-looking woman, dressed in a gaudy ball gown, with a large fascinator adding considerable height to her already imposing figure, approached them.
She was perhaps a few years older than Lavinia, her face heavily powdered, and she looked at them both with disdain.
“I thought you weren’t coming, Archie. You usually shy away from these sorts of things,” she said, without making any form of introduction.
But Lavinia had already seen enough of the woman to know what sort of person she was. She had encountered such figures many times before; haughty women, who looked down theirnoses at her. The sort of women who would delight in spreading rumors, and hearing them, too.
“Ah, Lady Wilhelmina Tipping, may I introduce…” Archie began, annoyed, as the woman flicked open her fan, glancing at Lavinia with a disdainful look on her face.
“Ah, yes, the maid,” she said, laughing as though she had made a joke.
But Lavinia was not about to rise to her challenge, and with a curt nod of her head, she stepped backwards, having no intention of responding.
“I’ll go and see if my mother needs anything,” she said, as Wilhelmina raised her eyebrows.
Grimacing to herself, Lavinia retreated across the ballroom, the unexpected pleasure she had derived from dancing with the baron now replaced with bitter taste of rejection. The same rejection she had experienced at other balls since her unexpected elevation through the ranks of society.
“Didn’t you do well, Lavinia?” the dowager said, and Lavinia sighed.
“Perhaps, but I’ll never be one of them,” she said, gesturing towards Wilhelmina, and feeling thoroughly glad about the fact, too.
***
Archie was angry. He had been glad to make his peace with Lavinia, and glad, too, to have had the chance to dance with her. He had been thinking about doing so ever since seeing her dancing with his mother in the drawing room at Sarum Lacy House, but he had feared his bridges were burned after their argument in the woods.
But it seemed Lavinia was not the sort of person to hold a grudge, unlike many other women for whom the slightest offense was cause enough for the permanent breaking of relations. He was coming to see Lavinia was not like other women. Not at all, and for that, Archie was grateful.
But the appearance of Lady Wilhelmina Tipping, the daughter of a socialite, whose destiny was to follow in her mother’s footsteps, had angered him. She was a judgmental creature, and a woman whom Archie tried to avoid at all costs.
“Miss Stuart is not a maid,” Archie said, glaring at Wilhelmina, who smiled.
“Shewasa maid. That’s what I’ve heard. Everyone’s talking about it, and… the rumors…” she said, her words hanging in the air as Archie looked at her in confusion.
“What rumors?” Archie asked, for he had heard no rumors about Lavinia, only the story of her strange return from rags to riches.
Wilhelmina smiled; the smile of a woman who knows she has the power to impart information thus far unknown.
“They say she took a lover, but he wouldn’t wed her. There was a scandal. Her grandfather tried to hush it up. But… well, rumors have a nasty habit of spreading, don’t they?” Wilhelmina said, raising her eyebrows.
