Page 57 of House of Blood and Roses: Vol. 1
She shakes her head. "I meant, please would you introduce me."
"Erm...sure."
"I wouldn't bother," Lady Harriet says, appearing on the other side of Violetta. The other woman shrinks back from the redhead, and I don't blame her, Harriet's tongue is sharper than it should be, and not in the way Bella's is. "Lord Bastian is betrothed now."
Violetta squeaks and disappears from sight. I'm surprised Emilia hasn't done the same, she seems to want to stay away from Harriet as much as possible. I don't blame her. I don't have much patience for the woman.
"Isn't that right, Lady Beatrice?" Harriet asks.
"Exactly who are you performing this for?" I ask her bluntly,
"Everyone should know which of the gentlemen are worth pursuing or not," Harriet says. "Do you know if the position of Lord Bastian's mistress is open?"
"No, I don't know anything about my brother's love life," I say tartly.
"Who said anything about love? I was talking about sleeping with him in order to better my own position." She flicks her hair over her shoulder.
"I'll make sure to tell him that."
Her face grows pale, which is quite an achievement considering she hasn't seen the sun for three weeks and her skin already looks that way. "That's not what I meant."
"Then you should be careful about what you say," I respond. "We should get into position for our lesson," I say to Emilia, leaving the other woman to stutter and try to pretend she isn't worried about whether I'm actually going to tell my brother what she said.
Luckily for her, I have no intention of doing so. I don't plan on ruining anyone over a single off-hand comment, but maybe she'll learn to mind what she says now.
The dancing master enters the room and calls for us all to get in line, making me glad that we already thought of doing that so we're not caught at the end of the dance.
I stand opposite one of the young men, the same one Bastian has been talking to. My brother stands next to him, partnering with Emilia.
The music starts, loud enough for us all to hear, but not enough to drown out the instructions called by the dancing master. I dip into a curtsy and start moving through the steps of the dance, while Lord Drewforth's heir does the same opposite me. I should learn his name, but I haven't had a chance to ask him, even if he does seem to be friends with Bastian.
He brings me into hold, and I can't help noticing the differences between how it feels to dance with a stranger and what it was like in Linc's arms. When we were dancing, I barely thought about the fact I was new to the steps, he made me feel as if I knew them just as well as he did.
I spin under my dance partner's arm, landing back in hold in an almost perfect manner. I know there are going to be a lot more dances for me to learn, but I feel like I might have finally managed to get this one right.
A glance over at Bastian and Emilia has my stomach in knots. She stumbles, and he says something which makes her face crumble.
Anger rises up within me. Why can't he just be kind?
"Change partners!" the dancing master calls out.
I let go of my partner's hand and glide forward until I'm face-to-face with my brother. "What did you say to Emilia?" I demand as he takes my hand and starts guiding us through the steps.
"Who?"
"The person you were just dancing with, she looked close to tears."
"She looked like that when we started dancing," he responds, spinning me under his arm.
I scowl. "I don't believe you."
"You seem to think I have it out for everyone, Bea, I promise you I don't."
"You're doing a good job of pretending you do," I mutter.
He squeezes my hand a little too hard, but I don't think it's purposeful.
"Let go of me," I say.
