Second Chances by Mary Balogh

Author:Mary Balogh
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-11-05T05:00:00+00:00

Constance had always enjoyed the dances at the assembly rooms in the village inn. Probably, she thought, it was for much the same reason as she had always loved the Esdale picnics. Everyone came to the assemblies, regardless of social status, and so there were not just the same few families to mingle with as there were at all the parties in private homes. Of course, most private homes were far too small to accommodate such numbers.

Constance helped her father hand her mother down from the carriage outside the inn and then hurried inside alone to find Georgina. Papa was going to carry Mama up the stairs, despite Mama’s protests.

She should not have been looking forward to this particular assembly Constance thought. When she had originally heard about it, she had written to Sidney and he had asked in his reply to reserve the opening set and the supper set with her. Not that there was any need to reserve sets ahead of time at a country assembly, but even so, it felt good to know that one was assured of certain dances.

But now Sidney would not be there. There had been no letter from Brighton and she could only assume that he would come within the next few days—certainly well before her birthday, she hoped. She spotted Georgina in the ladies’ withdrawing room and was glad after all that she had decided to wear her new lemon-colored silk. She had worried that perhaps she would be overdressed for a village assembly, but Georgina was wearing a gown that must surely have been purchased in London. Constance put determinedly from her mind her disappointment that Sidney was not there and the strange, quite unfounded fears that had begun to nudge at her.

“You look beautiful, Georgie,” she said. “A London gown?”

She looked eagerly about her when she entered the long assembly room on the upper floor of the inn a short while later, arm-in-arm with her friend. But he was not there yet. And she felt guilty when she realized that she was feeling eager after all and that she had looked specifically for him when there were any number of other friends and acquaintances to be nodded and smiled at.

He was Sidney’s brother. That was all. And it was pure courtesy that had prompted him outside church on Sunday to remark that he had heard there were to be waltzes at the assembly and to ask her if she would reserve the first and the last for him—just as if it were any London ball. She adored waltzing. Sidney had taught her the steps, though he often said that he had two left feet and occasionally she had to agree with him. Jonathan would surely dance well. She could scarcely wait. If only he did not arrive too late to dance the first waltz. Georgina had told her that most gentlemen did not deign to arrive at London balls until late.

Hadley Fleming rushed to her side to ask for the first set of country dances, while Rodney Churchill was asking Georgina.

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