An Improbable Season by Rosalyn Eves

Author:Rosalyn Eves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Midnight Reconciliations

(Kalli)

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

—Samuel Johnson, found in Kalliope Aubrey’s commonplace book

Kalliope Aubrey danced the first set of dances at her come-out ball with Adam Hetherbridge, the man she had promised to marry. Adam had been careful to ask for them as soon as the date for the dance had been set, so as not to repeat his mistake from the Gardiners’ ball. But though he was kind and attentive, he did not allude to their conversation at the museum about kissing. He did not attempt to flirt with her. Trying to quell a vague sense of disappointment, Kalli moved through the figures of the dance with Adam and caught Mr. Salisbury watching her while he waited his turn down the line.

She flushed. In contrast to Adam, Mr. Salisbury, who was most definitely not her betrothed, had lit up at the sight of her as he came through the receiving line with his sisters. He had smiled his dimpled smile at her and had asked for as many dances as she could give him and seemed genuinely disappointed when she could give him neither the opening dance nor the supper dance, which she had promised to Adam.

Back home in Oxfordshire, when Kalli had imagined the triumph of her come-out ball, she had envisioned herself besieged by suitors. She had wanted to be sought-after, torn between one suitor and another.

She had not expected the whole ordeal to be so confusing—or painful.

Kalli looked away from Mr. Salisbury to find Adam watching her. “Are you happy?” he asked quietly.

“Why should I be unhappy? I have everything I am supposed to want.”

Perhaps her smile showed too much of her canines because Adam blushed. “I know I’m not everything you want, but I do want you to be happy.”

“And I am happy, so you have nothing to worry about.” The dance took her away from Adam then, but she felt his eyes on her even as she spun across the room in the arms of another partner.

When they came back together, Adam didn’t return to the topic. Instead, he said, “I like that color on you. Makes you look like a Melusine.”

“Thank you.” Kalli wore her favorite pale green gown, with a wash of lace about the hem that looked like sea-foam. She liked the dress because it made her feel pretty and a little bit dangerous, a rare combination for someone as short as she was. “Though take care that I don’t catch you in my nets and drown you.”

Adam laughed softly. “I suppose I should quake at the very idea, but I know you. You’re far too warmhearted. When we were children rambling around the countryside, you used to cry if we came upon an animal in a trap.”

Kalli leaned in close and whispered, “Sometimes I still do.”

Adam whispered back, “I know. I helped you free one such creature, not three months since.”

This close, she could smell the orange scent of the cologne he was wearing for the occasion.

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