The Dancer Wore Opera Rose by Shelley Adina

Author:Shelley Adina
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-939087-81-2
Publisher: Moonshell Books, Inc.

The dancers squealed and patted Freddie on the back as she stood with her hat in one hand and hatpin in the other, frozen immobile with horror.

Dinner with Josiah Comstock! Was this how it began, turning a woman into a mistress? With flowers and lobster and oysters? Freddie was only nineteen and had never even been alone in a room with anyone but William, and had certainly never been kissed.

This was dreadful. Horrible. And insulting!

Her jaw worked, and finally words came out. “Is there paper and a pen? Never mind, I will write my refusal on the back of his card, and Davey, you will take it out to the carriage driver.” Another thought made its way through the congealed mass that was her brain. “And take the flowers with you.”

Simone gasped. “Oh, miss, he’ll be dreadfully angry.”

“He cannot possibly be as horrified, angry, and insulted as I am at this moment,” she said, hardly able to speak over her pounding heart. “What does he think I am?” Too late, she remembered Simone’s own sister had taken the man up on his offer, for a time, at least. “I’m sorry, Simone, I didn’t mean to imply—”

“Freddie, you must go.”

She heard Daisy say the words, but they had no meaning. Confused, she stared at her sister. She must be very slow—no doubt her mind had been affected by the strain of this awful day. “What did you say?”

“I said you must go. With Mr. Comstock. To dinner.”

Still Freddie did not understand. There could be only one reason for this sudden descent into immorality: The strain had affected her sister, too. “Are you mad?” She meant it quite literally. What Daisy had been through over the last few weeks would put many a stronger woman into a sanitarium.

“Indeed not.” Daisy took her hatpin from her as though Freddie might use it on someone. “Don’t you see? This is a prime opportunity for you to ask one or two penetrating questions. To use your wiles to find out whether he knows anything of Annelise.”

“I haven’t any wiles,” Freddie said flatly. “And you are certainly mad if you think I am going anywhere with a perfect stranger, to say nothing of a libertine!”

“You will not be alone. Mr. Barnicott and Lin came back during the first act. They are waiting for us at the balloon with news of their discoveries at the newspaper office. We will simply move the balloon to the square in front of the hotel, ask for a table, and join you. Much the same way as we took the table next to Emma when she dined with Mr. Hansen the first time, do you remember?”

Freddie did remember. And look what had happened afterward. “I cannot do it. You must not ask it of me.” She gazed into her sister’s eyes—so blue, so familiar.

So beseeching.

“Please, Freddie,” Daisy whispered. “How many chances will we have to find Annelise, and through her, Papa? Georgetown was a small place, and look how overwhelmingly difficult it was to find one person there.

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