Page 38 of Henrietta

‘Unlikely,’ Timothy said dismissively – though peering over his shoulder in the direction of the gentleman Trixie had indicated.

‘You are here,’ Trixie reasoned. ‘Would it be so strange for another gentleman of fashion to have had the same idea? Perhaps he enjoys the anonymity as well.’

Her words were chosen carefully. Quite forgetting that he had been against this scheme from the first, Timothy became assailed with pleasant visions of a friendship struck up under disguise, bonding over mutual appreciation of the masquerade.

‘Perhaps we ought to take another look,’ he suggested casually, but Trixie waved him on – promising she would wait faithfully in the queue for lemonade until his return.

Naturally, she did not even wait until he was out of sight to make a bid for freedom. Turning in the other direction, she made her way through to the spacious chamber devoted to cards, hung about with scarlet drapery, and to the small apartment adjoining this, decorated all in blue and ornamented with a great deal of fancy, but containing none of the revelry for which Trixie had been hoping. The disappointment of this caused her to let out a great sigh, attracting the attention of a gentleman at the nearest card table who, after looking at her rather closely, smiled. Trixie smiled back – a reciprocity he plainly took as encouragement, for he rose and walked slowly towards her.

At the balls Trixie usually frequented, gentlemen did not approach a young lady without an introduction, so this was rather thrilling – though his first words had Trixie a little perplexed.

‘Are you following me?’

Trixie bridled. ‘No. How could I do so, when I do not know you?’

‘Do you not?’

She looked closely at him. Those parts of his face she could make out, around his mask and in the dim light, did feel familiar – her heart began to beat rather more quickly.

‘Perhaps I do,’ she said with admirable calmness. ‘But surely that is not why a person comes to a masquerade?’

‘As you do frequently, I gather?’ His lip curled, amused. He was laughing at her, and she did not know if she liked it or not. ‘Unlikely behaviour from a staid Allerton.’

‘Then you plainly do not know me very well, Captain,’ she said haughtily – a line she was very pleased with. Truly, she was handling this very well, given the lack of notice.

‘A set of circumstances I deplore,’ he agreed. ‘If only I had the means of altering them.’

‘I should think that within your power,’ she said. ‘You might have asked me to dance, or paid me a morning visit.’

‘Might I?’ he said. ‘I feel quite certain that your excellent brother would bar me from the house – I have a shocking reputation, you know.’

She nodded. ‘I am aware. He called you an adventurer.’

Captain Edgewood showed a flash of teeth. ‘And are you shocked?’

‘In truth …’ Trixie found herself rather bored of haughtiness. ‘In truth, I am envious,’ she mused. ‘I should love to be a gamester, and to travel, and to have adventures myself. Indeed, I wish you would pay us a morning visit so I might ask all about being a vagabond.’

But the Captain shook his head. ‘I am not the sort to make morning calls,’ he said, and she felt like a fool for suggesting it. ‘Do you take walks?’

The truthful answer was no. ‘Some days,’ Trixie said vaguely.

Captain Edgewood gave a bland sort of smile. ‘So do I – some days.’

They waited, looking at one another.

‘Some days at – four o’clock,’ Trixie conceded begrudgingly.

‘What a coincidence.’

This felt like the appropriate moment for her to make a devastatingly witty goodbye before sweeping off, so Trixie raised her chin, prepared her skirts for sweeping and opened her mouth, when—

‘You ought to have your eyesight checked!’ Timothy berated her hotly. ‘For that fellow wasn’t Mr Brummell – and this isn’t the lemonade queue.’

With the tiniest of bows, Edgewood took the opportunity to slip past them and into the next room. Trixie apologised to Timothy without the smallest ounce of sincerity.

‘Let us go back to Hetty at once,’ Timothy said. ‘Goodness knows what might have happened.’

‘Oh, she is a few feet away from Mama,’ Trixie said, peering after Edgewood. ‘She’s hardly going to be doing anything out of the ordinary.’