The Sum Of All Kisses Part 5

Honoria sighed. "Will we find husbands this year, do you think?"

Sarah couldn't bring herself to form a verbal answer. A doleful look was all she could manage.

Honoria returned the expression in kind, and in unison, they sighed. Tired, worn-out, when-will-this-be-over sighs.

"We are pathetic," Sarah said.

"We are," Honoria agreed.

They watched the ballroom for a few more moments, and then Sarah said, "I don't mind it tonight, though."

"Being pathetic?"

Sarah glanced over at her cousin with a cheeky smile. "Tonight I have you."

"Misery loves company?"

"That's the funny thing," Sarah said, feeling her brow knit into a quizzical expression. "Tonight I'm not even miserable."

"Why, Sarah Pleinsworth," Honoria said with barely suppressed humor, "that might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Sarah chuckled, but still she asked, "Shall we be spinsters together, old and wobbly at the annual musicale?"

Honoria shuddered. "I am fairly certain that is not the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I do love the musicale, but-"

"You don't!" Sarah just barely resisted the urge to clap her hands over her ears. No one could love that musicale.

"I said I loved the musicale," Honoria clarified, "not the music."

"How, pray tell, are they different? I thought I might perish-"

"Oh, Sarah," Honoria scolded. "Don't exaggerate."

"I wish it were an exaggeration," Sarah muttered.

"I thought it was great fun practicing with you and Viola and Marigold. And next year will be even better. We shall have Iris with us to play the cello. Aunt Maria told me that Mr. Wedgecombe is mere weeks away from proposing to Marigold." Honoria furrowed her brow in thought. "Although I'm not quite sure how she knows that."

"That's not the point," Sarah said with great gravity, "and even if it were, it's not worth the public humiliation. If you want to spend time with your cousins, invite us all out for a picnic. Or a game of Pall Mall."

"It's not the same."

"Thank G.o.d." Sarah shuddered, trying to not recollect a single moment of her Smythe-Smith Quartet debut. Thus far it was proving a difficult memory to repress. Every awful chord, every pitying stare . . .

It was why she needed to consider every gentleman as a possible spouse. If she had to perform with her discordant cousins one more time, she would perish.

And that was not an exaggeration.

"Very well," Sarah said briskly, then straightened her shoulders to punctuate the tone. It was time to get back to business. "Mr. St. Clair is off my list. Who else is here tonight?"

"No one," Honoria said morosely.

"No one? How is that possible? What about Mr. Travers? I thought you and he- Oh." Sarah gulped at the pained expression on Honoria's face. "I'm sorry. What happened?"

"I don't know. I thought everything was going so well. And then . . . nothing."

"That's very odd," Sarah said. Mr. Travers wouldn't have been her first choice for a husband, but he seemed steadfast enough. Certainly not the sort to drop a lady with no explanation. "Are you sure?"

"At Mrs. Wemberley's soiree last week I smiled at him and he ran from the room."

"Oh, but surely you're imagining-"

"He tripped on a table on the way out."

"Oh." Sarah grimaced. There was no putting a cheerful face on that. "I'm sorry," she said sympathetically, and she was. As comforting as it was to have Honoria by her side as fellow failure on the marriage mart, she did want her cousin to be happy.

"It's probably for the best," Honoria said, ever the optimist. "We share very few interests. He's actually quite musical, and I don't know how he would ever- Oh!"

"What is it?" Sarah asked. If they had been closer to the candelabra, Honoria's gasp would have sucked the flame right out.

"Why is he here?" Honoria whispered.

"Who?" Sarah's eyes swept across the room. "Mr. Travers?"

"No. Hugh Prentice."

Sarah's entire body went rigid with rage. "How dare he show his face?" she hissed. "Surely he knew we would be in attendance."

But Honoria was shaking her head. "He has just as much right to be here-"

"No, he does not," Sarah cut in. Trust Honoria to be kind and forgiving when neither was deserved. "What Lord Hugh Prentice needs," Sarah ground out, "is a public flogging."

"Sarah!"

"There is a time and a place for Christian charity, and Lord Hugh Prentice intersects with neither." Sarah's eyes narrowed dangerously as she spied the gentleman she thought was Lord Hugh. They had never been formally introduced; the duel had occurred before Sarah had entered society, and of course no one had dared to make them known to each other after that. But still, she knew what he looked like.

She had made it her business to know what he looked like.

She could only see the gentleman from the back, but the hair was the correct color-light brown. Or maybe dark blond, depending on how charitable one was feeling. She could not see if he held a cane. Had his walking improved? The last time she had spied him, several months earlier, his limp had been quite p.r.o.nounced.

"He is friends with Mr. Dunwoody," Honoria said, her voice still small and fragile. "He will have wanted to congratulate his friend."

"I don't care if he wanted to give the happy couple their own private Indian island," Sarah spat. "You are also friends with Mr. Dunwoody. You have known him for years. Surely Lord Hugh is aware of this."

"Yes, but-"

"Don't make excuses for him. I don't care what Lord Hugh thinks of Daniel-"

"Well, I do. I care what everyone thinks of Daniel."

"That's not the point," Sarah railed. "You are innocent of any wrongdoing, and you have been wronged beyond all measure. If Lord Hugh has a decent bone in his body, he would stay away from any gathering at which there is even a chance that you might be present."

"You're right." Honoria closed her eyes for a moment, looking unbearably weary. "But right now I don't care. I just want to leave. I want to go home."

Sarah continued to stare at the man in question, or rather at his back. "He should know better," she said, mostly to herself. And then she felt herself step forward. "I'm going to-"

"Don't you dare," Honoria warned, yanking Sarah back with a swift tug at her arm. "If you cause a scene . . ."

"I would never cause a scene." But of course they both knew she would. For Hugh Prentice, or rather, because of Hugh Prentice, Sarah would create a scene that would be the stuff of legend.

Two years ago, Hugh Prentice had ripped her family to shreds. Daniel's absence was still a gaping hole at family gatherings. One couldn't even mention his name in front of his mother; Aunt Virginia would simply pretend she hadn't heard, and then (according to Honoria), she'd lock herself in her room and cry.

The rest of the family had not gone untouched, either. The scandal following the duel had been so great that both Honoria and Sarah had been forced to forgo what would have been their first season in London. It had not escaped Sarah's notice (nor Honoria's, once Sarah had pointed it out, repeated it, raged about it, then flopped on her bed with despair), that 1821 had been an uncommonly productive season as judged by the matchmaking mothers of London. Fourteen eligible gentlemen had become engaged to be married that season. Fourteen! And that wasn't even counting the ones who were too old, too strange, or too fond of their drink.

Who knows what might have happened if Sarah and Honoria had been out and about in town during that matrimonially spectacular season. Call her shallow, but as far as Sarah was concerned, Hugh Prentice was directly responsible for their rapidly approaching spinsterhood.

Sarah had never met the man, but she hated him.

"I'm sorry," Honoria said abruptly. Her voice caught, and she sounded as if she was fighting a sob. "I must leave. Now. And we must find my mother. If she sees him . . ."

Aunt Virginia. Sarah's heart plummeted. She would be a wreck. Honoria's mother had never recovered from her only son's disgrace. To come face-to-face with the man who'd caused it all . . .

Sarah grabbed her cousin's hand. "Come with me," she urged. "I'll help you find her."

Honoria nodded limply, letting Sarah lead the way. They snaked through the crowds, trying to balance speed with discretion. Sarah did not want her cousin to be forced to speak with Hugh Prentice, but she would die before she allowed anyone to think that they were running from his presence.

Which meant that she was going to have to stay. Perhaps even speak with him. Sarah would have to save face on behalf of the entire family.

"There she is," Honoria said as they approached the grand ballroom doors. Lady Winstead was standing in a small clutch of matrons, chatting amiably with Mrs. Dunwoody, their hostess.

"She must not have seen him," Sarah whispered. She wouldn't have been smiling otherwise.

"What shall I feign?" Honoria asked.

"Fatigue," Sarah said immediately. No one would doubt it. Honoria had turned ashen the moment she'd spied Hugh Prentice, setting the grayish smudges under her eyes into stark relief.

Honoria gave a quick nod and dashed off, politely pulling her mother aside before whispering a few words in her ear. Sarah watched as the two of them made their excuses, then slipped out the door to the waiting line of carriages.

Sarah let out a pent-up breath, relieved that her aunt and cousin would not have to come into contact with Lord Hugh. But every rainbow had a black and grimy lining, it seemed, and Honoria's departure meant that Sarah was stuck here for at least an hour. It would not be long before the gossips realized that Lord Hugh Prentice was in the same room as a Smythe-Smith cousin. First there would be stares, and then whispers, and then everyone would be watching to see if they crossed paths, and did they speak, and even if they didn't, which one would leave the party first?

Sarah judged that she needed to remain in the Dunwoody ballroom for at least an hour before it no longer mattered who left first. But before any of that, she needed to be seen having a lovely time, which meant she couldn't stand at the edge of the front hall by herself. She needed to find a friend with whom to chatter, and she needed someone to dance with her, and she needed to laugh and smile as if she hadn't a care in the world.

And she had to do all of that while making it perfectly plain that she did indeed know that Lord Hugh Prentice had wormed his way into the party and that she found him utterly beneath her notice.

Keeping up appearances could be so exhausting.

Luckily, within seconds of reentering the ballroom, she spied her cousin Arthur. He was dull as a stick, but he was dashingly handsome and always seemed to attract attention. More importantly, if she yanked on his sleeve and told him she needed him to dance with her immediately, he would do it, no questions asked.

Upon completing her dance with Arthur, she directed him to steer her toward one of his friends, who then had no choice but to request her company in the ensuing minuet, and before she knew it, Sarah had danced four times in rapid succession, three of which with men of the sort who made a young lady look very popular. The fourth was with Sir Felix Farnsworth, who, sadly, had never made any lady look popular.

But by that point, Sarah was becoming the sort of young lady who made the gentlemen look popular, and she was glad to lend a glow to Sir Felix, whom she had always been rather fond of, despite his unfortunate interest in taxidermy.

She did not see Lord Hugh, but she did not know how he could have failed to see her. By the time she finished drinking a gla.s.s of lemonade with Sir Felix, she decided she had put on a good enough show, even if it hadn't been a full hour since Honoria had departed.

Let's see, if each dance lasted about five minutes, with a bit of time in between, plus the brief chat with Arthur and two gla.s.ses of lemonade . . .

Surely that equaled one family name restored. At least for this evening.

"Thank you again for a lovely dance, Sir Felix," Sarah said as she handed her empty gla.s.s to a footman. "I wish you the best of luck with that vulture."

"Yes, they're great fun to pose," he replied with an animated nod. "It's all in the beak, you know."

"The beak," she echoed. "Right."

"Are you leaving, then?" he asked. "I was hoping to tell you about my other new project. The shrew."

Sarah felt her lips move in an attempt to form words. Yet when she spoke, all that came out was "My mother."

"Your mother is a shrew?"

"No! I mean, not ordinarily." Oh, good heavens, it was a good thing Sir Felix was not a gossip, because if this got back to her mother . . . "What I meant to say is that she is not a shrew. Ever. But I need to find her. She specifically told me she wanted to leave before . . . ehrm . . . well . . . now."

"It is near to eleven," Sir Felix supplied helpfully.

She gave an emphatic nod. "Precisely."

Sarah said her farewells, leaving Sir Felix with Cousin Arthur, who, if he wasn't interested in shrews, at least put on a good show of it. Then she set off in search of her mother to let her know that she wished to depart earlier than planned. They didn't live far from the Dunwoodys; if Lady Pleinsworth was not ready to leave, it should not prove difficult for the Pleinsworth carriage to transport Sarah home and then return for her mother.

Five minutes of searching did not reveal Lady Pleinsworth's whereabouts, however, and soon enough Sarah was muttering to herself as she tromped down the corridor to where she thought the Dunwoodys had a gaming room.

"If Mama is playing cards . . ." Not that Lady Pleinsworth couldn't afford to lose a guinea or two in whatever it was that matrons played these days, but still, it seemed rather unfair that she'd be gambling away while Sarah was saving the family from utter embarra.s.sment.

Caused by her cousin, while he'd been gambling.

"Ah, irony," she murmured. "Thy name is . . ."

Thy name was . . .

Thy name could be . . .

She actually stopped walking as she frowned. Apparently irony's name was some word she couldn't think of.

"I am pathetic," she muttered, resuming her search. And she wanted to go home. Where the devil was her mother?

Soft light shone from a partially open doorway just a few feet ahead. It was rather quiet for a card game, but on the other hand, the open doorway would seem to indicate that whatever Sarah walked in on, it would not be too inappropriate.

"Mama," she said, walking into the room. But it wasn't her mother.

Irony's new name was apparently Hugh Prentice.