Page 5 of Twice Upon a Midnight

The second miss paused to pull her long gloves into place above her elbows. “Makes a person wonder, doesn’t it?”

“Wonder what?”

“What’s wrong with Lady Elenora if the duke has to throw a party this grand to introduce her to society?”

Ella stiffened. She didn’t dare turn around and let them see her.

“Well, theywerein Paris…” the first miss equivocated.

“Exactly. What is so wrong with her that she wasn’t introduced there?”

Ella held her breath at what the young woman was implying.

“It’s unusual, for certain.”

“It’s somethingscandalous, if you ask me.”

The first pink flamingo reached up to pull at her sleeve caps and tug them down over her shoulders as low as she dared. The second flamingo mimicked her and tugged at her bodice to lower it so far Ella was certain any gentleman the gel danced with would be able to see all the way down to her navel.

“It’s so unfair!” the first one muttered bitterly. “She’s the daughter of a duke, to begin with, and—”

“Not just any duke either but Durham. My father says everyone at court believes he’ll be the next prime minister.”

“Sounfair!” She blew out a breath of jealous frustration. “We have to watch every move we make, whilethe princesscan have any man she wants.”

No, Ella thought miserably, she couldn’t.

“No one will care what she did in Paris that was so appalling that her family felt compelled to cart her back to England.”

Ella blinked, stunned. Is that really what people were saying about her? That her family had to flee France to escape some kind of terrible scandal she’d committed? Oh, how wrong they were!

“Iheard they had to leave England in the first place to separate her from a man who wanted to elope with her.”

Ella bit her lip. She was only seventeen when she and her family had moved to the Continent, barely out of the schoolroom, still gangly and ungraceful, with ears and feet she’d yet to grow into. Did they really think a man wanted to elope with a miss who’d looked like that?

“No, that wasn’t it at all,” the first flamingo corrected.

Well, thank heavens at least one story could be quashed!

Then the first flamingo raised her fan and leaned over to whisper into her friend’s ear.

The second flamingo gasped. “Ababy?”

Ella blurted out a distraught laugh, unable to prevent it. It was either laugh or break down in tears.

Surprised, the two ladies turned and noticed Ella for the first time standing next to them, shielded by the potted palm. For a moment, they simply blinked, more angry that they had been eavesdropped upon than that they’d been caught being so nasty.

Then, their faces blanched beneath their half-masks, their eyes growing wide and mouths falling open, as they recognized her.Of coursethey did. After all, Ella and her mother had called on both of them and their mothers in the fortnight leading up to the party. Mama still labored under the belief that Ella could slide easily into London society and become good friends with ladies like these.

But Ella knew better. In the end, she might marry some son of a duke, but she would never fit into London society.

There was no better time than the present to accept that.

Straightening her back and squaring her shoulders as imperiously as possible, she stepped out from the alcove. She looked down her nose at the two misses as she gave them a once-over, then let her face twist beneath her mask as if she found them disgusting. She didn’t have to pretend.

“Rest assured,” she forced out with a purring amusement in her voice, desperate not to let them see how much they’d wounded her, “it was neither an elopement nor a baby that made my family move to France but the Prince Regent. Talleyrand and Wellington desperately needed my father’s help to bring peace to the Continent.” She paused as if to twist a knife into the conversation. “Haveyourfathers ever been asked to carry out diplomatic missions on behalf of the Court of St James’s?” She took another pause to dig the knife deeper. “Have they ever been personally asked by His Royal Highness for help ofanykind?”

The two pink misses knew better than to answer. But their eyes narrowed to slits, and their lips pressed together into hard lines.