Ballrooms and Blackmail Read Free Page B

Canada and
working at hard and gruesome labor until every last pence was
paid.
    No, no, no. She could not dwell on that
dismal future or she’d go mad. She nearly cried out in relief when
Emily spied Daphne and Ariadne on horseback, stopped on one of the
riding paths near the broad green waters of the Serpentine.
    They looked dashing in navy riding habits
with gold braid on the shoulders and front. Ostrich plumes bobbed
over the tall riding hats perched on their light-brown curls.
Several young men had stopped as well, clustering around them on
horseback and on foot as if to beg a moment of their time, or a
waltz at the next ball they would attend. Priscilla wondered that
her friends would even notice her and Emily approaching in the
shiny black carriage. However, as soon as Emily’s driver stopped
the coach, Ariadne turned her chestnut mare to join them.
    “Thank goodness,” she said as the groom
helped her to dismount. “I couldn’t stand another minute. Horses,
horses, horses! Do boys talk of nothing else?”
    Poor Ariadne. Until the ball, she’d never
had the courage to speak to a young man. Now she seemed to think
she hadn’t missed much.
    “You’re conversing with the wrong
gentlemen,” Priscilla told her with a smile. “Some have a great
many interesting things to say.”
    “Certainly Mr. Cropper does,” Ariadne said
with a wink to Emily. Emily examined her gloves as if expecting to
find flecks of paint on them.
    Which wouldn’t have been so surprising,
actually.
    “We need your help,” Priscilla said into the
silence. “Would you fetch Daphne over?”
    Ariadne’s round face scrunched up. “She
won’t come. She’s just agreed to race.”
    “Race?” Priscilla stared at her. “In Hyde
Park, with so many people around? Is she intent on creating a
scandal?”
    Ariadne paled. “No, but she seems intent on
maintaining her notoriety.”
    “Then we must stop her,” Priscilla said,
rising from her seat.
    Emily frowned up at her. “Are you truly so
worried about Daphne’s reputation?”
    Priscilla felt her face heating. In truth,
for just a moment, she’d been more worried about her own. What
would Nathan Kent think that one of her closest friends was so
daring as to race against a gentleman in the middle of crowded Hyde
Park? She’d seen the way he’d looked at her when they’d crossed
paths at Emily’s earlier. If he had been anywhere near her before
she’d found that note, she might have thought it came from him, so
closely had he studied her.
    Did he think her as daring as Daphne? Would
he see her as unworthy to marry the duke? Would he caution
Rottenford against her?
    Would he refuse to see her ever again?
    She only cared because he had the duke’s
ear. Truly.
    But her fears should not infect her feelings
for her friends. Priscilla sighed. “Certainly Daphne may race.
Perhaps it’s not so terrible that we must rush to warn her.”
    “Good thing,” Ariadne said, gaze on her
sister across the way. “For there she goes!”
    Priscilla whirled, setting the coach to
shaking, even as a cry went up from the group of young men
surrounding Daphne. Priscilla barely felt Emily reach out a hand to
steady her. Her heart leapt into her throat as Daphne on her gray
gelding and a young man astride a large bay urged their horses into
full stride. They pelted down the track, the golden sand flying
from the hooves. People cried out, dashed out of the way, waved
their hats and handkerchiefs in salute.
    Determined to watch, Priscilla put her hand
to the edge of her bonnet to further block the sun.
    “Can you see them?” Ariadne asked from the
ground.
    “They’re neck and neck,” Priscilla reported
as Emily rose to join her. “No, wait, Daphne’s pulling ahead.
Oh!”
    “Mind the nanny!” Emily cried, even though
Daphne could not hear them. Priscilla’s heart pounded in time with
the receding hoof beats as her friend jerked the horse to miss a
woman and a small child who had strayed onto the