My Lady Rival Read Free Page A

them. “There’s another one by the refreshments. Do you suppose they’re unicorn lovers?”
    “Were we meant to dress as animals?” his mother asked.
    “I wish I was a swan,” Kat said.
    “No, not at all.” A lex looked at his mother, at the golden bolts radiating from the eyes of her purple mask, at the deep violet skirts flowing gracefully from step to step as she descended. Regal, he’d told the modiste. Though he still hadn’t replicated the color of the Queen’s Madonna gown, which she adored, she deserved to look like royalty. A nd she did. “He would have approved,” A lex murmured.
    “Thank you.” It wasn’t precisely what he expected in response to the reference to his father, but it was better than silence. A nd she didn’t immediately try to exit the room as she did at home. When the touch of her hand lightened on his arm, it seemed like true progress. If nothing else, her reaction proved that they’d been right to come to the masquerade; for a few hours, at least, she would be distracted from the memories.
    They reached the bottom of the stairs and A lex drew her to the side, trusting that Kat and Jo would follow. It was difficult to move through the throng, and a few “beg pardons” later, he simply stood and waited to be pushed along like the others around them. Someone bumped into his shoulder and he turned, then smiled at the woman who glanced up at him with wide green eyes behind her peacock-feathered mask.
    “Oh, good evening,” she exclaimed, then twisted to tug at her skirts, which had been caught under another man’s heel. “I’m certain he did that on purpose,” she told A lex. “If that’s not Sir A lfred Crowley, then my name’s not . . .” She paused and winked, her smile mischievous.
    “What is your name?” A lex asked.
    She shook her head and leaned closer.
    “What is your name?” he asked again, more loudly.
    “Why, Lady Peacock, of course, sir. A nd you must be Mr. Midnight.” A lex inclined his head, then scanned the other nearby male guests, several of whom also wore simple black masks. “There appear to be many Mr. Midnights at tonight’s ball.”
    “I think you all do it deliberately, so we— Oh!” Lady Peacock jostled against him again as the crowd shifted, then grimaced. “I must go before I’m trampled. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Midnight.”
    “A nd you as well, Lady—”
    She had already turned, holding her hands to her mask to protect the peacock feathers as she shoved her way through the crowd.
    “She was nice,” his mother said beside him, a tight smile on her lips as she

    “She was nice,” his mother said beside him, a tight smile on her lips as she nodded at the greetings directed toward her.
    “Yes, very nice.” If one could draw such a conclusion from a minute of conversation.
    “A good quality to have in a wife, but unfortunate that you don’t know her name. We could leave and you would already have a lady to begin courting tomorrow.”
    A pparently being distracted did not mean that his mother was enjoying the event. A lex smiled. “I see you’re anxious to return home in the ca—” He nodded toward those inching past. “Good evening. I beg your pardon. Yes, good evening to you.” Each syllable spoken required great concentration; even after several years of tutelage, the crisp aristocratic pattern of speech still felt foreign on his tongue.
    His mother sniffed. “The carriage?”
    “Yes, the carriage.”
    “Perhaps you can ride in it next time, while the girls and I take a hansom cab.” A lex grinned. “I’m heartened to hear you say there will be a next time.”
    “You know very well I meant later this evening.”
    Loudly, a few feet away, over the other voices: “No, I won’t dance with you!” Heads swiveled toward A lex’s left. He groaned.
    “Surely you’re not surprised,” his mother said.
    Of course he wasn’t. Why should he have been surprised to find his older sister shouting a refusal to a man