Page 7 of Kiss or Dare

“Only that he seems very nice,” Tabitha said.

“Nice, yes. Also… a teeny bit boring,” Jane added.

“He’s perfectly respectable,” Lillian noted.

Jane laughed. “You did not contradict me.”

Lillian shrugged. Lord Littleton did not excite her. No denying that, and it did not pose a problem. She did not aim for excitement in marriage. Cinderella experienced the thrills, after all, and the fairy godmother provided them.

She let her gaze wander around the walls of the ballroom until—“Ah, there they are. Look.” She nodded in their direction.

Tabitha and Jane looked as asked, squinting.

“What are we looking at?” Jane asked.

“The girls? Along the wall?”

“Yes,” Lillian said. “They remind me of us. Last year.”

“I do not pity them,” Jane said. “I think they will find their adventures. As we did.”

Lillian’s lips pressed into a flat line. “They will not.”

Two heads swung her way.

“How do you know?” Jane asked.

Lillian did not take her gaze from the wallflowers. “Because I asked them. Those two brunettes are sisters. The short one enjoys reading and would, in her words, really rather be left alone. The tall one seems quite brazen. She is in love. With a fellow back home in the country. I suspect she’s dressing poorly to escape other gentlemen’s notice.”

“The black-haired girl?” Tabitha asked. “She’s quite a beauty.”

“Illegitimate. An orphan.” Lillian took a steadying breath. “She does not think she should be here. Has an awful guardian who feeds her awful ideas about herself.” More than the others, this girl was the one Lillian wanted to rescue, to outfit in finery, and help her snag a prince.

“I do not understand,” Jane said, “why you have taken an interest in them.”

“Because they are ignored as we were before we began our game of dares. I want to help them.”

“Help them what?” Tabitha asked. “Will you turn matchmaker?”

“Not precisely. I merely wish to help… bring them to life. So, they cannot be ignored by one and all anymore.”

“It sounds like they wish to be ignored,” Jane said. “If they wish adventure, they’ll take it for themselves.”

Lillian shook her head. “Will they? Not all women are as daring as we three have proved to be. There is so much stacked against us, how can they be? Easier to let life glide by, to be ignored. That is not living.” She knew that well. She knew what it was like to watch as everyone laughed and loved and were loved by others. “Still, if they truly do not wish it, I’ll leave them be.”

She did not wish loneliness for these girls. She had escaped it herself, and she would help them escape it, too. If they so desired. Visibility could be gained no other way, after all. One had towantit.

But she’d need to solidify her respectability first. She’d need to marry, and marry well, and that meant bringing Lord Littleton up to scratch.

She caught his soft brown gaze across the ballroom. “Excuse me, Jane, Tabitha. There he is.”

He bowed.

She made her way to him and popped open her fan. She inspected one tine and smiled at him. “You’re next, I believe.”

“Punctual as always, Miss Clarke,” he said. “Commendable.”

She snapped the fan closed and let it dangle from her wrist as he led her onto the dance floor.