Laura Martin - Courting The Forbidden Debutante

‘He hasn’t danced with anyone else. Just stood there with his friend, surveying the room in that brooding fashion.’

‘You sound smitten,’ Georgina said suspiciously.

Her friend sighed. ‘I’m fed up, Georgie, fed up of the balls and the dinner parties and the operas. Fed up of boring young men pretending to want to get to know me when in reality all they want is an introduction to you.’ She waved off Georgina’s protests. ‘If a dashing French spy or an Australian convict asked me to run away with him, then I probably would. Don’t you want adventure? A little excitement?’

Caroline had made her debut at the same time as Georgina, and people had started to whisper that three years was a long time to go without even a single marriage proposal. Georgina knew her friend was more than worthy of the bachelors of the ton and, with a substantial dowry and her family connections, there really should have been at least one proposal. Some times Georgina wondered if Caroline deliberately discouraged any proposals to allow her to remain free and unmarried a little longer, but mostly dismissed the idea. They’d been raised to be wives and mothers—even Caroline wasn’t so rebellious to actually want to be an old maid.

Still, Georgina could see the appeal of being left alone to live the life you wanted, with no husband to dictate what you could and couldn’t do. Far too often she found herself daydreaming about a life where she got to make her own decisions, from the small things about where to reside to the bigger things such as leaving everything behind to travel the world. It was a dream that was so far-fetched Georgina knew it could never happen, but in quieter moments she still found herself thinking of a life where she was her own mistress.

‘Indulge me,’ Caroline said as they exited the ballroom and started to make their way through the hall towards the retiring room. ‘Tell me every last detail about him.’

‘About whom?’ A deep voice sounded behind them, making both young women jump.

Even before she turned Georgina knew who it would be. His voice was unmistakable, clear and sharp, but without the refined tones of the hundred other men at the ball who’d attended one of the three most prestigious schools in England.

‘Mr Robertson,’ Georgina said, turning slowly, ‘may I introduce my dear friend Miss Yaxley.’

‘A pleasure to meet you, Miss Yaxley.’

‘We were just talking about you, Mr Robertson,’ Caroline said, and inside Georgina groaned. She loved her friend more than anyone else in the world, but some times she wished Caroline wouldn’t blurt out everything that was in her head. ‘Although Georgina is being a little reserved.’

‘Unlike you,’ Georgina muttered under her breath, giving Caroline a dig in the ribs.

Mr Robertson gave her an amused look. ‘May I escort you somewhere, ladies?’ he asked. ‘And perhaps on the way I can answer some of your questions.’

‘I am just popping to the retiring room,’ Caroline said quietly. ‘But, Georgina, why don’t you go with Mr Robertson and I will come join you in a moment.’

With her mouth parting in disbelief, Georgina shot a warning look at her friend.

‘I’ll only be a minute or two,’ Caroline said cheerfully, walking away.

Left alone with Mr Robertson, Georgina turned on him suspiciously.

‘Were you following me?’ she asked.

‘Do many men follow you?’

‘Not so brazenly,’ she muttered, feeling completely set up by Caroline and needing to take her annoyance out on someone.

‘I find it pointless to be subtle,’ Mr Robertson said, with that confident smile lighting up his face and causing Georgina to lose track of her thoughts for a moment.

‘Evidently.’

‘You lied to me,’ he said, leaning in a little closer. Georgina felt her pulse begin to quicken as his arm brushed innocently against hers.

‘No, I didn’t.’

‘You said a woman should never be alone with a man...’ he paused ‘...yet here we are.’

Quickly Georgina looked around the hallway. Damn him, he was right. They were alone, not out of any machinations on her part, but alone all the same. If some particularly nosy matron caught them here in the hall together, then rumours would start to fly. No matter that a few minutes ago there had been more than half-a-dozen people escaping from the heat of the ballroom, milling around the spacious hallway, now it was just she and the mysterious Mr Robertson.

‘You should leave,’ she said, keeping one eye fixed on the door from the ballroom. ‘Before anyone catches us together.’

‘Tell me,’ he said, not making a single move to depart. ‘What would happen if we were found alone out here?’

‘My reputation would be ruined and my father would marry me off quickly and quietly to any man that would have me.’

‘We can’t be having that,’ Mr Robertson said, taking her gently but firmly by the arm and pulling her around the corner just as two elderly women exited the ballroom, discussing the musicians as they headed in the same direction Caroline had disappeared in.

Georgina found she was holding her breath, hoping they wouldn’t pause and glance in the opposite direction and see her pressed into a corner with an entirely inappropriate gentleman. Only when they were safely out of sight did she realise quite how close she was standing to her companion.

‘Safe?’ he asked, moving to one side so he could check over her shoulder. He was close, his body barely a few inches from hers, and she could feel the heat of him emanating through the layers of his clothing. It wasn’t a contrived closeness, though—in fact, he barely seemed to register her and certainly wasn’t moving in to try to touch her or kiss her.

An unfamiliar disappointment started to uncurl inside Georgina. Most men would have used this situation to their advantage and, while normally that irritated her beyond belief, she realised with surprise that she wouldn’t have minded Mr Robertson moving in for a kiss. Of course she would have rebuffed him, but the attempt would have been nice.

‘We need to leave,’ Georgina said, pulling herself together. ‘Separately.’

He looked at her then, a gaze that seemed to take in every inch of her body, and she fancied she saw something change in how he was standing.

‘As you command, my lady,’ he said, executing a mock bow. ‘But only if you grant me one favour.’

With her heart pounding in her chest Georgina nodded, wondering when she had reverted back to a giddy eighteen-year-old.

‘Allow me to call on you tomorrow.’

She’d expected him to ask for a kiss and had been prepared to offer him her hand. Momentarily thrown, she found herself nodding before she’d thought through the request.

‘Then I will take my leave a happy man,’ he said, catching her hand in his own and planting a kiss just below her knuckles.

With a quick glance to ensure they were still alone Mr Robertson walked away, returning to the ballroom without looking back. Georgina still hadn’t moved when Caroline exited the retiring room two minutes later and quickly had to find her composure before her friend guessed something had happened.

‘Mercenary,’ Ben Crawford commented as he took a long slurp of tea from the delicate china teacup. In his hands the drinking vessel looked foreign and out of place, but Crawford didn’t seem to notice.

‘What’s mercenary?’ Sam asked, rising from his seat to help himself to another portion of smoked haddock from the serving plate on the sideboard. His normal breakfast consisted of porridge and some bread—it seemed a strange luxury to be eating fish for breakfast.

‘You are.’