A Season of Masks and Masquerades

Chapter 5: The Meeting with Lord Greycoat

"Miss Sherborne." Lord Gardiner tilted his head slightly into an informal bow as Esther dropped in a curtsy, her eyes tempted to never leave the floor.

"Lord Gardiner, you look quite dashing." He did, indeed.

The velvet jacket rendered his manly physique sharp and intimidating. His tall build could easily overpower almost any man in the room. Even his weirdly shaped eyebrows did not do too much of a harm to his skeletoned face that styled fashionably dark blonde hairs atop. It was more than clear why any woman would slip into his hand at his command.

Although, it was nothing but a misfortune for Esther to have finally seen his handsome face tonight, despite which, she offered him her best possible smile.

"Only if I could say the same, but I'm afraid no set of words can possibly justify your beauty this evening." He replied, and Esther failed to detect any hint of exaggeration or pretend in his delivery. His sincerity pricked her. "I've been looking for you the entire time."

"Oh, is that so?" Her throat was now truly sticking of dryness, ignoring all the many glasses of different liquids she'd consumed that night.

"Indeed. And now that we've met, I must grab the opportunity to ask a dan-"

"Lord Gardiner!" She all but yelped causing him to stop in his track.

"Miss Sherborne?"

"I- William, forgive me, for interupting," she started, her voice as shaky as her legs, while she unknowingly took little backward steps. "...but there's something I must tell you before we take thi-"

His heart was almost into a hundred pieces. Almost. When just in time, the little shaky steps Esther didn't care to notice, caused her back to meet a hard chest, throwing her completely off balance. She would've landed over the man on the floor, but she was fortunate enough to only have her glass emptied on him.

Hysteria took over her and she was forced to question herself if she'd truly left her sense of balance at home that evening, for never before in her life had she experienced so many pedestrian accidents.

Or perhaps she was finally, completely, drunk.

Whatever the case, she was in trouble. The man she'd retired herself on did not look pleased as he surveyed his taut jawline and his grey jacket that now fancied a nasty wine stain.

"My most sincere.."

"Bloody Hell!" She'd only managed to mumble the beginning of an apology when these words made their way out the gentleman's mouth rendering her speechless. Even more at the fact that he did not even pretend to be sorry for his uncivilized gesture.

Realizing that he might really be enraged, she grabbed a bunch of napkins off the nearest table and started wiping on the stain.

He pulled the fabric out of her hands not so gently and rubbed vigorously on the red spot.

"I must extend to you my most sincere apologies sir, for I really did not intend to-"

"It's fine." The man hissed from behind gritted teeth, cutting her off yet again before she could deliver a proper apology, leaving her feeling all the more guilty.

"It is certainly not!" She snapped, knowing not if she was angered at the man or herself. "I'm really sorry, please-"

"Esther, if the gentleman is insisting then it really must be fine." If there was any soft spot she yet had in her heart for Lord Gardiner, it petrified at that moment. Ignorant of which, he continued, "We should-"

"Esther?" The other man lifted his eyes up to her face for the first time. A frown grew denser on his brow, and his eyes flickered from behind the holes in the mask, she noticed but failed to read whatever complex trouble his expressions spoke.