dangerously yours (masquerade)

Chapter six

Once we had safely returned the flowers to my room and made sure they were in a vase. We wandered back through the lobby toward the front exit. We were so close to freedom when suddenly we were abruptly halted.

"Ah Count Estefan!" A random man I had never seen before yelled. He roughly patted Rudolph on the shoulder. "It has been a while."

"Yes, Frank." He replied, sounding rather disappointed. I could tell Rudolph just wanted to leave and I had quickly read the situation that he did not like this so-called Frank at all.

I could see Frank pause for a moment when he saw me. He glared and looked me up and down. I hid slightly behind Rudolph.

"I was really hoping that you would have asked my daughter to the ball? I do not believe your Mother and Father would like to see you gallivanting with some random girl." He gestured towards me. "I thought we had all arranged this?"

"My parents and you did. Years ago. It did not work." He said confidently. "Now excuse me. Myself and Countess Rashola who I might add is not 'some random girl' are going to an event and we are going to be late if you keep talking to us."  

With that he turned his back on the man, took my hand and marched out the front door. I could hear him call after Rudolph.

"It's your loss then! We could have made millions Estefan! Millions! You'll regret this! You'll-"

He was cut off by the door slamming behind us. Rudolph sighed with relief. We quickly entered the car that was waiting for us. Rudolph took my hand and helped me in.

"What a horror." I said once we had settled in the car, addressing the man we had just spoken to.

"That is Frank Campbell Wilson." He sighed. "A businessman from London. He has wanted me to marry his daughter for as long as I can remember. Believed we would make millions. I was not interested in the money but I thought it would be nice to meet his daughter." He paused for a moment. "But she was not a very kind woman. She insulted everyone she laid eyes on. Even to their face! including my sister. Said I was too poor.  She met another man that night and has never spoken another word to me since, apart from, well, the odd dirty look." He laughed.

"Goodness! Sounds like a rather unpleasant evening." I said.

"It got a lot worse." He laughed. "But I won't bore you with that. I've spoken enough about my issues." he said.

"Well you must tell me now! I am certainly not bored." I said, almost forcing him to continue the story.

"Well..." He laughed, scratching his head, a trait I had picked up on that he appeared to do when he felt flustered or embarrassed. "She has an older brother, I can't recall his name, but he seemed interested in my sister. I begin to notice him following my sister, trying to flirt with her. At the time she was engaged to her current husband and was obviously not interested in his advances. I started walking around the party with my sister to put him off approaching her again and make her feel more comfortable. It failed. He came up again and wrapped his arms around her and started kissing her.  I suppose my anger got the better of me and I pushed him to the floor. There was a door to the outside just there and once he had scurried back to his feet I pushed him out of it. It led to an alley where we both fought. I ended up with a bloody nose but he ended up knocked out on the floor. Got pulled off him by an officer. I had to spend the evening in the officers station house. Luckily, my sister came and saved me as she always does and Mother and Father never found out. I do not regret it at all. He had it coming." He said.

I looked at him intently throughout the whole story. He had such a caring and attractive tone of voice. I could not help but greatly admire the way he helped his sister and dealt with such a vulgar man.