An Inconvenient Arrangement

Chapter 34: James and Claire

"You should have asked her to waltz!" Elizabeth admonished James as they took a turn about the small garden in the Newcastles' townhouse, where Elizabeth grew her own roses. Helen had been very eager to send them off for some privacy, though she maintained the pretense of propriety by lingering at the window where she could see them both conversing. It was a mystery to James how the Countess remained clueless to James' obvious lack of interest in the younger sister. Willful ignorance with a healthy dash of optimism, he supposed. "It would have been so perfectly romantic. You would have swept her right off her feet. She would have been wrapped around your finger, and we could have counted it as a great success in our mission! Are you coming to Lady Glasston's event tonight? You simply must engage her for the supper waltz, and then you two can be seated together for dinner!"

"While I cannot fault your logic, I must point out that executing your plan may be a tad difficult, seeing as I don't know how to waltz," James replied frankly as Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise.

"You do not know how to dance?!" She gasped. "But- but you are a gentleman! You've danced with me and Claire several times now!"    

"I said waltz, my dear, not dance."

"It may as well be the same thing!" She sputtered in disbelief. "Just how did you plan on finding a wife without knowing the most romantic of dances?! You do not know how to waltz! Unbelievable!"

" There are kinder ways to underscore the differences in our ages, Miss Harrow," James teased. "You ought to know that in my time, which was a good three decades prior, the waltz had not yet come to England."

"Oh," she pinkened with embarrassment. "Forgive me, I hadn't considered it! I was very young when it did, but I remember it caused quite the stir! I shouldn't have taken it for granted that you would know, I suppose it is somewhat awkward to engage a dancing master as if you were still a schoolboy!"

"Precisely -"

"Well!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands once as a resolute look settled upon her face. "This simply can not be allowed to stand. Claire loves to dance, but stupid Northhaven seldom danced, on account of his bad knee, and the waltz is simply the best time to hold someone close and converse with them intimately. We must rectify this! Immediately, in fact!"

"Immediately?!" James choked. "And just how do you suggest we accomplish that?"

"My Lord, you have already noticed that I am a rather industrious and resourceful woman when I need to be. The waltz is far easier than say the minute, or other courting dances, especially since there is no changing of partners. It's as easy as one, two, three. Rather literally, as a matter of fact. Just you wait, I shall make arrangements. What would you like to wager that my mother will put up a pretense of propriety and resist a little only to give in with just the barest of insistence?"

"Only a fool takes losing odds, my dear Miss Harrow."

"Probably wise, My Lord," she offered him an impish grin. "I think she'll be altogether too thrilled at the thought of us dancing. At a ball, we are limited to only two sets before the speculation and gossip start. She'll likely be planning our wedding by the time we are done."

James let out an amused laugh as she winked at him and then went off to rope her mother into whatever mischief she had planned.

Claire tried very hard to keep her steps measured as she entered her home, even as her heart kept fluttering about her chest and her feet urged her to hurry to the receiving room where she did not doubt that Helen and Elizabeth would be having tea with The Marquess. Or rather, James, though it still felt somewhat audacious to refer to him so intimately without the use of his title or the appropriate honorifics. She forced herself to go up to her chamber to freshen up and change, rueing the fact that one of her friends had chosen this very day to invite her to go shopping and that she had been unable to extract herself in time. She couldn't have even bought herself anything save for a simple pair of gloves, which were a necessity rather than a luxury.