Byron's Child by Carola Dunn

tugged Roland back onto the floor.
    The waltz thumped to its end. Roland whipped out his handkerchief again.
    “Excellent, Cousin, excellent, but enough for today, I think. I shall be happy to stand up with you at your first ball.”
    “We already have an invitation to a ball,” Charlotte told Lord Thorncrest, “though the Season is scarcely begun.”
    “Whose ball is that, ma’am? I hope I have not already thrown away my invitation.”
    Jodie was unable to suppress an unladylike snort at the implications of this speech. Plainly the earl was certain he had received an invitation, whoever the hostess was, and equally plainly he was in the habit of discarding invitations unanswered. Charlotte, however, understood only that his lordship intended to change his mind about attending the event on hearing that the Faringdales were to be present.
    “Lady Cowper’s ball,” she informed him, beaming. “It is some ten days hence.”
    “Ah yes, the estimable Lady Cowper,” he murmured, then said to Charlotte with his charming smile, “May I hope to lead you out for a quadrille, ma’am?”
    “Oh, I do not think…“ Charlotte glanced anxiously at Roland. “I shall be chaperoning….”
    “But I insist. What are we bachelors to do if the pretty young matrons abandon the floor? I shall count on it.” Leaving her in blushing confusion, he turned to Emily with smooth politeness. “You will reserve a waltz and supper for me, Miss Emily? Thank you, I am honoured. Oh, and Miss Judith,” he added, as if in an afterthought. “A country dance, perhaps?”
    “Perhaps,” Jodie agreed pertly, sure that he was teasing her.
    He laughed. “To return to the present, since the sky has cleared Miss Emily has accepted my invitation to drive in the park, if we may have your kind permission, Lady Faringdale.”
    He had told Jodie he never drove females! She suspected he was well aware that he had set the household by the ears when he took her out yesterday. He was not averse to causing trouble, but at least he seemed to be making some small effort to atone—if only to tease her further, she realized as she caught his mocking glance.
    Roland invited Jodie and Charlotte to accompany him to the park in the barouche. The ladies went upstairs to put on their bonnets and pelisses.
    Charlotte begged Jodie to come into her dressing room for a moment. “What am I to do?” she wailed. “I could not refuse Lord Thorncrest but Roland has forbidden me to dance.”
    “Because he thinks you are pregnant? What a knucklehead. Don’t worry about it, for heaven’s sake, Charlotte. The ball is ten days away; by then you will probably have seen the doctor and told Roland you were mistaken.”
    “I have already made an appointment.” She looked guilty. “I wanted to put it off as long as possible so it is not for two weeks, after the ball. But I like dancing. I want to dance.”
    “There’s no earthly reason you shouldn’t, even if you really were pregnant. Tell me, has Roland stopped making…hm…insisting on his conjugal rights?”
    Charlotte crimsoned to the roots of her blonde curls. “You mean, because I am breeding?” she whispered, glancing nervously at the door. “He offered to, but I told him—Oh Jodie, I cannot talk about it.” She hid her face in her hands.
    “No, I’m sorry, I should not have asked.” Jodie paused. “All the same, you just be brave and tell him that if you can do that, you can dance.”
    Unexpectedly, Charlotte giggled, then bit her lip. “I shall try,” she promised.
    Emily, already dressed to go out with Lord Thorncrest, was waiting in Jodie’s chamber. “What shall I say to him?” she wailed. “I shall be all alone with him for at least an hour.”
    “You managed very well while you were dancing.” Jodie took her pelisse from the wardrobe and sat down at the dressing table to tidy her hair before putting on her hat.
    “That was because I know how much you want to go to the Tower, and Astley’s,