Regency 03 - Deception by Jaimey Grant

Rhiannon and then gestured
towards a bench situated not far from the water. “Will you join
me?”
    Aurora pondered in what way they were kindred
spirits as she settled herself as comfortably as possible on the
hard bench. She arranged her pale blue muslin skirts around her and
waited for the woman to speak.
    “ My name is Raven Emerson,” she
said as she smoothed an invisible wrinkle from her skirt. “I am
recently become independent and I am determined to make a
respectable life for myself.”
    These words warned Aurora that perhaps she should
not be speaking with this woman. Was she a member of the
fashionable impure?
    “ I am Aurora Glendenning,” Aurora
offered with a wary smile. “I am currently shunned by the
high-sticklers and even some not so high.”
    The look Raven leveled on her caused a distinct
uneasiness in Aurora’s chest. Something was not right in the other
woman’s expression.
    Raven smiled. “So you are here to enjoy the Season,
nonetheless?”
    “ I suppose,” Aurora shrugged. “I
have been everywhere and nowhere, it seems. I had always envisioned
London as exciting beyond words but I have to say I am
disappointed. I have been to the Royal menagerie and Astley’s
Amphitheatre and Westminster Abbey as well as every park London has
to offer. I have been to the opera but not the theater. I have
heard that there is an actress who is worth seeing but I have not
yet been.” She paused with an embarrassed flush. She seemed to have
developed into a veritable magpie.
    Raven chuckled. “You have definitely seen just about
all London has to offer. I am sorry to disappoint you in regard to
this wonderful actress in Drury Lane but she has retired from what
I have heard, so you have missed your chance to see her, I’m
afraid.”
    “ Oh, well,” Aurora murmured
dismissively. She looked towards the gates of the park and saw Lord
Connor enter with Adam Prestwich and a very tall, very large, and
very handsome redheaded gentleman. Judging by the gentlemen she’d
met so far, one would think all the gentlemen in London were
huge.
    “ I have to go,” Raven said
suddenly. She rushed off, calling to her maid as she
went.
    Aurora watched her go, perplexed. What an
exceedingly odd encounter, to be sure.
    With a shake of her bonneted head, Aurora returned
her attention to the approaching gentlemen. She studied the one
unknown to her. He stood a bit taller than Sir Adam and fairly
towered over Lord Connor. He had a pleasant expression and smiling
eyes. She judged him to be somewhere in his mid-thirties.
    “ Miss Glendenning, what a
pleasure,” Lord Connor said with a smile and a bow. She rose and
curtsied to him, then did the same to Sir Adam. The baronet
solemnly mimicked his friend’s bow. Then Northwicke turned to the
third gentleman. “Aurora, allow me to introduce Dr. Garrett Steele.
Garrett, Miss Aurora Glendenning.”
    The gentleman bowed and Aurora smiled brightly at
him. Then she gestured for Ellie and Rhiannon to join them. “This
is my very dear friend, Miss Psyche Ellison and my sister,
Rhiannon.”
    Within moments of the introduction, Northwicke had
managed to maneuver Garrett and Ellie to take a walk together, the
young maid of Aurora’s to take Rhiannon for a walk behind them at a
respectful distance, and Aurora to return to her seat on the bench.
Then one gentleman sat on either side and leveled stern looks on
her. The young lady’s confusion grew.
    “ What did Raven have to say?” Lord
Connor asked with an indifference that Aurora could tell was
feigned.
    Adam said nothing but watched the emotions flicker
over Miss Glendenning’s face, waiting patiently for her answer.
    “ I don’t understand,” Aurora said
as her welcoming smile was replaced by a frown of worry. “Do you
know Miss Emerson?”
    “ Yes, we know her,” Northwicke
replied with a blank look.
    Adam leveled a curious look on Aurora. “How well do you know her, my dear?”
    “ I have only just met her. Is she
not