“That’s all?” he asked, laughing. “You never murdered anyone? You’re not a foreign spy or a French cancan dancer?”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said with a smile. “I don’t mind working for a living. It’s a good job. And I like being on my own.”
“I wouldn’t change a thing about you, hardworking, independent Eve Dawson. Now, tell me how to deliver you home, please.”
Eve nestled beside Alfie in his car for her last few minutes with him. Then they halted in front of the boardinghouse and the marvelous spell shattered like a crystal champagne glass on a marble floor. She had wrangled special permission from Mrs. Russell to stay out past her curfew, and the porch light illuminated the crumbling steps, the peeling paint on the railing. Eve sighed and said, “It’s been a wonderful evening, Alfie Clarkson. One I will never forget. Thank you.”
“Well, I enjoyed your company, too, but the event was a little too stiff and sedate for my taste. Next time I’ll take you to a livelier place that’s more my style. They’ll have a swinging dance band instead of an orchestra.”
“Next time,” she repeated, her heart in her throat.
Alfie gazed at her as if unwilling to move. “I know you only gave me permission to ask two questions, but will you allow me just one more?”
“Your wish is granted.”
“May I kiss you good night?”
“No.” She grinned at his surprise. “I think I’ll kiss you first.” She leaned toward Alfie and did what she’d been longing to do all evening.
Audrey slept late after her evening at the Savoy. When she awoke to another dreary winter day, her first thought was the disturbing image of Eve Dawson dancing in her brother’s arms. She groaned and closed her eyes again. It was wrong for them to be together for so many reasons. Yes, Eve had looked beautiful. In fact, Audrey hadn’t recognized her until she’d heard Eve’s unmistakable laughter. Audrey’s date and all of the other gentlemen at her table stared in slack-jawed admiration as Alfie introduced Eve. Audrey watched the pair whirl around the ballroom floor together, smoothly attuned to each other’s steps, and wondered how in the world this ill-suited duo had ever come together. She would ask Alfie about it today.
Her own date for the evening had been bland and disappointing, both of them bound by the social expectations that turned the evening into a chore. Audrey had been relieved to say good night. “My daddy was so romantic he could charm the birds right out of the sky,” Eve once told her. Audrey’s date would cause the birds to drop dead from boredom. Even from across the crowded ballroom, Eve exuded a warmth and vitality that women of Audrey’s class were taught to carefully suppress. Ladies must be genteel and cool, never laughing out loud with delight the way Eve had. Jealousy slithered through every inch of Audrey’s body, and she hated herself for it.
She rose and dressed before the spiral of self-pity pulled her down any deeper. The servants had spread a buffet breakfast on the sideboard in the dining room and she fixed herself a plate. She was eating alone at the long, polished table, the other eleven chairs silent and empty, when Alfie bounced in. “Morning, Sis. Enjoy your evening last night?”
“Not really.” Conflicting feelings battled in a tug-of-war. Audrey loved her brother, and deep down, she felt Eve wasn’t good enough for him. He was an Oxford student, and Eve had dropped out of the village school at age twelve. Yet aside from Alfie, Eve was the closest friend she’d ever had. “How was your evening?” she asked in return, dreading his reply.
“Splendid! I like your friend a lot.”
Audrey hesitated, knowing she would sound like a jealous shrew if she exposed Eve’s secret. But Eve was wrong to deceive her brother by pretending to be someone she wasn’t. “Eve isn’t right for you, Alfie. She’s a working girl, a typist in an office somewhere.”
“I know. She told me.” He speared a sausage and put it on his plate beside his eggs and toast. The casualness of his reply infuriated her.
“Did she also tell you that her mum is our mother’s lady’s maid? And that she—”
“It doesn’t matter, Sis.” He cut her off before she could add that Eve was once their scullery maid. He set his plate on the table and sat down across from her, diving into his food as if the conversation were over. Audrey couldn’t let it go.
“It will matter to our parents. Mother will be furious. She forbade me to be friends with Eve, so I can well imagine how she’ll feel about you courting her. And Father has high hopes for you to marry a titled woman so he can move up another rung on society’s ladder.”