The Art 0f Pleasuring A Duke (Steamy Historical Regency Romance) Read online

A plain-looking woman, who Anna guessed was about twenty years of age, approached the group, and offered to show Bridget and Anna some fabric samples.

  “Thank you, my dear,” Mr. Harper said, “but I shall be happy to assist our guests myself.” He waved the young woman away with a casual flick of his hand. She looked startled at being dismissed like this, but simply bowed her head.

  “Yes, sir,” she said, in a meek voice that made Anna wonder if she might actually be younger than she looked.

  Mr. Harper showed the ballerinas several fabric samples, including expensive silks, satins, and velvets, dyed in rich, deep colors. Anna wondered whether Bridget would be able to afford such luxuries, since her pay had been irregular of late, but her friend seemed unconcerned.

  In the end, Anna chose a moss green velvet that brought out the green of her eyes. With encouragement from Bridget, she picked a style with a moderately low bustline that would show just a bit of the tops of her breasts. Bridget ordered a slightly more revealing style in purple satin that looked elegant against her fair skin.

  Anna was extremely relieved when the young woman Mr. Harper had dismissed earlier reappeared to take their measurements. She led them into a small fitting room, and without Mr. Harper present, she looked much more at ease.

  The three young women made pleasant conversation, and Anna soon learned that the shop girl’s name was Maisie. She was the daughter of the woman who had helped Anna find the last gown she had bought here. That gown just happened to be the one that Mr. Harper had complimented her on during his last visit backstage.

  Their orders placed, and their measurements taken, Anna and Bridget left the shop shortly after mid-day. Anna offered to walk Bridget back to her boarding house, but Bridget declined.

  “Where were you coming from this morning?” Anna asked, curiosity getting the better of her now.

  “What do you mean?” Bridget said, not meeting Anna’s eye.

  “When you first came to the shop, you were not coming from the direction of your home,” Anna pointed out. “Were you out earlier this morning?”

  “Oh, yes, of course…” Bridget said, her voice trailing off slightly.

  “It is all right if you do not wish to tell me,” Anna said, though in truth she was desperate to know the truth, now that Bridget seemed so reluctant to divulge it.

  “Oh, no, of course I don’t mind telling you,” Bridget said, smiling at her friend. “You see, it is just that, well…Camilla has moved out of our shared room at the boarding house, and I could not afford the rent on my own, so I’ve moved to a different house.”

  “Oh. Of course, that makes sense,” Anna said. “Why did you not just tell me about it?”

  Bridget shrugged her shoulders carelessly, “I did not want you to worry about me. I know how much you can worry sometimes, and I am really quite all right, so I thought that it would be best to say nothing.”

  “I see,” Anna said. She supposed that this made sense, but she could not help feeling hurt by these words. “I shall try my best not to worry about you, Bridget, because I know that you are very strong and capable of taking care of yourself.”

  “Thank you for your vote of confidence.” Bridget said, a smile spreading across her face.

  “Still, I do wish that you would have told me what was going on,” Anna said, her voice sounding serious even to her own ears now. “Perhaps I might have been able to help.”

  “That is very kind of you, Anna,” Bridget said, “but this is one of the only things on which Camilla and I agree—you must not talk to Mr. Bamber about the issue of our wages.”

  “I’m afraid I really do not understand why,” Anna said, feeling frustrated by this attitude once again.

  Bridget paused, and sighed before answering, “I just think it would not be worth your trouble.”

  Anna opened her mouth to respond to this, but Bridget held up a finger to silence her.

  “I know that Mr. Bamber wants to keep you happy,” Bridget continued. “Which is why you have regularly paid on time. But confronting him about this issue will not endear you to him. I think that it is far more likely that he will begin to treat you poorly if you talk to him, than that he will begin to treat the rest of us well.”

  Anna was dumbfounded. When she had first learned that the other members of the company were not receiving their pay in a timely manner, she had assumed that this was a mistake. Learning that Mr. Bamber seemed to know about the issue and was refusing to fix it had been a shock to her.

  The idea that Mr. Bamber might treat her unfairly for speaking up had never crossed her mind. Not being a vindictive person herself, Anna was not prone to think about retribution when considering the actions and motivations of other people.

  How can I have been so naïve after all of the time that I have known Mr. Bamber?

  “I must admit, that thought had not crossed my mind,” Anna said, looking down at the cobblestones and feeling a bit foolish.

  “I know,” Bridget replied, her voice soft and kind. “You are a good person, Anna, and good people are easily taken advantage of. I should not like to see that happen to you. That is why I do not think that you should talk to Mr. Bamber, to protect yourself from his anger.”

  “Thank you, Bridget,” Anna replied. “You are a good friend to me, but I still feel terrible that everyone else is being treated unfairly. I wish there was something that I could do to help.”

  “I know you do. But I am sure that we will all be paid what we are owed in the end. Just worry about your performance, and if we have still not been paid by next week, I will talk to Mr. Bamber myself.”

  Chapter 10

  The day before the party, Anna went to Harper and Sutton to pick up her gown. She had a performance that evening, but would not need to be at the theater until later in the afternoon. Bridget, as a member of the ensemble, had a much earlier call time, so Anna picked up her gown as well.

  “Good day. It is lovely to see you again, my dear,” Mr. Harper said when he saw her entering the shop. “We do seem to keep running into each other.”

  As he spoke, Mr. Harper leaned in toward Anna, and winked at her, conspiratorially. She knew that she ought to say something witty back to him. Not only was he a patron of the ballet, but he was a prominent couturier, someone she could not afford to offend.

  “I suppose we do,” she said, offering him what she hoped was a demure smile.

  Mr. Harper leaned back into his usual posture, so that he was no longer just inches from her face, but he continued to smile at her. From this she gathered that she had succeeded in communicating a polite and friendly manner, but not a flirtatious one.

  “Indeed,” he said, looking around the shop. “Now, may I assume that you are here to fetch your gown for tomorrow night’s soiree?”

  “Yes, Mr. Harper, that is exactly why I am here. I am also picking up Miss Rowley’s gown, since she is not able to come in herself today.”

  “Oh, I see. Well, that is a shame. She will not be able to try it on to ensure a proper fit,” Mr. Harper said, furrowing his brow.

  “I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Anna said. “After all, your seamstresses pay such close attention to detail, and take accurate measurements.”

  “I can tell that you have not shopped for many high-end gowns,” Mr. Harper said, smiling at her indulgently. “It is true that we pride ourselves on attention to detail at Harper and Sutton, but still, it is not uncommon for a gown to need last minute adjustments.”

  “Oh, of course,” Anna said, not wanting to sound like a common girl with no sense. In truth, she made most of her own clothes, except for her costumes for the ballet, which were made by a seamstress in Mr. Bamber’s employ. She sometimes helped Bridget with her costumes as well, since the rest of the company made most of their own.

  The gown she had been wearing when she first met Mr. Harper had been her first luxury purchase when she had saved up enough money after joining the ballet company. She had forgotten about the minor adju
stments needed at the bustline when she had picked up her order last time.

  “…and I suppose that she will just have to make do, then.” Mr. Harper was saying. Anna had missed the beginning of his statement, lost in her own thoughts.

  “Hmm?”

  “I was just saying that Miss Rowley’s gown is a simple enough style that it is likely to fit without much adjustment, and she will likely be able to make do without them.”

  “Oh, well, that is good news.” Anna said, feeling relieved that she would be able to pass this message along to her friend.

  “Now, my dear, you must go and try your gown on,” he said. Then, turning his head toward the back of the shop, he called, “Maisie. Maisie, where are you?”

  The shy young woman who had taken her measurements the last time she was here, emerged from behind a curtain at the back of the shop. She smiled briefly at Anna and then turned to Mr. Harper. “Here I am, sir, what may I do for you?” she asked timidly.

  “Please show Miss Conolly to the fitting room and help her into her gown. We must see if any final adjustments are needed.” He was speaking to Maisie, but kept his gaze fixed on Anna, his smile making her think that perhaps he was still trying to flirt with her. She wished that Bridget had been there to interpret the look in his eye, because she could not do it herself.

  Anna breathed a sigh of relief once she entered the dressing room and was separated by a curtain from Mr. Harper. Maisie helped her out of her simple gray woolen gown and into the moss green velvet. The fabric felt sumptuous against her skin. It was tight against her chest, but when she looked in the mirror, Anna could not deny that her breasts looked pert and pretty when pushed up by her bodice.

  Maisie adjusted Anna’s skirts around her legs, tightened the laces at the back of her bodice, and pulled here and there at the sleeves. After studying Anna from every angle, she said, “Well, what luck. It seems that we need not make any adjustments, Miss.”

  Anna smiled at her own reflection in the tall looking-glass. She had always tried to be humble and well-mannered, in spite of her meager circumstances as a child, but vanity was the one sin that she had never quite managed to avoid. Anna knew that she was pretty, and she liked that she knew it. To deny that she looked beautiful in this gown would be foolish.

  “Thank you, Maisie.,” Anna said, smiling at the young woman with genuine appreciation. “You have done a beautiful job, and I agree that no adjustments will be necessary.”

  “Thank you, Miss,” Maisie replied, looking down at the floor with a smile.

  “Now we must hope that the same will be true for Miss Rowley’s gown, as she will not be able to come in for a fitting before the party.”

  “Yes, I suppose we must hope, then,” Maisie said, sounding a bit uncertain. “I can assure you that I have done my absolute best to make sure that the gown matches the measurements that I took, and I was very careful with taking the measurements, Miss. I do hope that the gown will fit her. I believe that it will. Mr. Harper is quite particular, and I try very hard to meet his standards.”

  Anna could hear a note of panic creeping into the Maisie’s voice, and she felt suddenly sorry for her. Mr. Harper was something of a mystery to Anna, but she could imagine that it would be quite nerve-wracking to work for him day in and day out.

  “I am sure that you have done a splendid job, Maisie,” Anna said, keeping her voice as calm as she could manage. “Mr. Harper surely knows how talented you are.”

  Maisie looked up from the floor and took a deep breath, which seemed to calm her somewhat. “Thank you, Miss,” she said to Anna, a sheepish look upon her face. “I am sorry for letting my nerves get the better of me.”

  “It is quite all right, Maisie,” Anna reassured her. She wanted to embrace the poor girl, just as her mother had done when Anna had fits of nerves as a child. Instead, she said, “My nerves have sometimes got the better of me as well.”

  “They have?” Maisie asked, incredulous. “My mum always tells me that common girls have no time for nervousness, and best to leave that to highborn ladies with their fainting couches.”

  Anna could not help but laugh at this description—her own mother had been gentler about it, but had told her something quite similar. Anna remembered the sound of her mother’s voice, though she had not spoken to her in two years, since she moved to London.

  “My mother always told me that I could not afford to go to pieces when there was work to be done, but that I could not control my nervous thoughts, so there was no use in berating myself for them.”

  “Oh, I suppose that makes sense,” Maisie said, smiling slightly.

  “My mother used to tell me to take a few deep breaths, in through my nose, and out through my mouth. We would sit down and do them together—it only takes a few seconds, but I have always found it helpful.”

  Maisie looked at Anna with wide, uncertain eyes, and Anna felt so sorry for the poor girl that she reached out and took her hands in her own. “Would you like to try it with me?” she asked, kindly.

  Maisie nodded her head quickly, not quite meeting Anna’s gaze as they breathed in deeply, in unison. Anna had not been in a state of panic, herself, but she found that deep breathing eased some of her anxiety about the upcoming final performance and the party that would follow.

  “There,” Anna said, when they had finished. “Now, how do you feel, Maisie?”

  “Much better, Miss. You would not think such a simple thing would make such a difference,” Maisie said, sounding incredulous, “but you were right, it really does help.”

  “I am very glad,” Anna said, feeling genuinely pleased. “It seems the least I can do after all of your hard work on my beautiful gown.”

  “Oh, you do look beautiful in it, Miss.” Maisie said, sounding truly delighted by the sight of Anna’s reflection in the looking glass. “I am quite certain that you will have an enchanted evening, looking as beautiful as you do. Some gentleman is sure to sweep you off your feet.”

  Maisie smiled wistfully at Anna’s reflection, as though she were imagining herself in the velvet gown, dancing with some handsome aristocrat. Anna could not help but smile at Maisie’s childlike optimism. She knew that if she had not been blessed with a talent for the ballet, she might have ended up working in a dressmaker’s shop, just like the young woman standing beside her.

  “Well, that is a lovely thing to imagine, isn’t it,” Anna said, with a kind smile, “but I shall not hold my breath waiting for the perfect gentleman.”

  Maisie simply giggled at this, and said, “It is true that I know nothing of perfect gentlemen, but if there is such a one, I expect that he shall have eyes only for you, Miss.”

  “You are too kind, Maisie,” Anna said, as Maisie helped her out of her gown and back into her daytime gown. She could not help but wonder what she might have thought in Maisie’s position.

  If I had never been to a fancy party, had never danced with an aristocrat, would I think that a perfect gentleman exists?

  Anna pondered this as she paid for her gown, and collected the invoice for Bridget’s. Mr. Harper watched her closely, grinning throughout their transaction, as if to provide a stark contrast to the imagined perfect gentleman.

  Anna supposed that before coming to London, she had entertained certain fantasies along the lines of what Maisie had proposed. She did not really expect to marry a member of the ton, but it had been appealing to imagine flirting with Earls and dancing with Dukes. She had hoped that perhaps she would meet and fall in love with a kind and handsome merchant.

  However, her time in London had taught her that both common men and gentlemen saw ballerinas as potential mistresses and not potential wives. Most of those who came to see her backstage already had wives, and as far as Anna could tell, their wives were very unhappy, indeed.

  The gentlemen and merchants alike complained that their wives were never satisfied, and seemed happy to spend as much time away from them as possible. Anna did not know what her future held, but she was s
ure that she did not want this sort of marriage. She knew that she would likely need to marry, since after a certain age, dancing would no longer be an option, and there were very few options for unmarried women.

  Perhaps I would be happier if I could be as optimistic about this as Maisie.

  Chapter 11

  When the day of the party finally arrived, Nathaniel was filled with more emotions than he had previously known one person could contain. He felt excitement at the prospect of meeting Miss Conolly after spending so much time thinking about her.

  At the same time, he dreaded the possibility that he might meet her and find her to be dull, or mean, or stupid.

  What if she is not as beautiful in person as she appears on stage?

  He could not help but think that this idea, as upsetting as it was, was quite likely. After all, her beauty on stage was other-worldly, surely no human could actually look so perfect.