“Beautiful!” Alfie said when he saw her. “I think I’ll simply stand here and gaze at you all evening. That would be feast enough for me.” Eve had no idea what to say, so she merely smiled. If she could bottle up all the joy she felt at that moment, it would last a lifetime.
The dinner was like many she had helped to prepare but like none she had ever tasted. Wine and champagne flowed like water, but Eve drank very little, knowing from experience that it rushed to her head and made her dizzy. She wanted to keep her wits and enjoy every glamorous moment of this once-in-a-lifetime evening. Alfie seemed capable of drinking gallons of champagne and not being affected at all.
After dinner and a brief program, the dancing began. Eve allowed Alfie to hold her close, reveling in his spicy scent as she rested her head against his shoulder. How she loved being held in his arms, strong and muscled from rowing on Oxford’s crew team. He told her all about his crew races and rugby games. “You should come up to Oxford sometime and cheer me on,” he said. Eve smiled and nodded, knowing it could never happen.
The storybook evening was a wonderful dream until Alfie suddenly gestured across the room as they waltzed together and said, “Look, there’s Audrey! I didn’t know she was coming, did you?”
“No!” The word came out in a strangled croak. Fear stiffened Eve’s limbs as the dream became a nightmare. She hadn’t spoken to Audrey since the night Lady Rosamunde came home drunk and Audrey ordered Eve to leave. She longed to release Alfie’s hand and run before being exposed as a real-life Cinderella.
“Let’s go say hello.” Alfie took her hand and led her across the crowded dance floor to where Audrey sat at a table with her date and two other couples. They all shared the same bored, aloof expression, as if fighting migraine headaches. Eve’s heart raced. Her secret would be exposed in front of Alfie and everyone else the moment Audrey said, “Alfie, why have you brought our scullery maid to the ball?”
But that didn’t happen. Audrey acted as though it were perfectly natural to see them together. “I saw you two come in,” she said after all the introductions. “You make a smashing couple.” The smile she gave Eve seemed forced and didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s been a while, Eve. How are you?”
“I’ve been good. You look gorgeous, Audrey.” And she did, wearing a gown that would cost Eve three months’ wages. She wondered if Audrey recognized her mother’s salvaged gowns or her own shoes on Eve’s feet. If so, would she comment on them? Eve fidgeted in place, the urge to bolt from the room growing stronger.
Alfie chatted with the other men while Eve waited, stiff and silent with fear. Then, thankfully, the orchestra started up again. “Come on, Alfie, let’s dance,” she said, tugging him toward the floor.
“Did you see the way the other men looked at you?” he said when she was safely in his arms again. “They’re all thinking I’m the luckiest man here. You outshine every woman here, Eve Dawson.”
Eve didn’t know how to respond to his compliments. Were they true or just flattery, fueled by all the wine he’d swallowed? She decided to believe they were true and to enjoy being a mysterious fairy-tale princess for just a little longer. Audrey would surely tell her brother the truth tomorrow, so Eve better confess before the evening ended. But no matter what happened after that, she would remember this wonderful evening forever.
Much too soon, it was time to leave. As they waited for a servant to fetch their cloaks, Alfie took both of Eve’s hands in his and looked into her eyes. “I have two requests, darling, and please don’t refuse either. The first is, may I see you again?”
She couldn’t help smiling. Was this love—this wonderful euphoria that made her dizzy and giddy and bursting with happiness? Was it love that made her long to stay in Alfie’s arms forever? Mum’s warnings tried to elbow their way into her thoughts along with Williams’s fatherly advice, but Eve pushed them all aside. “I would like that very much.”
“And second,” Alfie continued, “please say you’ll let me drive you home. I can’t leave you here all alone. Please, let me have a few more moments with you.” Eve looked at the floor, hesitant to reply. Alfie lifted her chin. “You can trust me with your secret, Eve.”
“I know,” she murmured, then drew a deep breath. Audrey would surely tell him the truth, so she might as well do it first. “Here’s my secret, Alfie. I’m a working girl. A typist. I live in a boardinghouse with a dozen other working girls.”
“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.