A Waltz in the Park Read Online Free PDF

raise her sister as she’d been raised, with the real education and the wider outlook that her mother had wished her daughters to possess.  She could have a garden, and her books, a few friends.  Perhaps they could occasionally travel in to Town to visit the museums and the theater. 
    It sounded lovely and peaceful, and yet—it just wasn’t done.  Girls like her were set on one path—and it led straight to the altar. 
    Her family would object.  Society would object.  She’d be pitied . . . and possibly scorned. 
    And it still felt like her best alternative.
    As difficult as finding a mate was proving to be, forging a life without one would be infinitely more so.  For it to materialize into the slightest possibility, she’d have to manage the thing respectably. 
    She would need help.  Such a departure would require a special situation, a great deal of persuasion—and if she was to have any chance at social acceptance—a veritable sparkling diamond of a pristine reputation.
    She and Rosamond heaved simultaneous sighs.
    Suddenly her cousin brightened.  “Unless,” she said with excitement.  “What if Vickers has reformed as well?  He hasn’t been seen about much this Season.  He hasn’t been frolicking with the demi-monde or frequenting his usual gaming hells or the races.  Perhaps his father finally won that battle and convinced him to give over his rakish ways.”
    “Then your dance will not be nearly as much fun,” Addy remarked.
    “Oh, think larger, girl!  What an interesting couple we should make.  Only imagine the splash we cause in Society!  How everyone would talk. We’d be on every guest list, for Seasons to come.”  The idea kept Rosamond happy and occupied for several blocks.  Until the intersection with Oxford Street, where she let out a horrified gasp and clutched Addy’s arm.
    “Nooo,” she moaned.  “Damn it all!”
    Addy gasped.  “Rosamond!”
    “Oh, why?” her cousin groaned.  “Why could it not have worked out the way I’d only just imagined it?  It would have been perfect.  But no—the willful man!  Look!”
    Addy searched until she spotted the problem.  Vickers again.  Her heart leaped, but he never noticed them.  He was seated in a small, fast moving carriage, listening intently as an astoundingly beautiful woman spoke, half a smile on her face.
    Confident.  Competent .
    Like bubbles the two words bounced their way up and out of her, popping onto the surface of her mind.
    Virile . 
    Another one.  She shivered, so startled and grateful she was.  This was how it used to be, back when her stories lived just below the surface.  When words and scenes and people jostled for space in her brain, kept her company and amused both her and her friends and family.
    Suddenly she realized just what she was seeing.  Vickers.  With a beautiful, blonde woman.
    “Wait!”  Addy stared. “Is that . . .”
    “Hestia Wright,” sighed Rosamond bitterly.  “And if he’s still hanging about her skirts then he’s not changing his ways, after all.”
    Hestia Wright.
    “Do you not understand, Adelaide?”  Rosamond had grown petulant again.  “This means that I cannot keep company with him, after all.”
    “But his reformation was just an idea you struck upon,” Addy reminded her absently.  “Your own invention.”
    “Well, he should strike upon it!” her cousin exclaimed.  “Truly, it would be the best of all worlds.  I could keep the notice and acclaim I’ve had this Season, and still have a man like that at my side?”  She sighed and continued, but Addy didn’t hear any more complaints.
    Hanging about her skirts.  Hestia Wright’s skirts.
    Abruptly all the cosmos around Addy adjusted.  Puzzle pieces clicked into place, almost audibly.  Answers to questions slid home like the parts of a well-oiled lock.  Perhaps, just perhaps, all of her hopes might come true.  The dark, difficult horizon suddenly looked brighter, colored with a multitude