Flirt hard

"Mr. Vickery, I find it impossible that a man like you could not enjoy dancing!" Alice exclaims. "Why, you're a tall, imposing man - statuesque, even." Vickery raises an eyebrow at her as she lays a hand on his arm and smiles. "Surely you enjoy the opportunity to sweep a lady around the dance floor?"

"It's never held much appeal for me," Vickery says coldly. Alice charges on, heedless.

"And with your figure and your looks...I'm sure you're able to sweep a bond girl around other rooms as well," she continues quietly with a smile. "I so admire a man who knows the ways of the world, Mr. Vickery..."

She's cut short as Vickery steps back from her, gazing at her with a cold disdain that brings her to a dead stop. "This conversation has breached the bounds of propriety, Miss Foxhaven," he says grimly. He's not exactly shouting, but he's making no effort to be quiet, either, and Alice blushes as several of the guests nearby glance their way with raised eyebrows. "I wish you a very pleasant evening, but I must depart." He gives her a short bow and strides off, as Alice flushes red. Rejected! And in such a fashion...

Across the ballroom, Esther watches Vickery stalk away from Alice with a sense of grim amusement. She herself has been searching in vain for Annalise for several minutes now. She desperately wants to talk to her friend after their last conversation, but in the whirl of the ball she just hasn't found the chance. Finally she spots the redheaded girl across the room - and she's alone! The perfect opportunity for Esther to catch a brief, private conversation. As Esther begins to move toward her friend, though, the other girl slips out one of the side doors, not noticing her.

Determined to finally get a chance to continue their chat, Esther scurries out the door herself, finding herself in one of the Bellingtons' hallways. A door a few feet down the hall is open, and from childhood experience Esther knows it leads into the study; probably that's where Annalise has retreated. She pushes the door open and hurries in, saying as she does so, "Annalise, are you - oh!"

Annalise is in the room, but to Esther's surprise she's not alone. Standing quite close to her - Annalise is just pulling back from him, in fact - is a slightly disheveled looking young man with a poof of untidy brown curls and a smirk on his goateed lips. Esther blushes, caught off-guard at having found her friend alone with a man. "I - I'm so sorry, Annalise, I didn't - "

"Don't worry, Esther!" Annalise says brightly, with a breathless laugh. "This is actually wonderful! I've been wanting to introduce the two of you. Esther, this is Percival Winthrop, that distant cousin I mentioned to you. Percy, this...is Esther Foxhaven. I must have told you about her a thousand times."

"Of course. Enchante, Miss Foxhaven," Percy says with a smile. When she reaches forward uncertainly, he takes her hand and kisses it firmly, sweeping his leg out in a courtly bow as he does so.

Esther smiles politely. "Why thank you, Mr. Winthrop. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance." She's a bit perplexed by the way that he's still holding her hand, until he plants another kiss on it.

"You have such radiant skin, Miss Foxhaven. Have you ever been beyond England?"

"I..." Esther glances at Annalise, but the other girl is just watching with an enigmatic smile on her lips. "No, sir, I have not."

"What!" He glances in mock incredulity to Annalise, who gives him a I-told-you-so shrug. "A young woman of your obvious refinement should see the Continent! Become educated in the ways of the world! May I show you how people of taste greet one another in France? The French are so much more liberated than we are..."

Esther swallows uneasily. She doesn't want to offend this cousin of Annalise - or, worse, look inhospitable or provincial before her friend. But then again, she gets a strange feeling from him, and she doesn't want to be put in an awkward position, either...