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sailforvalinor · 1 year ago

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Joker and Ace: Jester's Privilege

Chapter 2

“Remind me,” the girl whispered as the music struck up and he led her onto the floor, “what dance is this again?”

He glanced down at her, mildly alarmed. “It’s a waltz, Miss,” he said, more bluntly than he intended. “Don’t you have a dance card?” Did she even know how to dance? Some of his sisters’ speculations about who she might be sprung into his head unbidden.

She gave him a wry look. “A waltz?” she repeated, ignoring the question. “In a ballroom in Bath in 183-? That doesn’t seem exactly…proper.”

Theodore didn’t see what the year had to do with anything--but at least she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. “My father’s balls attempt to mimic Almack’s in every manner. But if you’d rather wait for the quadrille…?”

The girl smiled dazzlingly. “Oh no, of course not,” she said, then, with a quick glance about her at the other dancers taking the floor, assumed the beginning position for the waltz with startling ease.

He bowed, she curtsied, and Theodore took her right hand in his left and placed his right on her shoulder blade almost mechanically, having done this so many times he barely had to think about it. She was quite a bit shorter than him, he realized--the top of her head barely came to his shoulder, and from that vantage point, he noticed that her hair seemed to almost sparkle, as if she’d dusted her hair with tiny diamonds. How on earth she’d managed that he had no idea, but the thought of how envious his sisters would be at the sight of it made him crack a slight smile.

The strings struck up, and Theodore was struck with them with the strange look the girl had given him when he’d first approached her. “Do I…know you from somewhere, Miss?” he asked carefully.

She couldn’t read the expression that came over her face. “I don’t believe so.”

The waltz began, and much to Theodore’s surprise, the girl moved through the intricacies of the dance effortlessly--it was like dancing with a cloud on his arm. She knew exactly what she was doing, but still let him lead. He’d rarely danced with a better partner, and so distracted was he by this that it took him a moment to realize that, though he usually regarded it as a necessary nicety of polite society, he was actually enjoying dancing for once.

If he were being honest, it made him feel a bit uneasy.

“So,” the girl said at length, “Mr. Theodore Ace--for I believe that’s who you are, though you didn’t introduce yourself--I must ask, do you often ask girls you haven’t been introduced to to dance?”

“I don’t generally make a practice of it, no,” he said as they glided past the punch bowl, guests staring at them in shock as they clutched punch glasses and fans.

“Why ask me then? Were you so enchanted by my beauty that you couldn’t help yourself? Or--” she suddenly looked at him very shrewdly “--are you dancing with me because you deemed it the best way to scandalize your sisters?”

So stunned was he by not just the substance of the question, but by the fact that something so shrewd and direct had been said in such a soft, gentle voice such as hers that it uncharacteristically left him floundering for a response. “Uh--”

“--don’t feel the need to answer that,” she cut with an amused smile on her face before he could come up with something clever to say. “I’ll take your intentions at face value, if you’d like--although, don’t look now, but that’s rather difficult when I can feel your sisters’ eyes burning holes into the back of my head.”

Disobeying her, he allowed himself a quick glance up at the balcony--and sure enough, Angeline’s face was flushed red with anger, Emmeline’s white with shock, and the both of them whispered to Ida furiously. However, Ida’s face was expressionless, almost placid--something that should have made him uneasy, but at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Hmmm,” the girl said thoughtfully, “doesn’t listen to instructions, clearly hates his family, given that he’s perfectly willing to embarrass them in this manner, but still dependent on them for the moment, quiet, a little bitter, dances like a dream, a bit unapproachable, probably reads Eliot--wait, no no, that’s too soon,” she cut herself off. “Tennyson?”

“Um, yes,” he answered, startled. How did she know that? “What exactly are you doing?”

She giggled. “Trying to make out your character, of course.” That phrase sounded vaguely familiar, though Theodore couldn’t put his finger on why. “As one does in ballrooms.”

“Well, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage there, Miss,” he said, trying to regain some control over--well, whatever this was. “What’s your name?”

“Oooh, you’re asking me this now?” she asked, the smile on her face almost broadening into an unladylike grin, but not quite. “Hmmm. Well, I will tell you--just not now. Later.”

It was all he could do not to gawk. “What? You won’t tell me?”

“No, I said later I’d tell you,” she said in a lower tone as another couple spun past them, clearly trying not to stare.

“Are you acting mysterious for your own amusement, or are you truly hiding something?” The thought briefly crossed his mind that she might be making some attempt at infiltration into his father’s circle, but he dismissed it almost immediately--no one making such an attempt would show their hand so plainly.

She laughed. “Yes and yes.” She craned her neck over his shoulder for a moment to peer at some of the other dancers. “Oh dear, do you think I’m a little overdressed?”

“Then may I ask what exactly you’re doing here?”

“I’m dancing. With you. That’s generally why girls go to balls--not to dance with you specifically, of course, just to dance. Although,” she said, looking around the room, “I suspect from many of the looks I’m getting that that certainly applies to many of the ladies in this room.” She smiled up at him. “Aren’t you popular?”

“If you’d just wanted to dance, you could have gone to any of the assembly rooms instead of stealing into a private ball,” he said, really more curiously than accusingly.

She shrugged fractionally. “Perhaps I heard that this ball was the thing.”

The girl caught the disbelieving look he shot at her. “Ooh, alright, I suppose I can give you a bit more than that. I’m--well, how to put it--” she lowered her voice to nearly a whisper, causing him to have to lean close “--I’m casing the joint.”

“You’re casing the what?”

“You strike me as quite clever, Mr. Ace, if you don’t mind the presumption,” she said. “I’ll leave that up to you to parse. I’m sure you can manage.”

Theodore certainly didn’t feel clever--he’d never felt less so in his life. Every time he felt he’d felt he’d found some semblance of footing with this girl, it crumbled beneath his feet faster than he could blink. He really shouldn’t have been letting it needle him as much as he did--after all, he had accomplished his object in dancing with her, his sisters were undoubtedly beyond livid--but despite his desires and better judgment, he found himself too intrigued by this girl to stop asking questions.

“In your object of ‘casing the joint,’ as you call it, you decided it was wise to leave your escort at home?” he asked.

The smile on her face that so far had not wavered flickered suddenly. “I’m afraid there was none to leave.”

A sudden cold fear for her gripped him at those words, remembering what sorts of people spun about them in this ballroom, watched them from the edges of the room, from the balconies. He remembered the impassive look in Ida’s eyes as she stared down at them, and fought the urge to glance up at her again. He became aware that the waltz was swiftly coming to an end, and as he led her through the last motions of the dance, he pulled her slightly closer than was strictly necessary. “Listen,” he said in a low voice, “I don’t know what you think this ball is. I don’t know what your purpose was in coming here. You might know what you’ve walked into, you might not. But I’d feel morally responsible if I didn’t tell you that you’ve walked straight into a viper’s nest in coming here, Miss--everyone in this room could bring you harm in almost any way you could imagine, even more so if they knew of your circumstances. And you’ve ensured that you’ve attracted the attention of everyone in attendance--even more so by dancing with me, I’m afraid.”

He couldn’t tell if the girl was taking the gravity in his tone seriously. She studied his face carefully. “‘Everyone in this room,’” she repeated. “Are you an exception to that rule, Theodore Ace?”

The music swelled and came to an end, partners separating and facing each other. “I should think so,” he said as he took his bow, more steel in his tone than he had anticipated.

“Good,” the girl said as she rose from her curtsy. Her radiant smile returned. “That’s exactly what I wanted to know.”

He offered her his hand, and he led her off the floor, now ignoring the stares and whispers as they passed by.

“Also, thank you for the warning,” the girl said softly. She seemed to have a knack of speaking at the perfect volume so as not to be easily overheard, he noticed. “It was quite honorable of you.”

Her hand slipped out of his as they came to the edge of the room. “If you appreciate it,” he began, “perhaps you could--”

He turned to her, but she had vanished.

“Hmm.” He looked around to see if she had slipped into the crowd somewhere, but he couldn’t find her. Shrugging, he strode off towards the exit, ignoring other guests’ attempts to speak to him, hoping the girl would heed his advice--and wondering how soon he would inevitably regret dancing with her.

<- Chapter 1 / Chapter 3 ->

#🎶she makes the whole place ✨SHIMMER✨🎶#joker and ace #this chapter feels rough but it was so much fun #oc ace #oc joker #salt and light #val's ocs #also how soon do you think this should go up on ao3? honestly i'm not sure

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