“And under again,” Konstantin instructed with a patient smile, leading the giggling girl below his exaggeratedly curved arm as around him couples performed the same move with varying degrees of grace. In the corner and almost certainly under the influence of alcohol a young couple fell over to gales of laughter from those around them and, mercifully, the song came to an end. He bowed with a flourish to his little partner and with a blush and a giggle she ran back to her ruddy-faced friends who proceeded to raise the level of mirth and flushed-faces to such a height that they were ushered outside by fussing mothers.

He checked his pocket-watch as he made his way through the revellers to the edge of the dancefloor back to the young woman whose presence here had been his sole reason for coming to Irvingly this evening. Admittedly, he was having a considerably better time than usual and had been doing a roaring trade in taking delighted girls not even old enough for a wand for a spin on the dancefloor, earning himself the admiration of mothers, the confused gaze of boys that age who didn’t understand why dancing appeared to be working for the tall stranger, and more trodden on toes than he cared to think about.

“I think I might need a taller partner next time, he said with a wry smile, holding his hand to what was clearly her height. “About here.”

The momentary sting of rejection that coursed through him when she side-stepped his offer was more pronounced than Konstantin had anticipated. He had known Miss Evans for such a short time really, but her charm had increased with each of their meetings. None had been formal – largely because so much of his life was formal that he was slightly afraid he might find himself asking her to sign and date a document at some point – but a chance meeting had become another, then a joke about running into each other in the park had become a loose arrangement, until finally he had plucked up enough courage to ask where he might contact her by owl.

It had been a month after that he’d finally found a good enough excuse to do so but he was nothing if not cautious.

“I worry I might have given you the wrong impression of my abilities,” he replied, taking a measured sip of his drink when in fact he felt warm and parched enough to gulp down a pint in one go. He was determined to make the very best impression but it was tricky to navigate the fine line of being a hearty young man who was no stranger to last orders and his aspirations of bourgeois gentility.

“I’d like to,” he said to her as the band began to play and unfortunately loud tune that drowned out his words entirely. Shooting them an unseen dirty look he tried again, raising his voice and affecting the sort of enunciation one did with a partially deaf relative, but the words that came out of his mouth were distorted enough that even to his own ears he couldn’t be sure he hadn’t said: “I like you.”

The icy grip of panic had settled in his stomach the moment Kons had realised what he had inadvertently let slip and that it would go against the core of him to lie and deny the truth of it. He did like Miss Evans and it was past time he found himself a suitable wife – admittedly he was getting a little ahead of himself with that notion and he had hardly picked out the wedding china, but for a man in his position it was never too far from his thoughts.

Finding a young lady to be his partner in the world had long been his mission but Konstantin had never expected to meet one that made him feel quite so aflutter. Miss Evans – Amelia – was a spanner in the works really and without knowing it she had become someone he truly looked forward to seeing. His insides did a little leap whenever they met and he wondered if this was how Balt had felt when he met Miss Lovegood. Not that their relationship was one he wanted to emulate… perhaps Ross and Roslyn? Ari seemed mostly indifferent to his lovely wife and Julian picked up fiancés like a rolling stone, disposing of them as easily as moss. Merlin, it was just as well he was able to be an adult about his regard for Miss Evans as he certainly didn’t have anybody to ask about it!

“I…” he began, ever so adultly.

Miss Evans didn’t seem particularly keen. Perhaps he really was barking up the wrong tree? She hadn’t struck him as a flirt or as a young lady who strung men along for her own amusement, so surely she must have some notion of why one meeting had led to so many others?

“I’m sorry if I have offended you Miss Evans,” he said, a little more tightly. He felt foolish and shut his eyes for a moment, gathering his wits, finally speaking a little more softly. “But I believe you heard me perfectly well.”

For a moment Miss Evans looked truly perturbed by his words, quite as though the moment caused her pain the like of which he couldn’t understand, and Konstantin worried that he had gone wrong entirely. Perhaps she had suffered something terrible in the past and he had opened old wounds? She was far too pretty – and frankly not nearly young enough – for her to never have caught somebody’s eye before and the fact she was unattached did suggest things had either never become serious or else some calamity had befallen her previous gentlemen callers.

Neither experience were likely to have left her feeling optimistic about the men of the world, he surmised, but he hadn’t expected actual distress.

And then she smiled. Brief and tense, but unmistakably a smile. It might mean nothing and yet it gave him some hope.

“You haven’t been imagining it. Not at all.” Reaching down he took her hand gently, closing it between both of his and making every effort not to hold her in such a way that she couldn’t pull free at any moment. The last thing he wanted was to get it wrong now. “I don’t mean to alarm you – or ruin the night – but I wanted to know we were of the same mind. That’s all,” his smile reached his eyes and he hoped desperately that it was as reassuring as it was meant to be. “I hope I haven’t spoiled everything?”

Konstantin frowned.

Did she truly doubt her own worth so much? It was inconceivable to his mind that somebody of such obvious virtue should think themselves thus: his mother had taught him from a young age to value decency above all and Miss Evans had that in spades. Young women had hardly thrown themselves at him but he was going places in the Ministry and at the side of Urquart he had drawn interest. None of those women had intrigued him quite so much though and Konstantin was rather pleased that he had found himself in the company of a young lady who was entirely herself.

His mother would be proud.

Her hesitation cut through him like a liston knife though, so sharp he feared it might reach the very core of him – which was all quite absurd. Miss Evans, though excellent, was after all a relative stranger and yet he felt with her the burst of something indefinable and rich, like a wealth he had never imagined achieving in all his life. Was this infatuation? If so then Konstantin felt for the first time in his life some sympathy with those literary fools his mother had loved so much who risked everything on what had previously seemed to him flimsy reasoning.

Had he truly gone so long without this feeling?

Smiling lazily he lifted her hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it, just as the crowd around them began chanting down the seconds to midnight.

“You are exactly the sort of woman I had always hoped to meet.”