That gave her pause - what was the etiquette here? It being both a question of how one managed a situation where you had just kissed a gentleman in the sitting room of a relative strangers home and how this strange event could be said to have ended.

'I suppose we should probably be seen returning to the Wildsmiths?' it was very definitely a question, it was probably a good idea not to just 'go missing' incase someone put two and two together. 'We should go back, you can celebrate your having outsmarted by attempts to hide and receive all due adulation.' she added her tone not entirely filled with confidence but she felt talking out the rationale of her chain of thought the best way to explain it's merits. 'That's right?'
Isnt it?' She wasn't sure if there was a prize for this thing. Was it actually a competition or had she and Mister Daphnel just decided that it was one?

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

Victor had been more concerned with how she was faring internally than how it would look to others. It was true that an eyebrow might be raised at her leaving the party early, but he didn't think it was anything so incriminating he couldn't conjure up an excuse for. He had enough experience with Beatrice to manage a sudden headache or a dizzy spell that had necessitated her going home. Someone might still speculate, but no worse than they would if she returned to the party obviously disheveled and sneaking glances at him.

She was talking through this quite rationally, but the audible question marks in her words couldn't help but make him chuckle. "Did you know you're adorable?" he remarked with an indulgent smile. "If you want to stay then let's go back. If you want to go, I'll handle things. Either way, I'll see you soon."

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Fabulous set by Lady!

She stopped her fussing at that. She didn't think she had everbeen called 'adorable', no one had ever dared, and if asked it was not the term that most who knew her would have used to describe her, but then she was in uncharted territory. If she was so discombobulated by a gents attention and a quick kiss that people were out and calling her adorable. She wasn't sure exactly how she felt about it.

'Perhaps I ought to go home then' she managed, also wondering if it was a hint that he would prefer to return to the 'base camp' alone. 'Can you tell them I was tired and went home?' she asked, venturing to meet his eye for what she realised was the first time since before the kiss.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

He smiled, pleased that she seemed inclined to take him at his word instead of forging stubbornly ahead. Was this an indication that she trusted him? Beatrice had seemed to think trust one of two pillars on which a sound marriage could be built, and he had wondered over how to earn it. He seemed to have stumbled into all kinds of luck with Miss Dempsey. At the beginning of the year, he would not have dared set his sights so high as someone who indulged his hobbies and whose own interests he wasn't bored by; someone who shared his casual disdain for common social mores and yet glided so gracefully beneath their wing when necessary; someone who fit so well within his arms. He had struck gold with her, he thought, and now things were quite decided between them. It would take a disaster to prise her from his grasp.

"Of course. It was a rigorous game, to be sure," he teased. "So I'm sure no one will fault you. I'll call on you tomorrow?"

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Fabulous set by Lady!

Christabel's mouth went dry again -he would call on her tomorrow. Her stomach was summersaulting, so perhaps her story of feeling a little not herself wasn't entirely a lie. She swalloed hard, 'Rigourous? Is that the word gentleman use?' she teased right back.

'Thank you for....' her lips pursed as she attempted to force down a smile, and remain elegant and in control of herself. 'thank you for a most enjoyable evening.' she supposed a gentleman would like to think of a kiss as an enjoyable endeavor, and she hoped he could tell that she meant it a little more effulgently than she was stating. In fact she was rather tempted to sneak another kiss, but it was likely a bad idea. They had been lucky not to have been interrupted already, chaperone less as they were.

'I should go.' she said again, this time actually making a move towards the fireplace.

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I am my mother's savage daughter, The one who runs barefoot cursing sharp stones

I am my mother's savage daughter, I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice
MJ made glory

The most enjoyable evening, hm? Victor couldn't help his smile at that. If that was all it took to make a most enjoyable evening, he was certain he could leave her head spinning sometime when he actually intended to do something. Of course he knew that it was just a figure of speech, but she did seem sincerely pleased with how things had gone — and that had hardly even been a kiss!

"Goodnight," he began, and had the oddest urge to say something personal after it, like a pet name or a term of endearment. Of course they'd never used any in the past — Victor did not think he had ever used any with anyone in the past — so none that came to mind seemed very natural. Would this be a fitting time to say her first name? Was that too familiar? They had just kissed.

"... Miss Dempsey," was all he said in the end, and then she was gone through the floo.

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Fabulous set by Lady!