He hadn’t invited anyone! The corners of Sophie’s mouth ticked up a fraction. Not one for being an expert at hiding her emotions, she hoped he would chalk it up to her merely being excited. While the conversation wasn’t meant to deliberately parse out the information of whether or not he’d invited someone, it served its purpose anyways and Sophie felt a little swoop of joy in her stomach. But, of course, he would be dancing that night with other women. As the unmarried son of the hostess, it would be practically rude for him not to. This would, perhaps, give her the excuse she needed to avoid being too near the dance floor when the time came for her to bring Lowri something, which her mistress would undoubtedly make her do.
And while the thought of Endymion dancing with other beautiful women cause her stomach to turn uncomfortably, the thought of interrupting him whilst he was talking to his friends, and laughing…why her cheeks burned at just imagining it! Oh Merlin, was the room suddenly incredibly warm? Reaching up to tug on her collar, she gave a decidedly nervous giggle. “Oh, I d-don’t think I could do that,” she stammered, feeling the blush work its way down her neck. She frantically searched the space above Mr. Dempsey’s head for something to focus on; a tip she’d been told to work on by Mrs. Dempsey when she got too nervous. Except she couldn’t rest her gaze anywhere near Mr. Dempsey’s form without her eyes automatically going back to his face so…she focused on the tip of his right eyebrow instead. It worked. Sort of. She swallowed. Then had the horrid thought; what if he misunderstood her reasoning and thought she was acquiescing to his being too full of himself? At the same time, her eye caught something over his shoulder: the movement of a woman’s gown. Guests were starting to arrive. Which meant she had to make haste. So all the words came tumbling out of her mouth at once:
“I - not to say that I think you’d get t-too full of yourself! I just - I think that even a lady’s maid coming up to you in the middle of a ball, it would be far too impertinent, even for Mrs. Dempsey. Actually, I don’t think she would mind that much you know, but all the same I d-don’t think I would be able to get away with it, and I shouldn’t want to offend any of your friends either…”
And while the thought of Endymion dancing with other beautiful women cause her stomach to turn uncomfortably, the thought of interrupting him whilst he was talking to his friends, and laughing…why her cheeks burned at just imagining it! Oh Merlin, was the room suddenly incredibly warm? Reaching up to tug on her collar, she gave a decidedly nervous giggle. “Oh, I d-don’t think I could do that,” she stammered, feeling the blush work its way down her neck. She frantically searched the space above Mr. Dempsey’s head for something to focus on; a tip she’d been told to work on by Mrs. Dempsey when she got too nervous. Except she couldn’t rest her gaze anywhere near Mr. Dempsey’s form without her eyes automatically going back to his face so…she focused on the tip of his right eyebrow instead. It worked. Sort of. She swallowed. Then had the horrid thought; what if he misunderstood her reasoning and thought she was acquiescing to his being too full of himself? At the same time, her eye caught something over his shoulder: the movement of a woman’s gown. Guests were starting to arrive. Which meant she had to make haste. So all the words came tumbling out of her mouth at once:
“I - not to say that I think you’d get t-too full of yourself! I just - I think that even a lady’s maid coming up to you in the middle of a ball, it would be far too impertinent, even for Mrs. Dempsey. Actually, I don’t think she would mind that much you know, but all the same I d-don’t think I would be able to get away with it, and I shouldn’t want to offend any of your friends either…”