Author's note:
This starts off rather prim and proper, to lull readers into a false sense of propriety (oh dear, I am giving you clues here, and I really shouldn't ...), but it is not long before explosions emerge, and so I would beg patience ...
...
The young lady hopped gaily out of the carriage, eagerly fished some coins from her blue purse, and gave them to the driver with a winning smile.
"Thank you ever so much, Mr Hooper! Such a smooth journey too, as always!" she cried. "But, you know, you really should be wearing that scarf up over your face on a cold night like this, not just around your neck," the girl chided him gently. "But I promise not to say a word about it to that gorgeous wife of yours, just as long as you give her my very best regards. You will, won't you?"
The old man grinned broadly at his delightful passenger. Belinda Craven really was a most enchanting young lady.
"'Course I will, Miss Craven, ma'am. Thank'ee kindly, I'm sure," he croaked, duly adjusting his scarf and snapping the reins, whereupon the horse obediently clip-clopped off down the road. She stood for a few seconds at her gate, listening attentively to the echo of the hooves dying away amid the London fog. Brrr, her little body was certainly feeling the cold now. And with good reason.
In the hallway of the house, she took off her fur coat, dropped the umbrella into the stand and opened her handbag, taking out the handkerchief in which she had wrapped her black satin opera gloves before leaving the theatre box. Obviously she had been unable to wear them in plain sight on her journey home, they were in such a state! She picked them up and subjected them to closer inspection. Goodness. The hand of the right glove was horribly stained, but the left-hand glove had sustained much more damage overall, not only the hand section but also all down the arm. Oh, my. Well, that was only to be expected.
"I daresay they're completely ruined," she frowned sadly, although it then occurred to her that perhaps Lucy would have a remedy of some kind. Now that indeed was a possibility. Lucy! The mere thought of the girl filled her with sudden hope. Sometimes she wondered what on earth she would do all alone in her Mayfair home without cheerful, tireless Lucy. Making meals, taking care of the daily round, running errands, seeing to visitors, reminders of this, help with that, and a host of other chores, it was all Lucy's department. Lucy was simply the perfect maid. "Yes," she nodded to herself in relief as she moved closer to the mirror, "Lucy will know what to do."
Belinda held the gloves up against the hallway lamp to their full length and studied them. Yes, they were still quite damp. She brought them slightly closer, an inch or two from her nose and timidly, tentatively, gave them a little sniff. Then, slowly, her tongue crept out and licked them, also tentatively at first, daintily, but suddenly it began to dart and jab all over the badly stained gloves. In a matter of seconds she was positively slurping at them, as her eyes went glassy and shifted to the mirror in the hall...
"Hello there," she winked saucily at the reflection as she unpinned her jet-black hair from its bun and a luxurious dark mane fell around her shoulders. A mischievous little chuckle escaped her, and she watched in awe as those pretty, homely features transformed into a totally different visage, eyes half-closed in a suggestive smile, that moist pink tongue now snaking all over her upper lip. "Hello, Rhona. My dear, dear girl, what a dreadfully naughty evening you've had ..."
...
"... but then Father said, 'No, no, absolute nonsense, my boy, a load of blessed codswallop, I've never heard such utter bosh!', and simply walked off in the most dreadful huff. Poor old stick!"
Belinda had just raised a cup of Earl Grey to her lips in the tea room, but had to set it back down again rather quickly on the table for fear of spilling it, overcome as she was by a fit of the giggles at the way Eugene's face had suddenly transformed into a ferocious glare at the end of his funny story, not to mention the gruff bad-tempered voice he had put on while doing so.
She was having a wonderful evening with the young officer. She had only met him that very day - it had been her brother who thought she might hit it off with a friend of his. An awfully good egg, Rupert had said, back on a week's leave from the regiment, and dreadfully funny too, and so when Eugene sent a little note to tell her he had a couple of tickets for an opera Rupert had said she was fond of, well, she jumped at the chance. He certainly was amusing, polite, well-educated and quite dashing. Nor had it escaped her attention that he was also extremely handsome, with carefully brushed fair hair, wide sideboards, clear blue eyes, and those strong hands and muscular neck indicated a well-toned body to boot.
"But, Eugene," she said, glancing suddenly at the clock on the wall, "shouldn't we be making a move? You did say it started at eight, didn't you?"
The young man snapped to his feet. "Certainly, certainly, my dear girl, of course. May I, er ...?", he murmured, gallantly drawing back her chair as she stood up.
Well, what a performance it was, and Belinda oohed and aahed happily throughout. They had a box all to themselves, and in general there were quite a few empty seats round about. Indeed, the boxes on either side were empty. Eugene, a rather more frequent patron, told her this was not at all usual, and speculated that the cold night had deterred theatregoers.