by Shirl Anders
"Ariel, please stay away from Fanton," Beth remembered pleading with her only friend. Then she'd declared aloud to Ariel, damned the consequences should anyone overhear and it get back to Fanton, "He is not a good man."
That had been thirty minutes ago, and Ariel had gaily laughed and patted her hand, declaring everything would be all right. Ariel had danced off with Adam, and Beth had thought she was safe. However, Beth discovered now she was gone, leaving Adam holding two glasses of punch Ariel had asked him to fetch.
"I've been around the room once, Beth, and she's not in the ballroom," Adam declared, setting the punch glasses down on a nearby table. He turned back to her, while swiping a thatch of sandy brown hair out of his eyes. "Damn," he cussed lowly.
"I am so tired of trying to warn her away from him, Adam. And she will not listen and simply take my word for it," Beth said with frustration heating her words.
"I know," Adam replied, looking down on her. "There comes a time when we should just …"
Beth gazed up at him as he left the sentence hanging and in her mind, she finished it. Give up and she will do what she will do. But instead she said, "I will look for her in the ladies’ retiring room."
"And I will circulate through the upstairs," Adam offered.
Beth touched Adam's arm. "We will meet back here. One of us will drag her back here if we have to."
Beth watched Adam's smile as he started away, saying back to her, "We will find her."
She watched Adam with a worried gaze as he climbed the elegant staircase at the Valtimer mansion. Immediately she decided she couldn't keep putting Adam in the middle of the situation she had with Fanton. She turned toward the conclave of ladies’ lower-level retiring rooms.
"After I find you, Ariel, I shall break off our friendship this very night," she muttered. She would do something she'd not considered for a very long time. She would give up her doomed search for a husband and she would apply to teach at a school for girls.
"That will take me out of your reach, Fanton," she continued beneath her breath. It would leave her brother, so full of potential, an unfettered life to live to his desires and not be worrying about her constantly.