two tokens spent at the underground party off hawley square, with @thornedrook
The party was bustling and bursting with life, a veritable riot of sound and laughter, with the heat of bodies pressing in against one another a little closer than propriety would usually allow. There were at least a dozen more people than there should have been in a room of this size, and while that might have made some claustrophobic, Delilah felt like she was in heaven. She downed a glass of whiskey, smiling at one of the waiters after she did so and setting the empty glass on his tray. He was handsome, if too young for her –– barely eighteen, fresh faced and bright eyed at all the hustle and bustle of the party –– and in another life she might have stayed and flirted with him, just to see if she could make him blush.
Instead, Delilah slipped between the crowd like a fish between stalks of seaweed, moving with an ease that belied years of practice. She’d decided she wanted to dance, and since none of her usual partners were here –– that wasn’t true, actually, Sidney was definitely here, she was sure of it, but Delilah didn’t feel like trying to hunt him down –– she began to look around the room, searching the walls and the corners for her next target. It didn’t take her long. There were a fair many good looking people, men and women alike, but this gentleman put them all to shame. Tall, dark, handsome, he was like every description of the hero in her cousin’s favorite romance novels, waiting to whisk the heroine away into a happy marriage. Delilah, of course, wasn’t looking for anything of the sort, but his presence was magnetic enough that she was drawn to him from halfway across the room.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” She asked, brows raised, head cocked to the side. It was only half a question –– Delilah was quite certain she didn’t, but suspected she’d seen him on one of the barges that had brought them from London. He certainly didn’t look like the type to live here at Margate, anyway. “I was hoping to persuade you into a dance.”
