Love & Misunderstanding

Chapter Twenty Two - Jonathan's POV

I could hardly believe that in three days we would be returning home. It seemed like just yesterday we had arrived. So much had happened over the month that we had been in London. I was secretly not looking forward to going back home. Knowing that I had fallen in love with the woman who had broken Matthew's heart would make things extremely awkward for me. I had told him so many lies about what had happened. How would I ever be able to explain the situation to him? Especially without causing him to become angry with me?

"I wonder which one of these masked men is my younger brother?" Vincent joked as he walked up beside me.

The only good part about this ball was that everyone wore masks, ensuring that no one could identify you. Although, it was rather easy to identify my brother with his mask. "I am sorry, I thought that I heard my elder brother speaking to me, and yet the only thing I see is a gigantic bird," I teased back at him.

He was taken a back by this. "I was not aware that you had a sense of humour," he commented.

"I have always had a sense of humour. Most simply fail to notice it."

"I can assume that you will not be dancing tonight either."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not. But with your injured arm keeping you off the floor, it will be quite boring ... what with not being able to count the number of women with whom you dance."

"I am sorry to disappoint you. Perhaps you should take my place."

For the briefest of moments, I tried to picture myself in such a position, taking Vincent's place and dancing with every woman in the room. I could imagine how annoying the snooty, stuck-up little princess's were, and how furious I would become by them. It was so horrifying that I shuddered at the mere thought. There was no way that I was going to dance with every woman in the room, or even ten of them for that matter. Unfortunately, Vincent seemed quite amused by my reaction.

He chuckled, "Well, if neither of us plan on dancing, we should go find Thomas and see what kind of invention he has created."

After imagining such a horrid scene, I was quite all right with spending a bit of time with my cousin and hear more about his crazy ideas. So, we began to make our way through the tightly packed crowd to the other side of the ballroom. As we chatted on our way, we accidentally bumped into a strangely beautiful and familiar looking woman. "We are so sorry, ma'am." Vincent apologized. "Have we harmed you?"

"No, I am fine, thank you," she replied, her voice sounding most familiar as well.

I pondered who she might be for a few moments. There were only a handful of women in the room whom I actually knew, and most of them I was not on good terms with. However, it was at that point in which I noticed her blonde hair and bright blue eyes that were partially hidden beneath her jewelled mask. Once I saw those eyes which fascinated me beyond belief, I knew for a fact who it was.

"Miss Hoffman, is that you?" My brother and I said in unison.

"I am not quite certain. I hardly recognize myself," she said. "That is an interesting mask you are wearing," she pointed toward Vincent.

Vincent blushed with embarrassment. "Yes, unfortunately my aunt made me wear it."

She giggled slightly, "I would not worry too much. Your cousin is wearing one with antlers."

That was certainly an interesting piece of information. As we searched the crowd for a man with such a mask, Miss Hoffman was kind enough to point him out to us before excusing herself. Sure enough, Thomas was wearing an ugly brown mask with tall black antler's. The antlers were so tall that I feared they might hook onto the crystal chandelier if he got too close to it. It really was ridiculous, and quite frankly, it made Vincent's mask look a bit better than I had originally thought.