The smile faded, and he was far too serious, his customary gravity returned. He released her, taking a step back, and offered her the most formal, elegant bow of any she had ever beheld.
“My lady, may I have the honor of this waltz?” he asked softly.
“Now?” she asked. “Here?”
“Now. Here.” He offered her his hand.
“But we haven’t any music.”
“Shall I hum?”
His offer was so unlike him, so unprecedented, that a laugh stole from her lips before she could stop it. Lighthearted, that laugh. It was the laugh of the woman she’d been before death had stolen her levity from her. She clapped a hand over her mouth to smother it, lest anyone overhear them.
One scandal in Hunt House was quite enough for the day.
Theo arched a brow. “Shall I keep from humming? I only wish to please you.”
She lowered her hand, still sensing the sadness within him, knowing he needed a distraction as much as she did.
“You do please me,” she said quietly, sobering. “You please me greatly.”
And then she dipped into a curtsy as if she were a debutante making her presentation at court years ago, before placing her hand in his.
“Let me please you more, Marchioness.” He pulled her gently back into his arms, holding her nearer than would have been considered polite in the ballroom, and yet, his form was quite perfect.
Had there been any ice remaining in her heart, it would have melted then and there, as he prepared to waltz with her in her chamber at half past one in the morning. What an astonishing man he was. How would she ever let him go?
He began humming and sweeping them about the room. She learned something new about him. Theo was an excellent dancer. But she supposed she should hardly be surprised. He always moved with such stealthy, innate grace. Of course, that same flawless, sleek motion would extend to dancing. But she couldn’t help but to feel as if she had just discovered one of his secrets.
For no humbly born man would possess such undeniable skill at waltzing.
“You dance beautifully,” she murmured.
His eyes burned into hers, glittering gray in the candlelight, their interlaced fingers sending heat skittering up her arm, past her elbow, and lower, to linger between her thighs, as they whirled together. His hums died, and yet they carried on without missing a step, gliding languidly together as if they had always been meant to dance thus.
“You sound surprised,” he said, voice silken velvet. “Are all the London dandies so graceless, then?”
Dandies were not, nor had they ever been, the sort of gentlemen who spurred yearning in Pamela. But then, neither had Bertie. That had happened later, after their marriage. He had won her with his charm and wit. Her attraction to him had been so very different than what she felt with Theo.
“I wouldn’t know,” she replied as they spun together, “and nor do I care to dance with them and discover whether or not they are.”
“And yet you dance with me, a lowly guard in service to your brother.”
There was nothing about this man that was lowly.
“Surely you must know I see you as far more than that,” she said softly.
He slowed their pace, bringing their linked hands low between them. “You shouldn’t.”
“Life is far too full of things we should not do.” She paused, summoning her bravado. “For instance, I should not have fallen in love with you, and yet, I have.”
Pamela hadn’t intended to make the admission to him tonight. Perhaps not ever. But the difference in him this evening—the vulnerability lingering behind the mask—prompted her. Life was too precious to waste. Losing Bertie had taught her that. If she could have done, she would have told him how much she loved him so many times more before she lost him.
Theo stopped. His jaw was clenched, his expression all stern angles and planes.
“Love?” he repeated the lone word, as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
And perhaps it did. She did not know his past. For a long time, love had been nothing more than a pain residing inside her, sharp as a splinter, a reminder of everything she could never have. But that had changed somehow over the course of the last few days. Love felt like a second chance instead of a burden. It felt like hope again instead of agony.
