“But he is your friend, is he not?”
Torrie’s lips twitched. “With the greatest of reluctance.”
Now she knew that he was teasing her. “You care for him.”
“Against my better judgment.”
Torrie spun them about again, the waltz nearly at an end now. “He has been kind to me, as has Hattie. I’m thankful to the both of them for making me feel as if I’m truly a part of the family.”
“Youarea part of the family, Bess.” His looked down at her, the same intensity she had been noticing all night burning bright in his eyes. “Have I told you how beautiful you are this evening, Lady Torrington?”
“You have.”
He had when he had come to her chamber to gift her the pearl necklace she wore. And at least half a dozen other occasions during the ball. In her new gowns, with her husband’s appreciation to bolster her courage, Elizabeth truly felt lovely. The painfully shy wallflower in ill-fitting castoffs was a far cry from the elegant viscountess she had become.
“It bears saying again,” he told her. “I’ve been thinking all evening long of how I might manage to whisk you away into a private corner without anyone else taking note so that I can ravish you.”
His words made an answering tug of desire pull low in her belly. “How scandalous of you, my lord.”
He grinned. “Never say I’ve shocked you.”
He had certainly shocked her in many ways during the weeks of their marriage thus far. And every one of those ways had been quite good.
She found herself smiling back at him, unable to resist his teasing charm. “Of course you haven’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. When I was a debutante, I dreamt of a gentleman asking me for an assignation. How desperately I longed to be noticed.” She frowned, feeling foolish anew for the revelation. “I was a dreadfully awkward wallflower, and it goes without saying that no one noticed me at all, unless it was to remark upon just how unremarkable I was.”
The old, bitter memory returned at the least opportune moment. A plain, plump little partridge.
He frowned down at her, growing pensive. “Every person who ever remarked on you unkindly deserves a cuff to the head. Myself included. I’m so sorry, Bess. I wish I could undo the damage I did back then.”
It was silly of her to have mentioned past hurts, and particularly now, when everything between them was so lovely and smooth, when she was dancing in his arms as his viscountess whilst the crush of guests they had invited to their ball swirled around them.
“Forget I mentioned it, if you please,” she entreated. “The past is where it belongs.”
“Meet me on the terrace,” he said suddenly, urgently.
Her eyebrows rose. “On the terrace? Whatever for?”
“For a tryst,” he murmured, guiding her through another turn. “I may not be able to change what happened in the past, but I can do my best to make amends for it. If my lady wishes for an assignation, then she’ll have one.”
Elizabeth blinked at the sudden rush of tears burning the backs of her eyes. She mustn’t weep now, not whilst they danced together, an audience surrounding them.
“You needn’t,” she said thickly, past the emotion clogging her throat.
“I want to.”
The waltz came to an end then, and she released her hold on him with great reluctance, having greatly enjoyed the opportunity to dance with him for the second time tonight.
“Take some air on the terrace,” he added, keeping his voice low and discreet. “I’ll join you in a few minutes so no one will be the wiser.”
“Surely you can’t mean what I fear you mean,” she whispered, thinking of all the ways he had so deliciously seduced her since they had wed.
The smoldering look he gave her was pure sin. “Oh yes I can, love. Meet me there.”
With an elegant bow that had her dipping into an answering curtsy, her husband walked calmly away, as if he hadn’t just turned her knees to pudding.
And that was when Elizabeth realized that hertendrefor Viscount Torrington had never truly faded with the intervening years. No, indeed. She had never stopped loving him.
CHAPTER15
