“Of course, you have a choice. I’m not going to drag you onto the dance floor against your will,” he told her.
She looked at him, and for a moment, he thought something in her eyes had softened.
“All right,” she said at length. “I’ll dance with you.”
“Very gracious of you.”
She allowed him to take her arm and lead her onto the dance floor. They fell easily into a slow-paced dance, surrounded by other couples. Allan was aware of people’s eyes on him. Of course, they were watching—the rakish Duke of Harbeck and the unattainable spinster dancing together was a true rarity, a sight to behold. He was sure people were gossiping about them.
“You’re a very good dancer, Lady Edwina,” he observed.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t sound like you mean that.”
“I mean it.”
“And yet you sound so ungrateful.”
“Do I need to be grateful?” she asked. “Why do you require my gratitude?”
“Well, I don’t require it, but I would have thought you would be appreciative of the compliment.”
“It was a kind thing to say,” she said.
“Most ladies are charmed by kind things being said about them.”
“I don’t know why you would assume that the tactics that work with most ladies are going to work with me,” Lady Edwina argued.
“You’re quite right. I should know by now that that sort of thing won’t work on you. You’re so icy!”
“I’m perfectly friendly,” Lady Edwina countered. “It’s just that I like to have the freedom to choose who I’m going to be friendly toward. If you had approached me and tried to strike up a friendship with me?—”
“Then what? Don’t ask me to believe this resistance is because of the way I won you at your sister’s auction,” Allan said. “Everyone knows that you turn away every gentleman who so much as looks your way.”
“That’s right,” Edwina snapped. “Everyone does know it. And I would have expectedyouto realize that it applies to you just asmuch as it does to anyone else, Your Grace. I don’t know why you feel as though flirting with me is going to get you anywhere.”
“Am I flirting with you?”
“Please don’t think I can’t spot a flirtation when I see one,” she said. “I deal with gentlemen who wish to earn my attention every day. I’m familiar with all their tricks. Every ounce of what they do is routine to me at this stage. There is no flirtation that you can attempt that would be new to me, and nothing you say or do is going to impress me. You may as well give up on it.”
Allan laughed.
“What on earth is so funny?” Lady Edwina demanded.
“It’s interesting to see how easy it is for me to provoke your ire,” he explained. “Not something I would have expected. I thought it was more like you were describing to me the other day—that nothing a gentleman could do would affect you. But it’s clear that I am having an effect on you.”
“It’s having an effect on me, all right. It’s making me angry!”
“That’s a start.”
“You think it’s just as good to make a lady angry as it is to win her affections?”
“I think that I’m making you feelsomething,and that’s much better than if you were in my presence and felt nothing at all. If anger is where you and I have to begin, then so be it.”
“You’re awful.”
He laughed. “I’ve heard that before.”
