“I still don’t understand how. What do you mean by catching your eye?”
“Look at me. No, don’t stare, that makes you look odd. Look at me, then look away—but keep looking back. You want to make it seem as if I’m the most interesting thing in the room, and even though you’re trying to turn your attention to other things, your eyes keep wandering back in my direction. As if you can’t help looking at me.” He watched as Lady Lavinia followed his instructions.
“That’s very good, actually. What you’re waiting for is a moment when you find me looking back at you. And when that happens,youdon’tlook away. Instead, I want you to give me a smile. Just a little one—perfect. You want it to be shy, as if to say you know you’ve been caught, but you also want it to say that you don’t mind being caught because youdowant me to see you.”
“Am I doing it right?” Lady Lavinia asked him quietly.
Her gaze lingered on him, and Seth breathed in slowly, looking back at her.
She was a quick study. He found himself thinking what a pity it was that no one had ever told her these things before—she would have learned easily. She was every bit as bewitching as her sister, perhaps even more so.
But at the same time, he felt grateful that she hadn’t learned to fend for herself when it came to social interactions. If she had, she would have been married a long time ago. That much was almost certain. That would mean that he would probably never have met her, and they wouldn’t be sharing the moments they were sharing now. He wouldn’t be getting to know her in the way he was. Even though it would likely have been to her benefit, he found he couldn’t bring himself to wish away this opportunity.
“Your Grace?” she murmured.
Seth cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. Did you ask me something?”
“You’re staring at me.”
“That means it’s working. Your charm is working.” He found himself unable to break eye contact with her, even though she had pointed out the fact that he was staring. Even though he knew that he was the one being awkward and strange now. The sensible, responsible thing would have been to look away, and yet he couldn’t seem to make himself do it.
He cleared his throat again. “All right—pretend I’ve said something funny.”
“What?” Lady Lavinia frowned. “What kind of thing?”
“It doesn’t matter. Anything at all. Just imagine I’ve told a joke that you find humorous.”
“All right,” she said, but she showed no reaction.
“Laugh,” he urged.
“You’re trying to make me laugh? Why don’t you actually tell a joke?”
“I can’t think of a joke on command like that,” Seth said.
“Isn’t that a part of being socially skilled? Being able to make engaging conversation? To make people laugh? I would have thought you’d be very skilled at it. If you aren’t, why are you the right person to teach me anything? Why will having lessons with you make me better at something you’re not that good at?”
“I do fine,” Seth said, clearly nettled. “I don’t happen to have a joke ready for you right this moment, so I’m asking you to use your imagination and come up with one. Do you think you can handle it? I want you to look at me and show me how you would laugh if I had managed to amuse you. Can you handle it or not?”
Lady Lavinia let out a harsh bark of a laugh.
Seth shook his head. “That won’t do at all,” he said. “You sound like a braying donkey.”
“Don’t be sorude. I’m doing my best, here,” she said. “And by the way, you don’t exactly look like the picture of charm yourself, with your lips puckered up like that. You look like you’ve just swallowed something sour.”
“Perhaps it’s because you’re not doing as well as you could be,” he said. “If you were, I wouldn’t look as if I had tasted something sour. If you were charming me well enough, I would look as if I had tasted something sweet.”
“The way you did a moment ago?”
Seth stopped. “What?”
“When you stared at me. When you told me that what I was doing was working,” she said. “You said that my charm was working, and your face softened like it never has before. You looked as if you were enjoying something. It’s…” she stopped.
“What?”
“It’s the most handsome you’ve ever looked,” she murmured. “Are you saying you looked like that because of me, Your Grace?”
Back away. You need to walk away from this, Seth told himself, sensing danger.
