“Yes but he understood your humor,” Rose pointed out.
“Andhe is clearly appreciative of your talent,” Amelia added.
Ophelia rolled her eyes.
“What hangs in the gallery is not a clear representation of my talent. It is simple regurgitation of an image,” she replied. “There is nothing real behind it.”
“Looks as if there might be some thing real about Lord Lexington’s interest in you, though,” Everett chimed in with a wink.
Ophelia felt the urge to close her eye and groan. If this was how her friends were going to be the entire night she would not make it.
“Be still, you vultures,” she half-teased, half-warned, then made a shooing motion. “Go, enjoy the party.”
“But what about you?” Theo asked.
“What about me?” Ophelia asked in return, “My mission for this evening is over.”
“Oh it certainly is not,” Rose said a with a laugh. “You are off to a great start, my darling, but you are nowhere near finished. You need to find other prospects. Perhaps even have a dance or two.”
Ophelia blanched at the thought.
“Is that truly necessary?” She asked.
“Of course it is!” Rose insisted, “You must show our counterparts that you are open to taking suitors.”
“Oh, I have an idea,” Seraphina said, putting her hand on Tristan’s arm.
His head swiveled to her in alarm, his expression almost making Ophelia laugh.
“Tristan will have a dance with you,” she said.
“Yes!” Theo agreed quickly,.
“I will?” he asked.
“It will do you both good,” Theo went on, nudging her brother toward Ophelia, “It will show the ladies that Tristan is still available and it will show the gentleman that Ophelia is open to accepting invitations to dance.”
Ophelia glanced up at Tristan again, her amusement gone as she remembered how her body body reacted the last time he had touched her.
“Tristan is a lovely dancer. Our dance worked wonderfully for me when I was still on the marriage market,” Seraphina said.
“Now,” Hugo interjected, giving his wife a feigned look of hurt, “I seem to remember that Tristan got you to the dance floor so thatIcould take over, not some random gentleman.”
Seraphina gave her husband an affectionate smile as she reached out with her other hand and patted his chest.
“Of course you are right, my love,” she agreed.
“Still, you should still dance together,” Theo urged. “Surely you can put your hatred for one another aside for one dance?”
Sparks traveled up Ophelia’s arm as she slipped her hand into Tristan’s; just as they had any other time they had touched in the last two weeks.
“I cannot dance,” she whispered as they took their places on the dance floor, “I mean, I know the steps, but I am horrible at them.”
Tristan kept his gaze above her head as he positioned her correctly in front of him, as if he was purposely trying not look at her.
“It is all right,” he murmured back, sliding his warm, large hand to her the middle of her back, “I will lead you. All you have to do is follow.”
Normally Ophelia would have a quippy retort about any man being able to lead her, but at that moment, she felt nothing but gratitude.
