“But I simply must recover my breath quickly,” she said. “The waltz is next and I have been looking forward to it for longer than a week. So has Lucius.”
The Earl of Edgecombe was striding across the floor toward them, his eyes on Frances.
Viscount Whitleaf made Susanna a slight bow.
“This is my dance, Miss Osbourne, I believe,” he said.
“It is, my lord.” She curtsied and discovered that the evening reallycouldturn brighter and even more exciting.
“Doyou waltz, Miss Osbourne?” Mr. Crossley asked her, sounding surprised and even perhaps a little disapproving.
“I know the steps, sir,” she said. “I learned them at school—from a dancing master who is a stickler for doing all things correctly.”
“He is indeed,” Frances agreed.
“I have even given permission for Rosamond to waltz with Mr. Moss,” Mrs. Raycroft said, “since both my son and Viscount Whitleaf have assured me that it is danced at Almack’s. And ifyouare to waltz, Lady Edgecombe, then it must be unexceptionable.”
“We fell in love with the waltz the first time we danced it together,” the Earl of Edgecombe said. “It was in an assembly room not unlike this, was it not, Frances?”
Mr. Crossley was silenced.
Viscount Whitleaf held out a hand and Susanna placed her own on top of it. He led her out onto the empty dance floor. They were the first there. They could probably have waited five minutes longer, but, oh, she was glad he had not waited. This was the moment she had anticipated eagerly ever since he had asked her yesterday. She was going towaltz. Withhim. The happiness of it all was almost too much to bear.
“Well?” he said when they were alone together—though they were, of course, surrounded by their fellow guests. “What is your verdict on your first assembly? Not that I really need to ask, I believe.”
“It is that obvious?” She pulled a face. “But I really do think it is splendid, and I do not care how gauche I sound to you. This is my very first ball—at the age of twenty-three—and I am not even going to pretend to be indifferent to it all.”
“Ah, but itissplendid,” he said, holding her eyes with his own—as he had done with each of his partners. “Far more splendid, in fact, than any other ball or assembly I have ever attended in my twenty-six years.”
Which was a Banbury tale if ever she had heard one. She laughed again.
“Oh, but I believe you did not complete that thought,” she said. “Were you not supposed to add that it is more wonderful becauseIam here?”
“Iwasgoing to say that,” he told her, “but I thought you would accuse me of flattery and flirtation.”
“Indeed I would,” she said. “But really,areyou enjoying yourself? I know that all the other young ladies are thrilled that you are here.”
“Theotheryoung ladies,” he said, setting one hand over his heart. “Not you too?”
But she laughed and fanned her face. Talking nonsense, even mildly flirting, could be enjoyable after all, she thought, when both parties were well aware that itwasnonsense they spoke.
“I will remember this,” she said, “all my life.”
“This assembly?” he asked her. “Or this waltz?”
The smile was arrested on her face for a moment.
“Both, I hope,” she said. “Unless I fall all over your feet during the waltz. But then I suppose I would remember all the more.”
Other couples were gathering around them. The orchestra members were tuning their instruments again.
“If you fall over my feet,” he said, “it will be because of my unpardonable clumsiness and I shall atone by going home and burning my dancing shoes. No, correction. I shall atone by burning my dancing shoes andthenwalking home.”
She laughed once more.
And then stopped laughing.
He had set his right hand behind her waist and taken her right hand in his left. She lifted her left hand to set on his shoulder. She could smell his cologne. She could feel his body heat. She could hear her heartbeat throbbing in her ears.
