“Nowthat,” he said, “sounds like a challenge to my male pride.”
And he tightened his hold on her waist slightly and swung her into a sweeping twirl as they turned one corner of the room.
Claudia only just stopped herself from shrieking. She laughed instead.
“Oh,” she cried, “that was wonderful. Do let’s try it again. Or is that tempting fate? However did I keep my slippers from beneath your feet?”
“Ahem,” he said, clearing his throat. “I believe it had something to do with my skill, ma’am.”
And he twirled her again.
She laughed once more at the exhilaration of the dance and at the wonderful novelty of actually joking with a man. She liked him exceedingly. She looked into his eyes to share her pleasure.
And then somehow there was more. More than exhilaration, more than pleasure. There was…
Ah, there were no words.
It was a moment upon which she would live and dream for the rest of her life. She was quite sure of that.
The music played on, the dancers twirled, she and the Marquess of Attingsborough among them, and the world was a wonderful place to be.
“Oh,” she said when the music finally slowed, a sure sign that it was about to stop altogether, “is it over already?”
Her first waltz. And doubtless her last.
“Your first waltz is about to become history, alas,” he said, echoing her thoughts.
And then she remembered that she needed to speak to him, that apart from a little light banter at the beginning of the waltz they had danced in silence.
“Oh,” she said, “I need to talk with you, Lord Attingsborough. Perhaps sometime tomorrow?”
“Even before the waltz began,” he said, “I was eyeing those open French windows with some wistfulness. Now it has become a downright longing. There is a balcony beyond them. And, more important, there is cool air. Shall we stroll out there if you have not promised the next set?”
“I have not,” she said, looking toward the open doors and the lamplit darkness beyond. Perhaps after last evening it would not be wise…
But he was offering his arm, and she took it. He steered her through the crowds until they stepped out onto the balcony.
Tonight would be different.
Tonight they had business to discuss.
12
It was indeed cool outside—deliciously so, in fact. But theywere not the only ones who had taken advantage of the open doors in order to escape from the heat of the ballroom for a while. There were several people out on the balcony.
“There are lamps lit in the garden,” Joseph said. “Shall we go down there and stroll?”
“Very well,” she said, using her schoolmistress voice—he wondered if she realized she had two quite distinct voices. “Lord Attingsborough—”
But she stopped talking as he set a hand over hers on his arm, and turned her head to look at him. He had to speak first. Last night needed to be mentioned between them.
“Were you as embarrassed as I earlier this evening?” he asked her.
“Oh, more so,” she said with her usual forthright honesty.
“But you are not now?”
“No,” she said, “though perhaps it is as well you can no longer see the color of my cheeks.”
