“Very well,” she said, turning on the seat and placing her hands neatly on her lap. “About what do you wish to talk?”
A bleak smile touched his lips. “So formal, Theo. Is spending time with me so unappealing?”
Oh, she could not hate him when he looked at her like that. “Of course not,” she said, and when he held out a hand to her, she took it. “I’m just—I’m very busy.”
He looked at her intently, but he merely said, “I appear to have the misfortune to have married a social butterfly.”
“Is that not a duchess’s role?” she teased, but her tone fell flat. She fiddled with her dress. “That reminds me. I have a-an engagement tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes. I had not thought you would mind.”
“Of course not, if that is what you wish.” His gaze searched hers. “Would you like me to attend?”
With Sir Montague? She almost laughed. “Oh, you should find it boring.” She couldn’t seem to still her nervous hands. “Why, did you have plans?”
“It appears I don’t any longer,” he said, still looking at her with eyes that pierced straight through her. “Perhaps another time.”
“Yes,” she said, rising. “Perhaps another time.”
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
“We should talk about that kiss,” Nathanial said as she reached the door, and she froze. “I would not like you to think I am forcing my advances on you.”
“Of course not,” she managed.
“And it will not happen again if you don’t want it to.”
Theo mumbled something incomprehensible and flew from the room, covering her burning face with her hands. Of course he would think she did not want him to kiss her—she had run from him. Twice now.
But, of course, shedidn’twant him to kiss her. That would be absurd. They were friends, and friends didnot kiss. Friends did not circle each other like moths to a flame; they did not wake up dreaming about the look in his grey eyes.
For him, it had probably been nothing. A dalliance with a woman he, in the eyes of the law, owned. And for her, too, it would be nothing. She would suppress any other things until theywerenothing.
After all, there could be nothing as terrible as discovering feelings for one’s husband. They had married for convenience and she would not let herself forget it.
Chapter Twelve
When evening came and Theo descended the stairs, a mask dangling from her fingertips, Nathanial was luckily absent from the hallway. Thankful, but almost a little disappointed, she fled out of the front door and into the carriage Sir Montague had sent for her.
The masquerade was held at the house of a Mrs Chichester, and as Theo alighted from the carriage, she wondered if her dress was a little too modest. Women strutted like peacocks, dressed as Roman empresses, shepherdesses, peasant girls, and other costumes she could hardly imagine. She had dressed as a Greek muse, but her mask looked sorrowfully plain beside all the others, and she hardly knew how she would recognise anyone.
This issue was compounded when she entered the house. Masquerades were occasionally held at the Opera House and the Pantheon, and she had heard talk of them, but she suspected they were very different affairs. Here, nymphs and shepherds exchanged kisses by the pillars that framed the room,and dancers, in dresses short enough to expose almost their entire legs, clustered before the musicians.
She should not be here.
She barely had time to articulate the thought when a man approached. Tall, dressed almost entirely in black, and with a horned mask on, the only identifiable part of him were his dark eyes—eyes that in this flickering light looked positively wicked.
“Duchess,” he said, taking her hand and bowing over it. “You look exquisite.”
“Sir Montague, you recognised me so easily,” she said with a breathy laugh.
“Only because you gave me word of your costume. I should never have found you otherwise.”
“Good,” she said before she could help herself, and followed the thought with, “I have never been to such an event as this.”
“There are always those who choose to embrace anonymity for an evening,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away, to the side of the room where it was less crowded. There were plenty of darkened corners, she noticed, that many people were taking advantage of.
