“Oh hush,” she told the poor boy.
The dance seemed to last an inordinately long time, far longer thanshehad ever spent dancing with Sir Montague, and when at last it was over, he was still unfortunately in possession of all his limbs.
“Thank you,” she told young Lord Bailey, who lingered around her as though he hoped she might pay him some more heed. “I must speak with my sister.”
He wilted, deflated, and Theo waited as Sir Montague procured some lemonade and Annabelle took her arm once more. “Theo!” she said with touching and naïve enthusiasm. “Did you see me dancing? I declare I had so many compliments.”
The prevailing fashion was for fair, and with her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, Theo had to concede her sister looked extremely pretty. Usually, she wouldn’t have minded—she’d have been happy, even—but today she wished Annabelle had been in terrible looks. Or better yet, stayed home.
The amusement reappeared in Sir Montague’s eyes when he glanced at Theo. “She made a charming partner.”
“Mama wishes to speak with you,” Theo said pointedly to Annabelle. It was only partially true; once her mother saw Annabelle approaching, she would be more than happy to scold her for dancing with a known rake.
And Theo had a bone to pick with said rake.
Sir Montague looked as though he was enjoying himself immensely as Annabelle left and he took a sip of his drink. “Oh dear,” he said, not sounding troubled in the slightest. “I appear to have upset you.”
“Not at all,” Theo said stiffly.
“I see. Perhaps you wish to dance, then?”
“You are mistaken.” Theo glanced around in search of Nathanial, but he was nowhere to be seen. The girl he had been dancing with, however, was safely back with her friends. Theo felt a wave of unreasonable relief. “I am not in the mood to dance, and especially not with a man who favours my sister.”
“Ah, so Ihaveoffended you?”
“She is mysister,” she hissed. “And we both know what kind of man you are.”
The amusement drained from his face. “What man am I, then, Duchess?”
“Don’t speak to me as though you are not aware of your reputation.” She needed to slow her tongue, but the events of the past few weeks had worn her thin; she was a threadbare rug left in the sun, tired and worn. “You took me to the masquerade hoping that by showing me favour, I would show you favour in return.”
His brows lowered over his eyes, which were so dark as to be almost black. “You mistake me,” he said, so low she almost could not hear him. “It is not your favour I was hoping to encourage.”
“Then what?”
“Can you not guess?”
“If that is the case, why dance with my sister?”
“I danced with your sister because I knew if I asked you, you would deny me. And I confess, I had hoped to make you jealous. Did I succeed, little mouse?”
Theo opened her mouth to tell himyes, but the words were trapped in her throat. “If you want my good opinion,” she managed, “do not make my sister fall for you.”
“Do you wish to be the only lady I seek?” His eyes were intense, boring into hers. “You have that honour, Duchess. You have had it since I first saw you, and if I have offended you, I sincerely apologise.”
“I—” Theo had not expected sincerity, not from Sir Montague. Dimly, she was aware she ought to be blushing, but all she could do was stare at him, suspended in disbelief and the creeping awareness that he appeared to mean everything he was saying. “You cannot be serious.”
“I have never been more so. Of everyone in the room, your opinion is the one that means the most to me.”
“More so than your family?” All of whom, save Cassandra, were in this room.
“I have no family,” he said, an odd, twisted smile on his mouth when she looked up in pity. “Does that surprise you? I suppose I must have had a mother once, but I don’t remember her, and my father denounced me when I fled to the Continent. I believe he has died since. So unless you include my cousin Nathanial and his siblings, whom I think you’ll agree would rather I werenotrelated, I am adrift in the world.”
In perhaps the strangest twist of the evening, Theo’s heart ached for Sir Montague. There was something behind his words, a loneliness, that spoke right to her heart. She had a family, but she knew what it was like to feel alone in a room full of people.
“Perhaps if you found a wife,” she suggested, “you might not be so lonely.”
Good idea, Theo. Look how well that turned out for you.
