“It was,” she insisted lightly. “I should never dream of offending my host.”
“But would you think it?”
She frowned up at him, caught off guard. His question startled her enough to make her forget the intoxicating scent of his cologne—or the warmth of his hand at her waist.
“I’m sorry?”
He looked down at her without smiling, his expression unreadable, yet she sensed a keen intelligence behind it. “I could not help but notice you earlier this evening, Miss Tremaine. And, if I am not mistaken, your expression suggested that you were not enjoying yourself.”
“I would never presume to suggest such a thing,” she said quickly.
“But would you dare tothinkit? That is my question.”
Her frown deepened. “It sounds, Your Grace, as though you wish me to admit that I am dreadfully bored and long to be anywhere but here.”
“How… descriptive.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “That is precisely the last thing I wish to hear. As host, I should like all my guests to depart content.”
“And I am certain I shall.”
“After this dance, perhaps.”
Elowen bit her tongue to keep from replying too sharply. She could not decide whether the Duke’s persistence came from good nature or sheer arrogance—and she did not particularly care to find out.
“I hope you did not feel obliged to ask me to dance simply because you thought I was not enjoying myself,” she said.
“Obliged? No. Inclined? Quite so.”
“I do not see much distinction between the two.”
“The difference lies in the motivation behind them.”
“And what, pray, is your present motivation?”
“I was curious about you.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. The only reason anyone was curious about her was the scandal that still clung to her family name, and that was the last topic she wished to entertain.
“How interesting,” she murmured, noncommittal, turning her gaze over his shoulder in the hope he would let the matter fall.
But of course, he did not. “Are you not going to ask why I am curious?”
“No, Your Grace, I am not.”
“And why not?”
“I think the answer would be rather self-evident,” she replied, her tone a little crisper than she intended.
“Ah, and now my curiosity grows,” he said lightly.
There was a pause, one she hoped would last for the rest of the dance because she wasn’t certain she could navigate this conversation any longer, but she had no such luck when he spoke again.
“I am not being particularly gracious, am I? Forgive me, Miss Tremaine. This is not at all how I imagined our first conversation would proceed, and I am already making a hash of it.”
That drew her eyes back to his despite herself. Her heart gave a startled leap to find he was already watching her closely.
“I find it difficult to believe,” she said softly, “that you imagined conversing with me at all beyond our briefintroduction. There is nothing of note in me to inspire such thought.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
