Emerald ice looked into his eyes again. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
Good Lord, he was going to get himself killed. “No. A statement of fact. Since our…parting of ways, you have broken seventeen fans on me, and now left me with two crushed toes. That is difficult to forget.”
The waltz ended, and she quickly pulled away. “That was friendly enough for one evening,” she said, and with a curtsy glided away.
Tristan watched the sway of her hips as she left. Friendly enough or not, she’d managed to make him forget he was to dance the first waltz of the evening with Amelia. Now that silly chit would probably ignore him for the rest of the evening.
He gazed at her until she vanished behind the next set of dancers. Only one crushed toe and a waltz this evening. And if his suspicions were correct, the mayhem had only just begun.
Chapter 4
Noble madam,
Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.
—Henry VIII, Act IV, Scene ii
Georgiana’s friends pounced on her as soon as she reached the edge of the dance floor.
“So it’s true!”
“I heard that—”
“You actually did it, Georgie? I can’t believe—”
“Please,” Georgiana said, “I need to get some air.”
Together, Lucinda and Evelyn practically dragged her over to the nearest window. Pushing it open, she pulled in a deep breath of fresh night air.
“Better?” Evelyn asked.
“Nearly. Give me a moment.”
“Take several moments. I need one or two myself, after seeing you waltzing with Dare. He actually smiled at you, you know.”
“I saw it, too. Is he in love with you yet?”
“Hush,” Georgiana cautioned, closing the window again and taking a seat beneath it. “And no, of course not. I’m still laying the trap to catch his attention.”
“I almost didn’t believe it when Donna Bentley told me you’d moved into Carroway House. You said you’d tell us what you had planned.”
Georgiana heard the reproach in Lucinda’s voice, but she couldn’t do much to remedy it. “I know, but it happened more quickly than I expected,” she said.
“No doubt. But what about the rumors?”
“His aunts are dear friends of the duchess,” Georgiana countered. “I’m helping Miss Milly while she recovers from the gout.”
“It does make perfect sense, when you put it that way,” Evie said, looking relieved. “And I haven’t heard anything different.”
Lucinda sat beside her. “Georgie, are you certain you want to go through with this? I know we made those lists, but now this is very real.”
“And besides, everyone knows you hate Lord Dare.”
And everyone thought it was merely because he had kissed her and then she’d found out that he’d done it to try to win a wager. No one knew differently: not her aunt, not her friends, not the noblemen of the haut ton—no one but Tristan Carroway. And she intended to keep it that way.
“Don’t you think that’s all the more reason for me to teach him a lesson?” she asked.
