She gave a little sigh. “I really have no idea. I have no experience of such things.”
“Good God, where have you been, Miss Temple?”
Once again her clear gaze confronted his. “In an academy, my lord, teaching girls deportment and how to behave.”
“A schoolmistress? You don’t look old enough.”
He said it before the oddity of it struck him. But the inevitable question was balked by the arrival of the waiter with refreshments. Raoul took the glass of lemonade presented on the tray and handed it to Miss Temple, taking the wine for himself. He sipped, watching her lift the glass to her lips and gulp down quite half the liquid in a bang. She lowered the glass and touched her gloved fingers to the corners of her lips, drawing breath.
“I needed that so very much.”
He was amused. “So I perceive.”
She hesitated, fiddling now with the glass instead of her fan, which lay folded in her lap. He awaited what next she might say with barely contained impatience. Miss Temple was so very unexpected. She did not disappoint.
“Would you object very much if I were to slip away?”
“From my company or this party?”
“Both.”
“Yes, I should.” He surprised himself with the vehemence of his response. He prevaricated. “I will have pledged twenty guineas to no purpose. Why do you wish to slip away?”
“Because they may perhaps have returned to the inn.”
“They being this guardian and duenna, I presume?”
“Lord Maskery and Mrs Sprake, yes.”
He frowned. “Are you sure they are not still here? Either or both may have gone into another room.”
She studied the glass in her hands, or so it seemed to Raoul. Then she lifted her eyes to his and there was hurt in them. “She promised to remain within sight. My guardian was adamant she should. I know very well I could not attend without an older female, even though I am no green girl.”
“You may not consider yourself a girl, but you are undoubtedly green, Miss Temple. What do you know of Maskery?”
She flinched. “Not very much. I’ve known him as my guardian for years, but he did no more than see that I was placed in the academy in Bath. I believe it was he who arranged for me to become a teacher there when I should be old enough.”
Raoul was reluctantly disturbed by this snippet of history. Dumping the girl in some school was in keeping with what he knew of Maskery. This begged the question of why he had dragged her out of it and foisted her on an unsuspecting public. Yet he was hanged if he wanted to become involved. He hedged. “How old are you, if I may ask without seeming impertinent?”
She looked him in the eye again. “I am two and twenty, sir.”
“You look younger. I would not have taken you for more than eighteen.”
The brief smile appeared again. “I’ve been told so before. But I can assure you I am all of my years and I have been a mistress at the academy since I was fifteen.”
Startled, he eyed her with keen interest now. “You’ve been teaching for seven years?”
“You perceive why I have had no time to acquire feminine arts, no doubt.”
He had to smile. “You don’t need them, Miss Temple. I must beg you will refrain from trying.”
She neither smiled nor laughed. “I should doubt whether I will have the slightest use for them, my lord. I foresee an early return to the academy, for I cannot think my career in theTonis likely to last beyond this night.”
CHAPTER TWO
A loud cheer from the ballroom distracted Felicity’s jumping thoughts. Lord Lynchmere glanced towards the sound, a wry twist to his lips.
“You need not repine. To be obliged to endure this sort of thing is, I assure you, more a penance than a pleasure.”
