“Why wouldn’t we be coming?” Norman gave a lighthearted laugh that didn’t sound like him at all.
A delicious shiver ran down Susan’s spine. It wasn’t the laugh that had done it, though. She had heard gentlemen laugh like that countless times. No, it was the shared secret, incombination with his hand on her hip. It was so intimate. She knew him in a way no one else in this room could claim. She knew what was happening in his mind.
“Marina and her husband were here an hour ago,” Susan’s father explained. “They’re in the ballroom dancing right now. I waited to see you arrive, but you never did, and I thought perhaps you had decided not to attend.
“We wouldn’t miss this event, Father,” Susan assured him. “The Montgomery Ball has been talked about for weeks. Even as we were enjoying our honeymoon,” she paused and gave Norman what she hoped was a furtive, secretive look, “we were sure to plan to be available for this.”
“That’s right,” Norman agreed. “Little though I liked the idea of ending the honeymoon early, a ball like this one—where I could bring my new wife out and show her off—was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
“Yes, I suppose you would want to,” Susan’s father agreed, the expression on his face loosening. “You’d want everyone to see that you made a good match for yourself.”
“That’s exactly right,” Norman said. “A respectable and beautiful young lady, with charm and class, from one of the best families…” He nodded to Susan’s father in deference.
Susan was hard-pressed to keep a smile off her face.One of the best families? Her father was respected, certainly, but that was carrying it a bit far.
But her father was always only too ready to believe compliments about himself, and now he puffed out his chest in obvious satisfaction. “Well, I’m glad you made it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to come and visit you at Heathmare, too, of course, to see how married life has been treating the two of you. I would have come sooner, but I didn’t like the idea of disrupting the honeymoon.”
Norman nodded. “Yes, we haven’t welcomed any visitors in a while, although my aunt and my cousin were at Heathmare quite recently,” he said.
“You were happy to have them disrupt your honeymoon?” Susan’s father lifted his eyebrows.
“It was really no trouble,” Susan said. “They came for dinner, that’s all.”
“Of course, but I would have thought—as in love with one another as the two of you so clearly are—that you would want to seize every possible moment for yourselves. That’s why I’ve been staying away,” her father said. “I’ve done the same for Marina, and I know it’s been meaningful for her and for her husband to have that time to themselves. I think if someone had come knocking at their door, they would have been immediately turned away! And not by Gilbert himself, either. He’d have to have asked the staff to handle it, because I can’t imagine he would tear himself away from his wife.” He guffawed.
Susan’s face grew hot. “We have to have dinner,” she said. “There was no harm in Lady Keethroad joining us for the meal.”
“Not if that’s what pleases you,” her father said. “Though I must say, I’m less surprised now than I was to find you attending this ball. It seems you weren’t as caught up in one another as I imagined you might be.”
He eyed them shrewdly, and Susan had the sense that he was trying to figure something out.
Her stomach dropped.
Of course, it didn’tmatterif he figured it out. For Susan to be in love with Norman, and he with her, had never been one of her father’s stipulations here—all he cared about was that she was married. And she had satisfied that requirement. He wouldn’t mind learning that there was no romance between the two of them.
But if she had failed to convince him, that meant that she wasn’t doing a good job of selling the lie. That meant that other people might also glean the truth. And that wouldn’t be good for either of them. People would question why they had married so quickly. They might wonder if she had tricked Norman into it. And the whole thing would make him look bad, because people would find his position in society a bit less convincing if he was known to have married for the sake of an arrangement instead of for love.
Having her love made him look as if hebelonged, and that was what he needed.
A butler passed by with a tray of red wine and presented it to them.
Norman accepted a glass and then paused. “Is there going to be white wine served?”
“Yes, Your Grace,” the man said, offering a small bow. “Someone else will be around with that shortly.”
“Very good.”
“You like white wine, Your Grace?” Susan’s father asked as the butler wandered off.
“No,” Norman said. “Susan does.”
The words struck Susan like lightning. It was true, but she had never mentioned that to him. How did he know?
Her father looked from Norman back to her. “I’ve never known Susan to like any sort of wine,” he mused.
Norman shrugged. “She likes white,” he said.
Her father looked back at her.
