The rest of the excruciating dinner passed quickly enough, and the ladies were being whisked away. When they returned to the ballroom for the dancing, he would make his move. Monopolize her.Don’t let another one of these charlatans put a finger on her.
When they reentered the ballroom, the sight of her almost stopped his heart as effectively as the afternoon sun. She was resplendent. She looked as ethereal as a moon goddess, dressed in silvery gray, the beaded cape she wore forming wide wings at her back. A moth, he realized, his heart seeming to tap at the back of his tongue. He recognized the costume. It was something of Maris’s. The dress had never fit her especially well, but she would wear the wings and the mask to afternoon tea, looking absolutely absurd sipping her lemonade with the antennae bobbing about her face, not that she could ever be told anything. Eleanor, on the other hand, looked completely precious. Alluring and goddess-like, and there was no time like the present to announce his intentions.
“May I join you in this dance, my lady?”
Her head jerked up from the conversation in which she’d been engaged, and her eyes flashed at him mutinously.She’s only surprised, that’s all.
“What are you doing here, Lord Stride?” The question was asked through her teeth, and even then, when she was clearly furious, her face red with anger and her eyes bright with fury, she was absolutely the most beautiful woman in the entire world.
“I’m a member of the monstrous peerage, Miss Eastwick. Why wouldn’t I be here?”
She had no choice but to accept his request to dance, although it was clear she wanted to tell him to sod off. They were the third couple in the quadrille they joined, and Silas was positive she was going to snatch a candle from the nearest candelabra and set him on fire.
“It just seems odd to me,” she continued in the same tight voice, “that you never thought ofmentioningyour attendance at any point in the past month, my lord. Up to and including thisverymorning when you said goodbye as if it was the last time we would ever see each other.”
The music started, and they were forced to play their roles. A bow and a curtsy, waiting their turn to join the square. “Little moth, it’s important to tell the people you care about that you do so each day. You were undertaking a long journey. I would never leave it to chance that I would have the opportunity to voice my appreciation for the time we’ve spent together. You look stunningly beautiful, by the way.”
She did not have a chance to respond, for they were moving then, light hopping steps, his hand at her waist and her nails digging into the fine cloth of his coat as she wished they could tear at his skin. It was a fast-paced dance, and she avoided eye contact with him throughout. He had known she would be surprised to see him, and her anger was not unjustified. But they needed to work through it quickly before one of these other jackanapes set his sights on her.
“My dear, did youdampenyour dress? I am positively scandalized and so entirely proud of your progress under my tutelage in such a short amount of time.“ He was positive she growled at him —growled! ? and her adorable display of rage was quite possibly the most endearing thing he’d ever experienced. They’d reached the end of their circuit, bowing again.
“Well, my lord, someone should’ve told you.” She stretched up on her tiptoes, pulling the lapels of his jacket until he bent enough for her to reach his ear. “The scandal is the point.”
The dance ended, and applause rang through the ballroom.
“May I have anoth —“
“You maynot. Dancing twice in a row with a single partner is an indication of a preference, my lord, a fact you well know. Now please, Lord Stride, I beg you — do not destroy my chances at success.”
He somehow found himself at a table full of what he presumed were similarly jilted prospects. “Roth,” he barked at a familiar glowing face. “Good to see you out and about, your grace.”
“Stride, you’re the very last bachelor in London I would expect to see at an event like this.” The speaker was a laconic naga, one whose trials with his ex-wife had been thoroughly covered by the High Tea.
“I suppose none of us need to wonder whyyou’rehere, Casselon.”
The viscount grinned, his fangs shining in the candlelight. “No, I suppose not. All of London has had a front-row seat. Rather like the exploits of your bedroom.”
Silas laughed, unable to argue. She was dancing with a minotaur, then an orc with a ridiculously outdated coat, chattering with a red-haired young woman against the far wall for a bit, and then somehow, in the minotaur’s arms again.
“Stride, you look positively green with envy. Don’t tell me you’re seriously here with your eye on someone.”
“Oh, I am, Warwick. I am going home engaged, and I am going to turn that Minotaur into thefinestpair of leather boots if his hand slips any further. But first, I am going to get very slightly drunk.”
Eleanor
Hewasruiningallof her plans.
It should have been easy, snagging one of these enthusiastic, eager lords. The minotaur seemed especially keen, but she wasn’t sure if she could get over his bovine snout. The orc lord in attendance was thick with muscle and stately-looking, but also deadly dull, and rather than assessing her choices thoroughly with a cool head, the looming presence of Silas Stride kept pulling her attention. She didn’t know why he was here, but if he didn’t disappear rather quickly, she was going to find wherever it was he slept and push him into the lake.
“What do you ladies fancy doing tomorrow,” the rabbit-eared man asked gaily to the circle of giggling women around him. Silas was there, edging around the back end of the group, and she felt as if she were being circled.
“It will surely be a fine day to go riding, ladies.” That was from the orc. She tried to focus on the breadth of his shoulders and the thickness of his thighs and not the boringness of his conversation and his lack of witty repartee. She danced with him twice that evening, well spaced so as not to show that she was overly interested. Each time had felt as though she were trapped, sinking in the thick mud of the lowlands, and it was a relief when the music ended, freeing her.Do you want to be entertained? Or do you want to feed your family, you silly little fool!
“It’s been many years since I’ve been riding, my lord, but if you don’t mind a novice in tow, that sounds like a delightful way to spend the morning.”
“Miss Eastwick, I did not take you for such an enthusiastic horsewoman.” It washim, of course. Eleanor turned her dagger-like grin to Silas, hoping he noticed it was more of a grimace.
“I take it you don’t ride, my Lord?”
