Sebastian blew out his breath while he struggled to find the right words.
‘It’s all right, Sebastian, you don’t have to be polite. She quite literally swept you off your feet, didn’t she? You know, if circumstances had been other than what they are, I would have liked to have been her friend. In fact, I admire her.’
‘Do you?’ he said, unable to hide his surprise at the echo of the words he had heard from Lady Kendall.
‘She has turned her widowhood to her advantage. It is said she has even caught the eye of Prinny in her time.’
‘The Prince of Wales?’
‘Her secret is keeping them dangling.’
‘Is that what turning widowhood to advantage means? Ithink your plans for a school have more to recommend them than being the mistress of rich and powerful men.’
‘There is not much in life for a lone woman. In the absence of social charms, a school is the best I can hope for.’
He shook his head and said in a voice husky with emotion, ‘I think that you have so much more to recommend you than a woman like Lady Kendall.’
He reached out to touch her cheek, and she leaned against his hand. His thumb gently stroked the line of her jaw and, when she didn’t draw back, he tilted her face up to his and ventured a kiss. Their lips met in a brief touch, and when she didn’t withdraw, he slid his hand around the back of her neck, his other hand sliding around her shoulders, drawing her nearer to him.
She gave a deep shuddering breath and brought her hand up to rest on his chest, not pressing him away but slipping up around his neck. He drew her into the shadows, away from the light of the ballroom.
‘Isabel,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘I think it is quite possible that I am falling in love with you.’
He heard her sharp intake of breath, but she made no attempt to pull away from him. He breathed in her now familiar scent of rosemary.
‘Sebastian, this is utter madness. We barely know each other.’
‘I feel like I have known you a lifetime, Isabel. I have confided things in you that I have shared with no one else.’ He kissed her forehead, the skin beneath his lips soft and warm. ‘Unless I am a complete fool, I don’t think my feelings are unrequited.’
‘Sebastian, I?—’
‘Bas, are you out here?’ A shadow fell across the terrace as Matt stepped outside.
Sebastian swore under his breath. He jumped apart from Isabel and strode to his brother, throwing an arm across his shoulder and turning them both back towards the ballroom before Matt could see with whom he had been trysting.
‘Apparently, you are supposed to lead us into supper. Fanny’s in a terrible tizz,’ Matt said.
‘Who am I supposed to lead into supper?’
‘I think Fanny is expecting you to do the honours with her.’
‘In that case, I shall find Mrs. Bracks. She is an agreeable old thing.’
One look at Fanny’s sulky mouth confirmed Matt’s opinion that she had been expecting him to lead her into supper. He let out a sigh of relief that he had negotiated that particular trap. Harry Dempster substituted for him and Fanny looked a little cheered as he paid her the attention she craved. The niceties of who would be seen to escort whom into supper quite defeated him. He was relieved to see Isabel on Matt’s arm. She caught his eye and smiled, the secret smile of a person who knew something that no one else in the world except Sebastian would understand.
Sebastian could hardly concentrate at supper, his head full of thoughts of Isabel and that brief, private moment on the terrace. For the first time, the memory of Inez receded, and all he could see was Isabel’s serene oval face.
Plans for a proper wooing and courtship jostled through his mind. He would be everything to her that Anthony had failed in, and he would make her happy. From that first moment when she had leaned over him in the hospital, he knew he had found his soul mate.
Chapter Forty-Four
After supper, Fanny claimed Sebastian for a cotillion, which he could hardly refuse after his dance with Lady Kendall. In contrast to Isabel’s fragrance of rosemary, Fanny smelt of rosewater and stale perspiration. She nattered brightly about the guests but failed to elicit more than a few polite grunts from him.
As the dance came to an end, she did not relinquish her hold on him. Her fan fluttered open and she began to fan herself furiously as she leaned against him.
‘I feel a little faint,’ she said in a small, tight voice.
Sebastian refrained from commenting that the second serve of raspberry ice he had seen her consuming might account for her indisposition.
