“Watch your toes,” Selina warned, and MacKenzie laughed in that good-natured way.
Penelope had expected him to be clumsy, and she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps she just hoped he would have an unfortunate lack of timing so she could forget how much she was attracted to him and instead find fault with him. But he surprised her. He was graceful, and despite a tendency to want to swing her around far too enthusiastically, he listened to her instructions and followed them. MacKenzie could be trained, she told herself, as they moved about in the cramped area at one side of the room. Next, she would need to find a proper ballroom in which to continue his lessons, and with her tarnished reputation, that was always problematic.
As for the heat of his hand clasping hers, and the heavy weight of his other hand at her waist... Penelope struggled to ignore both. Yes, it made her feel hot and achy with a need she dared not give free rein while she rigidly held at bay any inappropriateness.
Until he drew her in closer, and she felt the warmth of his breath against her crown as he bent toward her, and the hard warmth of his thighs with only her skirts and his pantaloons as a barrier between them. Her heart began to thump, and her cheeks felt on fire. She was imagining erotic things again. Him lifting her up and pressing her to the wall, his hand under her clothing, between her legs, giving her the relief she so sorely needed.
It was too much.
Penelope stepped back and managed a stiff nod at Selina to finish playing.
MacKenzie looked a little confused, and when she felt able to meet his brown eyes, they seemed reproachful. “Ihavedanced before.” He confirmed what she had already suspected. “My mother likes to dance, and when my father is not available, she dances with her sons. Cat too. We usually perform country dances, but occasionally something more formal. Dancing is no’ a problem for me, Miss Armstrong.”
“Your mother is a good teacher,” Penelope said, trying to sound less emotionally wrought. “All the same, dancing in a familiar setting is different to a formal dance in a ballroom with everyone watching.”
“I don’t mind them watching,” he said lightly. “TheGhillie Callumis a favorite with us MacKenzies. I can do that if you like?” And he was smiling again, that hint of wickedness in the curve of his lips.
“TheGhillie Callum?” She stumbled over the unfamiliar words.
“The Sword Dance.”
“No, thank you,” she said firmly. “You can tell your aunt that I am very pleased with your dancing thus far. If you continue to do well, it is more than likely you will be dancing at her ball in three weeks.”
His expression brightened at her praise—Why was it so charming? “Are we finished then, Miss Armstrong?” He caught up his neckcloth, but instead of retying it about his throat, he pushed it into his jacket pocket.
“For now,” she said in her sternest voice. “We start again tomorrow. We will go for a stroll in Hyde Park and see how you manage there.”
As she gave him his instructions, he listened obediently, but she sensed he thought the stroll would be easy. However, Penelope knew that watching how thetonbehaved in various situations was not simple at all. He would be observing gentlemen and ladies meeting and greeting and learning how to ape them. A man like Callum would probably find such insipid social interactions tedious, but they were necessary in the world he wanted to enter.
“Good day then, Miss Armstrong. Selina.”
The door closed and Penelope wondered why the sitting room seemed bigger without him in it, as if there was more air for her to breathe. Surely one man could not take up so much space? She was still mulling over it when Selina came to perch beside her on the settee.
“Lord, that man! When he stripped off his clothing... I wanted to climb all over him.” Her eyes were sly as she observed Penelope.
“I am very glad you did not,” was all she said.
Selina was not that easily silenced. “You appeared to be a little breathless yourself, miss.”
“Not at all,” she retorted. But she was lying, and Selina knew it.
Penelope stood up. “I am going to visit my brother. I should not be too long... I hope.”
Selina understood this would not be a happy visit. “Sometimes,” she said sympathetically, “I think you have far too many worries on your plate. A man like MacKenzie may be just what you need to take your mind off them. I can tell he is interested in you, so why not amuse yourself? How could it hurt to have a little fun for a change?”
Penelope shook her head very decidedly. “No, Selina. Under no circumstances. If I allow myself to be distracted just once and I am found out... I could lose all I have built up over thepast three years. Polite society is very unforgiving,” she added glumly.
Selina pouted—not a pleasant look on a woman of forty years—as Penelope closed the door. What she had said was nothing but the truth. If she did anything to bring her already soiled name into disrepute, she would lose all she had gained. No more clients, no more recommendations. She would be set adrift with no prospect of earning a living, and what would become of her then? What would become of Mortimer?
He relied on her and that was all very well, but she had decided that today was the day she would have to tell him there would be no more “loans” from her. She would continue to pay for his share of his lodgings as well as items like food and clothing, but he would have to learn to stand on his own two feet. He needed to find employment and stop letting Uncle Bertie encourage him with his ridiculous inventions.
She went downstairs, tying the ribbons of her bonnet under her chin. Suddenly, she felt very weary. Had Mortimer really expected her to return to being a gentleman’s mistress, just so he could have more spending money? She did not want to believe he was so selfish. She hoped she was wrong. She hoped when she arrived at the lodgings he shared with Uncle Bertie, Mortimer would listen to her and understand.
But Penelope suspected it was going to be a very difficult conversation.
Chapter Seven
“Are you surethis is where we are meant to meet?” Angus was looking at Callum in a doubtful manner. The park, with its paths through lush green grass and shady trees, was hectic with strolling persons, while carriages and riders vied for space on the wider trails.
