“You two should dance,” Meg said, waving them toward the floor. “You haven’t since the party began, and if we are pretending all this is normal and right, then you must behave as you would at any ball. With you two that means dancing so close you scandalize the Upper Ten Thousand.”
Emma blushed, but for the first time tonight, James grinned. “Idolike to scandalize the Upper Ten Thousand when I can.”
Emma swatted him on the arm gently. “James!”
He caught her hand and drew her closer. “Come, Emma, let’s turn all their eyes on us, shall we?”
He smiled at Meg, then guided his wife away. Meg could see him murmuring to Emma, close to her ear, and Emma eyes went wide in response. True to his word, he held her far too close as the strains of the waltz began.
Meg sighed at the love they so easily displayed. They had overcome so much to have their moment, their future. She didn’t begrudge them that, but she was also more starkly aware of her own dire situation when she observed it.
“Good evening, Lady Margaret.”
Meg stiffened and turned toward the female voice that had said her name. Her frown deepened as she realized the person who had joined her was Sarah Carlton. She was the same girl who had danced with Simon earlier in the party, the girl Meg had been jealous of when she had no right. Judging from the sour look on her new companion’s face, it seemed the jealousy now cut both ways.
“Miss Carlton, isn’t it?” she asked, trying to strike a friendly, breezy tone.
The young woman nodded once and stepped up next to her, observing those on the dancefloor for a moment.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” Meg asked, struggling to behave as she would normally.
Miss Carlton shrugged. “Iwas.”
“Oh,” Meg said, praying this wasn’t about to become a conversation about her. “Is there something I can do for you, since our hosts are currently dancing?”
Miss Carlton turned on her, eyes narrowing. Meg’s chest tightened at the look, for it was clear this woman’s ire was directed at her. And there could be but one subject.
The one she was trying hard to avoid.
“You had a fiancé,” Miss Carlton hissed, thankfully not too loudly. “A perfectly good fiancé who was a duke. I think an even richer duke than Crestwood, if my mother is to be believed.”
Meg clenched her fists at her sides. “You and I do not know one another well enough to be having this incredibly impertinent conversation.”
“I don’t care if it’s impertinent,” Miss Carlton said with a toss of her blonde hair. “Great God, is any man safe? Will you bore of the Duke of Crestwood soon enough and move on to another? Will you suck up all the eligible men in the countryside and leave none for anyone else?”
“You havenoidea what you are talking about,” Meg snapped, her patience wearing thin. “Crestwood and I have been friends a very long time and—”
“Friends, my lady? Onlyfriends?” the other woman said, dark and cruel implication dripping from the words.
Miss Carlton blinked, and Meg could see frustrated and desperate tears in her eyes. She didn’t know the woman well, but she remembered Miss Carlton was in a rather bad financial state. If she’d convinced herself that Simon had liked her when they danced, Meg could understand why she would feel something had been taken from her. Something Meg herself didn’t need.
And Meg wanted to feel compassion for the woman. But right now all she felt was a desire to escape her censure and her anger.
“You are overwrought,” Meg said firmly. “And perhaps you’ve had too much punch.”
“I am not overwrought,” the other woman muttered. “I just don’t like to see someone grab for everything in the world because she thinks she can just take, take, take. My only consolation is that this scandal is so desperate that you may never recover. And when they whisper about you, I shall be the first one to tell them whatIobserved with my own two eyes.”
“That is enough.”
Both women turned and Meg’s cheeks flamed bright. The Earl of Idlewood was now standing just at her side, glaring down at Miss Carlton. He was an old friend of James, Simon and Graham, one of their club of dukes. In fact, he was the only one who hadn’t yet inherited his ultimate title.
Meg knew him, of course, for he had visited her brother many times over the years. They had always been cordial. But since the incident with Graham, she had sometimes felt his eyes on her…judging. Idlewood was loyal, and she sensed he condemned her on her lack of that quality.
“Lord Idlewood,” Miss Carlton said, her gaze darting away. “I did not see you there.”
“I would wager not, or you would not have said such wretched things,” Idlewood said softly. “Walk away now and go back to your mother. I’d also suggest you start planning on how you’re to tell her.”
“Tell her?” Miss Carlton squeaked out.
