She had no idea if he was gently teasing her or mocking her. “No,” she insisted. “You and I have seen each other all of, what…twice? Three times if you count my catching a glimpse of you in my father’s hall. You…stare at me but you hardly speak to me. When you do, it is to ask the strangest questions. I feel like you are trying to determine something, but I have no idea what in the world it could be.”
She clenched her fists at her sides and tried to slow the wild beating of her heart. She had never confronted a stranger before. A gentleman. A duke, for heaven’s sake! It wasn’t done, certainly not by someone in her position.
And yet this duke did not seem offended. If anything, his stern expression softened a bit, and he nodded. “You are correct. I’ve been odd with you and that isn’t fair. I would like to discuss it, but not here.”
She drew back. “Not here?”
He smiled. “Unless you want to do it in the middle of the quadrille while the entire room gossips about us dancing two in a row together.”
She looked around with a gasp. She had honestly all but forgotten where they were. Still on the dancefloor with couples returning to share the next. And they were staring at her and Brighthollow, probably utterly confused as to why they were standing in the way.
“Fine,” she said, grasping for his arm. “Where can we go?”
“The terrace?” he suggested. “It is private…or more so. And not inappropriate.”
“Yes,” she said. “Fine. The terrace is fine. I could use some air anyway.”
He said nothing as he took her through the crowd and out the doors that led to the terrace beyond the ballroom. The moment they had exited, she broke away from him and paced to the edge of the wall to stare out at the garden below. The moon was only a sliver of light above them, but the lights from the house made it bright enough.
She heard the doors close and caught her breath. It was only then she realized no other couples or groups were outside with them. She and this man who inspired such odd reactions in her were truly alone.
And though it wasn’t entirely inappropriate, just as he had suggested inside, as she turned to watch him come across the terrace to her, it didn’t feel very proper to her.
It felt dangerous. Thrilling. She’d never experienced this kind of sensation when she spoke to another person. It was so very…wrong. That was the pivotal fact of it. She felt somethingwrongtoward this man when she was engaged to another. Certainly if Aaron was feeling this way toward a lady Amelia would have been hurt, embarrassed.
Which was why she needed to end this conversation quickly and politely and be finished with the Duke of Brighthollow once and for all.
“I am engaged,” she said as Brighthollow got within a few steps of her. That stopped him in his tracks, and that dark gaze settled on her once again. Heavy. Unreadable. Unsettling.
“Yes, I know,” he replied at last, tension in his tone.
She drew back in confusion. “You know? How do you know? No one knows, not even my closest friends. My father insisted that we keep it a secret until it is announced in a few days.”
Brighthollow shrugged. “I have my ways.”
She glared at him. “You are a most frustrating person, Your Grace. Honestly, I do not understand you in the slightest.”
He arched a brow at her impertinence, the second time she had displayed it that night. It should have shut her mouth, but instead, she took half a step closer.
“You are being purposefully vague about this subject, though what reason you have, I cannot guess. Nor can I guess why a man such as yourself, a duke with power and privilege, would have any interest in the marriage of the daughter of a minor viscount. One who he never met until one day ago.”
He folded his arms. “I have no interest in who you marry, Miss Quinton.”
She shut her mouth at that assertion and the flare of disappointment that followed it. “No? You certainly seem to when you are finding me all over London and searching out who I am secretly engaged to.”
“I found you once,” he said. “To be fair.”
“Stop dancing around the subject!” she burst out. “You are playing games with me and I have no interest in them.”
His jaw set hard and a muscle there fluttered before he ground out, “My interest, as I said, has nothing to do with you. My interest in is your fiancé, Aaron Walters.”
She hesitated. “I…yes. That is him.”
“I promise you I would not have sought you out at all if it weren’t for the fact that he has entangled you in whatever his latest scheme is.”
His face grew harder. There was anger there in it. Not below the surface, but right at it. It rippled over his features and she stepped back at the power of it. One never would have guessed it was there with how he controlled himself so well.
“S-scheme,” she stammered, trying to remain focused on the subject at hand. “I resent that implication, Your Grace. My fiancé is certainly not involved in any scheme. He is a good man and does not deserve your…your interference.”
