“Are you enjoying your time here?” he asked.
She shifted as her gaze darted to the great hall again. It was one thing to look at these things, but to observe them with a stranger…
“Er, it’s quite…stimulating,” she whispered.
“Indeed. I had heard a great many things about this place over the years,” he said. “But never attended before. I suppose for a lady such as yourself, it is more commonplace.”
She wrinkled her brow. “A lady…a lady such as myself?”
He nodded. “A courtesan,” he said. “Only courtesans would wish to partake in such things, I think. True ladies feel no desire for such pleasures, no matter what Marcus Rivers sells to create interest in membership.”
Juliana pursed her lips. There were a dozen things to be offended by in his suggestion. One was that women would not feel desire the same as men. She certainly felt it and knew her sisters did the same. No one could mistake their attraction and attachment to the men they’d married.
The second was his dismissive tone when he spoke of courtesans. After recent events, Juliana could easily imagine circumstances that would lead a lady to trade on her body for survival or even for mere pleasure. If that was the path, why shouldn’t a woman enjoy herself?
“Excuse me,” she said as she turned away from the man with a sniff. “I think I shall seek company elsewhere.”
“Wait,” said her companion, who seemed far less handsome now. “You did not even allow me to ask your price.”
She straightened her shoulders. “There is no price high enough, sir. Good evening.”
She pivoted then and stalked away, her heart pounding and her nerve sinking. God, but this was harder than she’d thought. One nice-looking person and he’d turned out to be an arse. And the only person who had really sparked her interest was…
She stopped in the middle of the hall as her gaze swept across the parameter and fell on the very man her mind was about to conjure. Ellis Maitland. He was wearing a mask, the same one he had worn the night before. And just like before, she recognized him. She would have recognized that casual way he stood, the strength of his fingers around the drink in his hand. The smirk on his face as he watched the crowd like a wolf.
That bastard.
She pressed her lips together as hard as she could and began to stomp across the room toward him. But before she could reach him, another gentleman stepped up to speak to him. She hesitated because when Ellis looked at his new companion, his face lit up with joy. Love. Her heart skipped at the expression. It made the man who so confused her seem…younger. Less jaded.
Who was this person who could change Ellis so much? As if in answer to her question, the newcomer turned slightly, and her breath caught. He had the same nose and jawline that Rook and Ellis shared. Another family member, it seemed. Another Maitland. He was younger than her, Juliana thought. With a bright, fresh-faced smile and an adoring gaze for Ellis. He was dressed well and had a confident air about him.
They spoke for a few moments, their heads close together. Then the younger man clapped Ellis’s arm and headed off into the crowd. For a moment, Ellis only stared after him, his mouth a thin line. His gaze almost mournful, despite the mask. But then the expression was gone. Dragged back under the veneer he chose to show to the world. He straightened his shoulders and looked back over the crowd as if his relative had never approached.
But she’d seen the pain there. She’d seen the connection and the heartache. And for a moment, she wanted to go to him and give…comfort. To take his hand and ask if she could soothe whatever fleeting pain he had allowed himself.
“No,” she muttered, pushing those thoughts away. Ellis Maitland might indeed be capable of love, but he was also capable of worse. And that he’d come here, that he was still intruding into her own plans, was unfair. She couldn’t forget that.
Her hands shook, but she shoved them behind her back as she continued on her path toward him. At last she stepped up to him. He looked over her in one sweeping glance, one much like the one the other gentleman had given her.
Only when Maitland did it, her body reacted of its own will. Oh, she hated how treacherous her longing was. This was an enemy at her side, not a friend, damn it!
“Leave me alone,” she growled past clenched teeth.
He stared for another beat, and then he tilted his head back for a laugh that revealed straight, white teeth and very interesting cords of muscle along his neck that were normally covered by a cravat. There was no remnant of the emotion he’d shown when with his companion. As if he had never felt it at all.
She blinked at how easily he covered himself. At how quickly he laughed at her. “Do not mock me.”
He returned his gaze to her. “I wouldnever, angel. I am laughing becauseyouapproachedme. You must admit, the rules of leaving you alone are confusing at best.”
She clenched her fists at her sides. He’d called her angel again. Damn him. “You’re following me, aren’t you? You’re here because I’m here.”
A faint smile twitched at his lips, but then it faded, and he seemed to grow more serious. His gaze flitted to the crowd, watching where the other man had left moments before. “No. As much as I enjoy watching you, I’m here for a much darker purpose.”
Her anger dissipated a fraction at those words. “What do you mean, a darker purpose?”
He shrugged, and she noted the tension around his mouth as he did so. Pain. She recognized the expression as one of pain, a mirror of what she’d seen when he was standing with the other Maitland. She stepped closer, searching his gaze since she couldn’t see his face when it was obscured by the mask.
“Were you shot?” she whispered.
