But as Faye poured drinks from a sideboard and handed each of us a pale liquor in a small tumbler, I frowned.
I didn’t want to drink. “I think I need to get back to Don—”
“No, no, dear. Don’t worry about your General. He’s with the men. He’ll beverywell taken care of,” Faye said loudly.
I didn’t like the looks that several of the women exchanged at that.
“I’m sure he is, but—” I leaned forward to press my complaining toes back into my shoes, then sat up, desperate to get out of that room and feeling a touch reckless. “I’m returning to the ball.”
“No!”
“You’ll only regret it.”
“If Naryn is still there, she’ll have words to say to you,” the woman who’d laughed at Hanson’s cutting remark at the married woman—Naryn, apparently—said with a frank, pointed look at me.
Ugh.
But I didn’t want to sit here drinking, either.
“I’ll avoid her,” I said firmly and got to my feet. “If Donavyn hasn’t yet returned, perhaps I’ll enjoy a dance with someone else, or—”
“I would be more than happy to escort you, Lady Brennan.”
The room went utterly silent. I turned to find Lord Hanson standing in the doorway looking very elegant, very sober, and very intense.
54. A Frank Discussion
~ BREN ~
I circled the ballroom in Hanson’s arms, sweating slightly. He’d been utterly polite, and a gentleman. He’d touched me nowhere but my hand and hip, as required by the dance. And he hadn’t said anything even the least suggestive. But I didn’t trust him. And yet, I couldn’t risk turning him away, either. He was precisely the kind of Lord who’d be entrusted with the deeper strategies of the kingdom. And if he liked me, I needed to use that.
“You dance very… sweetly,” he said with a small, half-smile.
I snorted. “I amveryunpracticed. And you’re very good with words, Sir.”
“I told you, when we’re alone you should simply call me Hanson.”
I looked around the ballroom pointedly. “Alone?”
“No one else can overhear us, that is enough.”
“You’re very kind,my Lord,”I said pointedly.
He rolled his eyes. “Dear God, woman, stop watching your words. I’d far rather dance with a brutally honest dragon rider, than the demure debutante.”
I took a breath, then raised my eyes to meet his boldly. “In my experience,Hanson,many men would make that statement, but few would actually mean it.”
He arched one brow. “You must have a great deal of experience withmen,to say so with such authority.”
My cheeks heated. I remained silent and pretended I was embarrassed rather than offended.
He sighed and shook his head. “Forgive me. It is reflex. In the jungle of high society, a cutting remark is a hunter’s sharp arrow.”
I didn’t speak, curious to see how he would react to thinking he’d offended me.
We danced two more turns before he tipped his chin down, his eyes bright and open, and met mine frankly. “Brennan, will you accept my apologies for my crass innuendo? I didn’t mean it, truly. I was a brute, and I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t the response I’d expected.
