After dinner, the whole party had gathered in the drawing room. Though Sir Owen entertained his own gentlemen friends in the billiards room, Priscilla insisted that Dominic Prince join the ladies.
He’d seemed eager to do so. Indeed, Tess had never observed such a potent performance of ongoing charm in her life. No matter how many times he was asked similar questions, he answered with a colorful tale and flashes of that dazzling smile he wielded so well.
The ladies were enthralled after the first story, nearly spellbound as the next ones unfolded. Mrs. Wells was absolutely correct. Within a few hours, Mr. Prince had become the most fascinating man in Wiggenstow.
Yet after the second parlor game, when the entire party stood and the staff wound through the gathering to refresh drinks and offer delicate petit fours, he slipped away.
Tess immediately counted the ladies, wondering if he’d be sobrazen as to engage in a tryst during the dinner party. But all of Priscilla’s friends were accounted for and busy conversing.
“I suspect we’ve overwhelmed him,” Priscilla whispered after she broke away to approach Tess.
“Perhaps.” Tess suspected she knew where he’d gone. “Would you like me to have a look for him?”
“Would you?” Priscilla arched a brow as if surprised by the offer. “I fear if I leave the gathering, the ladies may panic.”
“Of course.” Tess wondered what that boded for the moment he’d actually depart for the evening.
“Thank you for bringing him, Miss Hawthorne.” Priscilla’s smile seemed genuine.
“Oh, I don’t determine where Mr. Prince goes.” To Tess, he seemed a man who would balk at the notion of any lady directing his actions or interfering with his wanderlust ways.
“Perhaps not, but word is that you two will be working closely together on the excavation of Fenbridge land, and he immediately looked to you when I invited him.” Priscilla leaned an inch closer. “Not to mention seeking you out with his gaze continually this evening.”
“There’s nothing between us,” Tess hurried to insist. Her stomach wobbled at the prospect of rumors about her rushing through the village.
“No, no, I never meant to imply such.” Priscilla reached out and laid a hand on Tess’s arm. “I’d never subject another woman to that after my own folly.”
“Thank you.” Tess nodded.
“Bring him back if you can,” Priscilla told her, then returned to the fray of chattering ladies.
Tess sat her drink on a low table and headed for the Walcotts’ billiards room.
To her surprise, a quick peek inside told her that Dominichad not joined Priscilla’s father and his friends as she’d suspected. Her next guess was the terrace. She strode toward the rear of the enormous manor house and stepped out into the cool night air.
She immediately drew in deep breaths, scanning the wide stone terrace for him, but spotted no dark-haired, broad-shouldered gentlemen lurking about. Still, she took another moment to savor the fresh air after hours spent among so many fawning ladies.
When she finally turned back toward the house, she noticed the lights lit in the ground floor library. It seemed odd that he’d seek solitude in such a room, given his treatment of books on the day they met. Still, Tess reentered the manor house determined to check.
The doorway to the library stood ajar, and she glimpsed him through the gap. He’d found the drinks cart and knocked back a snifter of amber liquid. Then he went to the cart and filled it again before running a hand through his hair and staring out the long library windows into the moonlit gardens.
Tess slipped inside the room, leaving the door cracked as she’d found it.
“I promised Miss Walcott I’d find you.”
He stiffened and drank deeply from his glass before turning to face her.
“I’m surprised you noticed my absence,” he said. “You were the only lady entirely uninterested in my travel tales, Miss Hawthorne.”
“I...” Tess didn’t wish to admit that she was as intrigued as every other lady present, but she didn’t want to be taken in by his appeal. She refused to be. They were partners in a business matter, and she was not the foolish girl she’d been at nineteen.
“You think I’m a fraud.” He lifted the snifter and emptied it.
It wasn’t a question, and Tess didn’t know how to deny the accusation. But she couldn’t stop the question on the tip of her tongue. “Are you?”
A laugh rumbled up and erupted into a deep, amused chuckle. “Of course, sweetheart.”
The use of an endearment he had no right to shouldn’t have made her pulse race, but it did. And when he took a step closer, she should have retreated, but she didn’t.
