He didn’t respond but began the first steps of the cotillion, hands high, their palms touching as they circled. As soon at their gloved hands met, she could focus on nothing but the warmth flowing through her.
And then they moved on through the line, dipping and twirling, always ending up reconnected as a couple until the dance ended.
“Are you thinking after this evening never to see me again?” he asked, his tone mocking.
Julia thought first about Sarah. Then she recalled the frisson of pleasure she received even with his simple touch while dancing, the likes of which she’d never experienced, not with any of the men she’d met and danced with in London, nor even with those she’d kissed.
The sensation of wanting and something more — akin to affection — seemed to be growing every time she was near the earl. And of course, there was the garden tryst when he...
“Yes,” she blurted, finally answering his question. “It would be for the best if we never were alone again.” Because she would give in to him, shamelessly, wantonly, willingly.
“What about our ride in Hyde Park?” Jasper reminded her.
“We shouldn’t.” The notion ofnotriding with him put an immediate damper on the evening. Yet the earl wasn’t giving up.
“I didn’t take you for a coward. What do you think can possibly happen if we ride three feet apart?” His sardonic smile gave her pause.
When he put it that way, it seemed foolish to call off their plans.
“Very well. If the weather ever turns fine again.” And she left it at that.
***
JASPER WAS DELIGHTEDLady Daphne’s attempt to deter Julia Sudbury from seeing him hadn’t worked. It nearly had. But when the evening came to a close, their plan to ride was still as intact as a virgin’s virtue.
In two days’ time, with the best watery London sun shining on the cool early-Autumn day, he showed up at Lady Worthington’s home at two o’clock in the afternoon having sent word that morning.
When Miss Sudbury came outside, a vision in her bright green riding habit with its black military ornaments running down the front and at the cuffs, she clapped her black gloves at seeing the attractive mare he’d brought for her. He nearly clapped his own hands upon witnessing her joy, as well as his own delight at the ease with which his plan was working.
After introducing her to the chaperone he’d brought, Mrs. Crowley, a matron in his employ for a decade who could well sit a horse, Miss Sudbury let him assist her onto the sidesaddle. The chivalrous act offered him a paltry, brief thrill compared to what he hoped awaited them shortly if she was willing. First, however, he wanted to discuss her nasty habit of going into other people’s chambers. She would be a more desirable bed partner if he knew she wasn’t going to knock him over the head and ransack his armoire.
He thought again of his sapphire cravat pin. With his groom making up the group, they set out for the park, entering through Grosvenor Gate, not far from his home, walking their horses in companionable silence until they were nearly at the southeast entrance of the King’s Road when he turned to her.
“Do you still have my pin?” he asked, deliberately hoping to catch her off-guard.
Miss Sudbury jumped, then turned slowly to face him.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her cheeks flamed with her lie.
Jasper sighed. “I think we’re beyond such prevarication, aren’t we? I found you in my room, which actually makes three times I’ve caught you, not two. And then my father’s cravat pin went missing.”
“Your father’s?” she repeated.
“Yes. It meant a great deal to me. I would like my pin back.”
She looked down at the pommel, silent for a moment.
“I do not have it,” she said to her gloves.
His heart sank.Had she given it away to some other man?
“I see.”
“It’s not exactly what you think,” she began, echoing the words he’d said to Lady Daphne, except in this case, itwasexactly what he thought.
“But you did take it.” He didn’t even turn it into a question.
She didn’t respond, obviously still unwilling to confess or to trust him. It didn’t matter. He knew the truth, and it was shocking. She seemed like a perfectly normal and nice young woman, other than her penchant for stealing.
