James would have to make his dutiful presence known, but he might as well wait until the Prince Regent was fully in his cups and in the most joyful of moods.
First, however, he would see who else was at the party. Meandering around the room, over-furnished and crowded as all the prince’s residences, he sipped the claret. Superior wine, to be sure. The food would also be of the highest quality, making these tedious royal parties at least bearable. He nodded to Payton who had just arrived, nodded to two others he knew from Town, and then found himself looking for Miss Talbot again.
She stood by a gilded mirror, and thus, James was able to see her from the front and the back. The reflection of her fine dark curls and long neck and the way her ruby-colored gown dipped low at the back to display her straight back and creamy shoulders aroused him out of all proportion to what he was seeing.
Presently, she chatted with Lord Leilton, who was always on the shadier side of Sunday. At that moment, the man was sending surreptitious glances down the neckline of Miss Talbot’s bodice and grinning like a fiend.
James sighed. Leilton was a dissolute philanderer, careless and stupid. He’d left behind a bevy of illegitimate children, supporting none of them, despite being well able to afford their care and upbringing.
Feeling a little ill seeing the man leaning close to Miss Talbot, with her impeccably clean gloves and silly, romantic feathers, he couldn’t take his gaze away.Did she have any idea what a libertine Leilton was?
Although it was none of his business, James was of half a mind to break up the two, and then the musicians started to play. Dancing would go on at various periods throughout the evening as Prinny liked his parties to drag out and be varied. The prince might even play and sing a song later.
For now, their giddy regent was letting the trained musicians handle the music, and they were excellent, too. Not out of tune as Miss Talbot had hinted. Setting down his glass and moving swiftly, he noticed Leilton lift his dullard head, cocking an ear and realizing an opportunity to hold the beauty before him, if only for a wicked waltz.
James quickened his step. “I believe you promised this dance to me,” he said, offering her his hand. He thought she looked relieved, but he might be imagining it. In any case, while he whirled her around the small dance floor, he would take the opportunity to warn her away from Leilton.
“Starting the evening with a waltz,” Miss Talbot said as they joined hands before he put his other to the small of her back while she settled her hand lightly upon his shoulder. “How exciting!”
James wasn’t a coddled innocent, but he had to admit he agreed with her sentiment. One minute, they were behaving in a civilized manner, talking, drinking, smiling, and the next men and women were holding each other, touching one another and not even exchanging partners. That didn’t happen in the natural course of every day. And it was absolutely fun.
The dance was long, and by the end of it, they were both breathing heavily.
“I would say we have earned a refreshment, unless you’re going directly back onto the dance floor.” A quadrille was starting up next.
Looking at him, with her eyes bright, her cheeks flushed, and her lips even appearing redder, James felt the now-familiar surge of desire. When she licked her lips, he bit back a groan.
“I think I would like some lemonade or barley water if it’s being served,” she said, “and then maybe a walk outside.”
“The closest thing to lemonade might be champagne,” James told her wryly.
They both laughed at the Prince Regent’s excess.
“Then I shall have to suffer with champagne,” she teased, and they located a server.
“How can it be cold?” Miss Talbot wondered.
“Everyone is drinking so swiftly, it hasn’t had time to sit around and warm up,” he mused.
“I realize that, but where is it coming from?”
“Just because we are not in London, as you pointed out earlier, it doesn’t mean we don’t have all the comforts of Town,” James reminded her. “Prinny has a massive ice house on the property. Have you had a tour yet?”
“No, I haven’t. Are you offering?” She batted her eyelashes over her dark brown eyes.
He glanced at her sharply, recalling her trap in London. After they’d got on so well at Apsley House, he’d sought her out at the following ball on Grosvenor Square, and she’d asked him if he wished to show her around, particularly the library. Naturally he’d imagined she intended they find a private spot and swive like randy dogs, for she certainly had that effect on him.
Instead, in a well-lit library, which should have been his first clue something wasn’t right, while he’d pressed her onto the tufted divan, his passion soaring, suddenly, the door opened to his right. Their hostess, Lady Sullivan entered with what sounded like a gaggle of female guests behind her.
Their esteemed hostess took one look at his appalled face, as he lunged over Miss Talbot to hide her identity, and then Lady Sullivan backed out, closing the door with a bang. She must have trod on a few toes behind her, but he heard her firmly shepherding the party away from the library.
“I cannot breathe,” Miss Talbot had complained, and he’d climbed off of her with all due haste, his ardor not only cooled but absolutely frozen.
“How did you know they were coming in here?” he’d raged for she’d shown not the least bit of surprise nor worry. Worse, at his club he’d heard her name from the lips of another single man who’d said she’d tried to get him to kiss her in the garden just as a group of guests were approaching. He’d dismissed the words as a bitter tale due to unwanted advances.
But her cheeks had grown rosy with a blush of guilt.
“I heard you’d played this game before, but I didn’t believe it,” he said. “Why would a pretty viscount’s daughter need to trap a husband in such an underhanded way?”
