Lord Diamond’s eyes flickered over her from head to toe, but thankfully, he made no comment. If he had, she might have growled with irritation.
“It sounds as though you are going above and beyond to ensure Lady Susanne has a successful evening,” he said.
Alice thought that was well put, although she could have done without his impertinent perusal. In any case, it was time to do her duty.
“Do you wish to dance?” she asked him, and then remembered to add, “With Lady Susanne?”
He looked at Alice a long moment before turning his attention back to where it belonged.
“Indeed. May I have the honor of the next dance, my lady?”
Susanne’s cheeks instantly went red and a wide smile pushed them out to double their size. She looked like a lovely chipmunk.
Alice wished the girl would tamp down her emotions, at least not be quite so blatantly enthusiastic.
“Thank you, my lord. I would be pleased to do so.”
The evening was as long as Alice had assumed it would be, and Susanne was as successful as predicted. She was never in want of a partner. Moreover, Lord Diamond asked for and received a second dance. Perhaps she had already made a conquest.
Alice shivered at the notion of Susanne rushing into a marriage agreement. If Lord Diamond had tried for a thirddance, Alice would have rebuffed him even though she and Susanne had assisted his entrance into Bath’s society by taking him around and introducing him to Susanne’s friends and acquaintances between dances.
Alice was proud of her, sure no other young lady would be so magnanimous.
Toward the end of the ball, in fact, Lord Diamond approached again despite Susanne being already partnered and waiting for the music to begin.
“You are too late,” Alice said, oddly pleased to thwart him. He was a tad too cocksure of himself.And why not?Like everyone else, she had heard of the Diamond earldom with its long bloodline and the current large, happy family.
“I didn’t come for Lady Susanne. I came to ask you if you wished to dance with me. I would be honored,” he said politely.
Her breath caught, and her heart raced at the unexpected invitation.
“Chaperones don’t dance,” she said at last, barely getting the whispery words out upon a rush of air.
He smiled. “Some don’t because they are ancient and incapable. You appear to be neither.”
“I have a job to do,” she reminded him a little sharply, having regained her poise and her tongue.
Glancing to where Susanne chatted with her partner, Lord Diamond shrugged.
“She will be safe enough on the dance floor. Even more so if you are dancing nearby.”
With that, he held out his hand.
Unable to think of an excuse and starting to feel foolish for protesting so vehemently, she placed her hand in his, unprepared for the shocking tingling that went through her.
Attributing it to how long it had been since she’d been touched by a man, she squared her shoulders and let him leadher to the floor. Whether by design or as happenstance, he took a place that wasn’t directly beside her charge. For that, she was grateful. Knowing Susanne’s spiritedness, the young lady would mostly likely have exclaimed with delight that her chaperone was dancing and wearing her new dress.
Silently, Alice faced him and curtsied, receiving his bow as the music began.
She had to stop herself from being taken back to the last time she’d danced. Focusing upon Lord Diamond, she thought him too good looking, too tall, too assured, and an excellent dancer.Perfect for Susanne if his nature matched his demeanor.
The music’s pace picked up. As they spun and turned together, Alice let a little ray of happiness seep between the cracks in her shell of disillusionment.
“You are an excellent dancer,” Lord Diamond said when they were halfway through.
“I love to dance,” Alice confessed, not knowing why she told him any such thing. It was true, though. She’d been the belle of many a London ball a few years back.
A question was in his eyes, and she knew what it was:When do governesses have the opportunity to dance?
