There was a clearly calculating look in Miss Aldens’s gaze. She thought this would be an easy wager to win.
Felix clutched the book tighter. “I do not want the sketch.”
She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated with him. “What do you wish for then, Your Grace?”
“If I prove to you that waltzing is nothing more than a child learning to walk, you shall go on a promenade with a suitor.Andyou will be pleasant and friendly on that promenade.”
“I am always friendly,” she snapped before she started laughing. “Perhaps that was not so, but you bring out the worst in me.”
“Your worst is more horrific than the angry old goose that used to bite me when I was a child,” he teased, his cheeks aching from the smile that stretched them.
Felix could not remember the last morning he had spent during which he had been so amused. He would have to inform Stanton that he was growing rather boring.
Stanton would be thrilled to hear it and would only delight in making Felix’s existence more complicated. His friend would do everything possible to liven up Felix’s life. Felix half-suspected Stanton would rope Edith into his antics and start the hunt for Felix’s future wife.
Miss Alden shook head. She was still looking at him with wide eyes, her lips parted slightly with disbelief. “You just called me an angry old goose.”
“No, I simplycomparedyou to one.”
She smothered her smile, but he could still see the hint of it playing around the corners of her eyes and mouth. “I will be friendly and kind on a promenade with a suitor if you can waltz without dropping that book.”
“It’s a wager.” He grinned as Evangeline returned to the drawing room. “You will play a waltz for myself and Miss Alden, will you not?
Evangeline’s eyes shone with a good-natured humor. “I had come to collect the sheet music, but I suppose I could play a song or two.”
Felix smirked as he bowed low to Miss Alden. “May I have this dance?”
Isabelle hated the way her cheeks warmed as she slipped her hand into his. She hadn’t thought to wear gloves when she arrived for her lesson and now sorely regretted that mistake. Felix’s palm was rough against hers, his callouses brushing her soft skin in a way that sent shivers down her spine.
He held the book until Evangeline was sitting behind the piano, her fingers poised above the keys. As soon as she began to play, he put the book on his head. With a cheeky smile, he placed hishand on Isabelle’s waist and mimicked the steps Isabelle had practiced.
She still could not believe that she had been following a gentleman’s steps. If she had gone to the ball and done such a thing, she would have been the talk of the debutantes and their mothers the next morning.
She wished that the Duke was not so perfect in his movements. Each step made it seem as though they were floating on air while he led her around the room. Her heart raced as he swept her past the big windows that overlooked the garden. Felix hummed along with the tune as he danced, the book remaining steady as he looked down at her.
“Have you seen enough, Miss Alden, or perhaps you would like me to do the quadrille as well.”
“Very well. You have won your wager.”
“We have not yet finished the waltz.” He spun Isabelle beneath his arm and pulled her back to him.
She blushed hard as she stumbled over her feet, one hand landing on his chest to steady herself. She pulled it back as though she had been burned. “I think you have made your point quite clearly. You are a far better dancer than I could ever hope to be.”
“The Dowager Duchess is my mother. Did you not think she would put me through the same lessons she is now insisting you endure?”
“I thought you would have been excused from learning the dances.” Isabelle wished she had been granted such a reprieve.
She kept her gaze at the corner of the duke’s mouth, not wanting to look him in the eyes. If she did and found him staring back at her, she was certain her heart would leap from her chest.
“I am a duke. According to my mother it is my duty and my birthright to dance with every eligible young woman at a ball. And if I am to do so, I must be more skilled at dancing than the rest of the men in attendance.”
“And you did not think to tell me that before you made the wager?” Isabelle asked, her tone sharp as he spun her once more before dipping her low.
Her heart hammered like a herd of runaway horses and she prayed that he was unable to feel the sweat that beaded on her palms. Making a fool of herself in front of the duke had been embarrassing enough for one day.
Isabelle’s gaze connected with his as he pulled her slowly back to him. The duke’s eyes flickered to her mouth for a moment before the book slipped from his head and tumbled to the ground.
Though she reached for the book, he was the first to get there. “Miss Alden, your dancing might be horrid, but you do look radiant in the light shining upon you right now.”
