Chapter 5
Walker felt that every eye was upon him as he watched Lady Belinda move closer until she stopped only feet in front of him.
He smelled her fragrance first…jasmine and damask rose, a seductive combination that would stir any man’s senses.
Just as his senses were aroused by her incomparable blond beauty for again, how could any man’s not be? Yet what struck him next was the cool appraising glint in her eyes, the stunning blue devoid of any warmth that would have made her almost impossible to resist.
A warmth he’d glimpsed in another young woman’s eyes tonight, innocent and sincere, that even now made his blood course hotter at the memory of it.
He knew Marguerite Easton stood not far behind him. That she must be watching him and wondering, her breath coming faster with the rapid rise and fall of her breasts.
She hadn’t needed to say a word for him to know she’d felt much as he had when they had danced together, her rosy lips parted and her gaze locked with his. He hadn’t wanted the moment to end and neither had she. It was all he could do not to turn around and give her a reassuring glance, but now was not the time. He had Jared—by God, his best friend!—to deal with first and his father’s lofty expectations.
Yet he knew he had made his choice for a bride, the rightness of his sudden decision as plain as day to him. He must take a wife…and it wasn’t the beautiful woman standing in front of him though Lady Belinda gazed at him as if she already imagined their wedding day.
“I would never have thought it possible,” she breathed, her voice as silky as cream. “You look so much like my beloved Andrew…”
Her softly uttered sentiment didn’t reach those cool blue eyes, and Walker found himself wondering if Lady Belinda had loved his twin brother at all, poor devil. No wonder his true mother, Anne, hadn’t cared for her.
Lady Belinda glided a step closer and he inclined his head gallantly, though he felt reluctant to kiss her proffered gloved hand as he had Marguerite’s. It seemed everyone around them had their ears pricked to their every word, and even Prince George watched with great interest from his gilded chair while he quaffed his wine.
“My lady,” Walker murmured, pressing his lips only briefly to the top of her hand before straightening again to face her. “I’m sorry for your loss—”
“Call me Belinda, please,” she broke in, and then gave a plaintive sigh. “A pity, truly, but what better end than to so gallantly give one’s life for one’s homeland.” She glanced pointedly at Prince George, who raised his goblet to her, and then back to Walker, placing her hand upon his forearm. “As soon as I heard you were alive, I hoped for your return, Alexander. And now you’re here! It’s a miracle, is it not?”
She hadn’t directed her query to Walker but to the surrounding crowd, who broke into enthusiastic applause and nods of approval. Clearly she was a woman used to swaying others with her charm, and she focused all of her feminine wiles now upon Walker by flashing him a brilliant smile.
“I’m so happy that we’ve finally met! Dance with me, Alexander. We’ve so much to talk about…so much to share with each other.”
Now Walker did hear an audible gasp from somewhere behind him, and he didn’t have to guess that it had been Marguerite. His first thought was to politely decline. Yet Belinda was already moving toward the center of the room in a swaying rustle of silk as if she had no doubt at all he would follow, while Prince George roared for his courtiers to join them as well.
Walker sighed to himself and strode after her, a night that hadn’t seemed so dismal once he’d seen Marguerite now looming ahead of him again.
He didn’t glance in her direction, he couldn’t at that moment. Strangely he felt so bound to her already that the last thing he wanted to see was hurt in her eyes.
Beautiful brown eyes tinged with iridescent green that had mesmerized him and made him feel wholly unlike he had ever felt before.
He had never allowed himself to care for any woman before, only availing himself of carnal pleasures…which he imagined was why Jared had appeared so irritated with him tonight. Of course Jared would be protective of his wife’s best friend’s sister—but dammit, did he think that Walker had no heart? That he couldn’t change once he had met—formally, this time—the angel of his dreams?
Soft sultry laughter tore him from his thoughts as Belinda turned around and fairly sank into his arms, the music swelling around them.
Only then did Walker glance past the other dancers to the throng still gathered around Prince George to discover that Marguerite, Donovan, Lindsay, the Arundales…all of them were gone.
***
