“Does that mean you and I will never waltz?”
“You have done marvelously tonight, Maddie. I can see you will become very popular. But I thought it was your intention not to cause controversy. We shall waltz at our next ball.”
She tied up the strings of her nightgown as if shutting herself away from him. “I should like that.”
The gesture didn’t go unnoticed. He leaned back against the pillows to study her face. “You need to avoid John Porter.”
“Oh? Who is he?”
“Baron Pickering.”
“Oh,” she asked airily. “I found him charming.”
“Nevertheless, I should prefer you to avoid him.”
“Are you ordering me to do so?”
“No, of course not, but…”
“And shall you avoid Mrs. Spencer?”
He frowned. “You make too much of one dance with a lady I knew before you.”
Maddie wondered if they had slept together. Was she Hart’s inamorata before Maddie met him? Surely a man of his passions would not sleep alone in London.
“We are discussing Pickering. And my warning comes from a genuine concern. Much scandal is attached to him. He has ruined more than one young debutante.”
“I am hardly a gullible young debutante.”
“No. But you are unfamiliar with the ways of society, Maddie. You should look to Diane and me for advice.”
She sighed. “Very well, Hart. I won’t dance with Baron Pickering again.” She actually had no intention of it.
She took note that he offered no such promise about Mrs. Spencer. Her heart throbbed with distress. Was she being foolish? She put her hand to her mouth and yawned. “I’m sorry I am so cross. It’s just that I am most dreadfully tired.”
Hart rose from the bed. “Yes, you must be, sweetheart. I shall sleep in my bed tonight.”
Maddie watched him leave the room. How lonely it was without him.
She should not have mentioned Mrs. Spencer. Most wives would have kept it to themselves. She chewed her bottom lip. But she knew she was not like most wives. She wanted a marriage filled with loyalty and love. Not the shabby substitute Lord Pickering might offer a lonely wife.
The next morning, Maddie rose early and dressed. She sought Hart in his suite, where his valet shaved him. “Good morning.” Hart rose and wiped his face with a towel. “Leonard, we are finished here. Go down and eat your breakfast. I shan’t need you for the rest of the day.”
Hart wore a navy banyan with gold braid over his trousers. “You’re up early, sweetheart.”
“I…I missed you.”
He drew her into his arms, his hand stroking her back. “I missed you too.” He kissed her neck beneath her ear, sending a thrill rushing through her. “Come and lie down. We need to talk.”
Talk? There would be little talk involved, Maddie suspected. But she was so pleased to be with him, she took his hand and walked with him into his adjoining bedchamber, decorated in the somber tones of gray and black except for the crimson bedhangings on the enormous carved-oak bed.
Apart from a brief look in through the door, Maddie had never been into this male domain. Until last night, Hart had never slept here. Maddie glanced at the door between the dressing room and the bedchamber. Might Leonard return? “Someone might come in.”
“Most unlikely. But I shall remedy that.” Hart drew her over to the bed. He untied the silken cords which held the curtains back against the posts. They fell free, leaving him and Maddie cocooned inside among the rumpled sheets in the rosy-tinged space. She leaned her head back on the pillows. “This seems entirely too wicked.”
Hart leaned over her, and a corner of his mouth quirked. “Does it? Shall we make it so then?”
Maddie giggled breathlessly. She would use all her newfound skills to make him remember this moment. She must be cleverer than she had been. Smarter certainly than Mrs. Spencer, whom she was now sure intended to claim Hart as her lover.
