“Tinlow, yes.” Georgiana nodded as though she could picture the place in her memories. “Doesn’t the name itself just sound like a dream?”
Lady Diana looked between us. She had a long face. Angular features. Brown hair, porcelain skin, and a healthy set of teeth. Well enough for my purposes. She’d been an eager conversationalist, as had the majority of the room so far, much to Georgiana’s delight. But I was exhausted from socializing. And deucedly bad at conversation. I was starting to wonder if perhaps I’d made a mistake trying to find a wife the modern way. I could have simply pulled a name out of a jar and been done with it. I’d all but done so with Miss Newbury, though, and look how that had turned out.
I’d found Miss Newbury not long after reentering the ballroom. Dark brown hair and a slim, delicate figure. Wearing white, she looked exactly as I’d left her. Unlike her dreadful husband, shorter than I was by a whole head, though even I had to admit he cut an intimidating figure. Last I saw him—saved himfrom a brutal attack, per the gossip papers—the man was all but bleeding out. Now, his bruises and wounds were all healed. His face a natural color. And he was grinning.
He had her tucked into his side a few arms’ lengths away from us.
“You’re clenching your fists, my dear, darling friend,” Miss Wood whispered from my side. “And it wouldn’t hurt you to smile.”
Deuces, she was right. I was in a state, and for what? I didnot care one whit about Miss Newbury. I had certainly never loved her. It was theprinciple. She’d made me a promise, and she’d broken it. Worse, she’d made me look like an utter fool. And that was unforgiveable.
The closer we moved to them, the heavier the stares seemed to weigh on my back.
“I hope to see you both again soon.” Lady Diana curtseyed. My attention snapped back to her.
“As do I,” Georgiana said with that plastered, tight smile. She widened her eyes and nodded once sharply in Lady Diana’s direction.
My cue.I bowed. “It would be a pleasure.”
And she was off. I let out a breath of relief.
“Apleasure.” Georgiana whispered through her teeth as we turned from them. “You, Duke, are hopeless.”
“What is wrong with ‘a pleasure’?”
She shook her head. “Women want to hearmore. We want, ‘I would dearly love to call upon you, and I shall count the hours!’ Or, ‘It was an utter joy making your acquaintance; I cannot bear to part!’”
I watched as her expression softened, her gaze faraway in romantic longings. Coldhearted, my hat! Had Sir Ronald said those things to her? If he had, he was more of an imbecile than I expected.
“I cannot lie to women. It’s against my principles.”
“Well, if you want one of them to marry you, you’d better give those principles a reevaluation.” Her eyes grew round, brows raised. She was taking this entirely too seriously. “And stop smirking at me. Save your good humor for the next poor woman and perhaps you’ll come off as charming.”
A servant stopped in front of us with a tray of drinks. “Wine?”
“Yes, thank you.” I handed a glass to Georgiana first, then took one for myself.
The servant turned away, offering drinks to someone else, then left.
And there she was. Out in the open.
Directly in front of us.
Looking right at me.
“Miss Newbury.” I cleared my throat, surprised, though I shouldn’t have been. I’d seen her near, but I’d somehow forgotten justhownear. With that buffoon of a man beside her.
“Mrs. Winston, now.” Winston tucked his wife behind him. His grin vanished, replaced by an ugly scowl. My lips twitched. I again imagined what it might feel like to direct my fist into his already marred nose.
My old intended frowned and stepped around her husband. “Mar—” She stopped herself. “Your Grace.” She gave me a fleeting curtsey, and I nodded at her.
“My congratulations,” I taunted. “And what a surprise. You’ve healed up rather nicely, Winston.”
The man said nothing in return.
We stared.
And stared.
