“My tongue would sooner be in hell.”
Lord Reeves laughed. “You’re both fiery and clearly wanton tonight, Lady Kinmarloch. I was suggesting that after the dance, I might fetch you one of the ices. That was all. But I am glad to see how your mind works.”
“Ye were nae suggesting that.”
“You think I was suggesting an unnatural act?”
Every act with ye would be unnatural.
The dance was over. She curtsied, he bowed. She took his arm reluctantly, glad of her gloves so no part of her skin was touching him. She assumed he would lead her back to Lady Fitzhugh as Phineas had done. But her mind was in a welter and she did not pay attention to which direction they walked.
She was surprised to find herself pushed out of the noise of the ballroom, through a door, into a narrow corridor. Reeves stood in front of the now-closed door.
“Shall we find somewhere more private than this hallway where you can exercise your tongue, Helen?”
“Nae. I must go back to the ballroom.” She waited for him to step aside. He did not.
“Do you have partners waiting for you there?”
“I have Lady Fitzhugh, my chaperone, and Lord Burchester.”
“Ah, yes. Lord Burchester. I met him the other day. And this evening he has been making the rounds of the gentlemen, trying to find partners for you. Apparently, none of the men he has approached are his friends. It’s almost as if he wants to pawn you off on people he doesn’t know. Ashamed of you, no doubt.”
“Let me pass, Lord Reeves. Ye dinnae want to be discovered in a hallway with a woman who cannae get another partner.”
“You don’t know what I want, Lady Kinmarloch.”
“Ye dinnae want me, I assure ye.”
“You’re right. I don’t want you. I want Kinmarloch. I want it as grazing land. And I want my son to be an earl. So we are going to stand here until someone finds us and you are compromised and have to marry me. I have arranged for a witness to your ruin. He should be here shortly.”
“Ye think I would marry ye if I were compromised?”
“Yes, because no one else would ever have you.”
She laughed. A laugh too high in pitch. She was close to breaking. “Yer a fool. Nae man wants me anyway. And I would never marry ye with yer plans for clearances when all I care for is Kinmarloch.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I could put a child in you.”
“Nae, Lord Reeves. How about I put something in ye instead?”
Twenty-Nine
Jack pressed a rather large sum into the hand of the leader of the musicians playing at the Titchfield Ball and made it known who he was and what he wanted.
The man bowed and looked Jack over. “I suppose in those clothes you’ll blend in with the rest of us, Your Grace. We’ll put an extra chair in back of the bass viol. You’ll have a fairly good view of the ballroom from there. And no one looks at the musicians.”
“Good.”
Jack carried in the bass viol himself, blocking his face, and now sat behind the musicians tuning their instruments, his hands on his knees, waiting to see Helen.
Why am I here? I just want to see her, that’s all, and not have her see me. And then I’ll go.
The room began to fill with people. Helen was announced and he spotted her figure sheathed in blue, but she was too far away for him to see her face. Then she was meeting other ladies, moving around the room with an older woman who must be the chaperone Phineas had engaged for her.
Jack couldn’t see Helen as well as he wanted, but he was afraid to shift position. Phineas was speaking to various other men on the edges of the ballroom. Good, he was finding dance partners for Helen. Potential husbands.
The musicians started playing, and Phineas danced with Helen. Her jaw was jutting, and Jack knew she was trying to concentrate. He could see Phineas’ mouth moving, talking incessantly. There. Helen had smiled politely. Once. Once was better than no times at all. And she was wearing his mother’s jewelry he had sent her.
