She stopped, her back to him. The thought that he wanted her company heated her, but she let her head fall forward.Don’t be a ninny. He’s being gallant, warning you about Spangler.Chiding herself not to take him seriously, she nonetheless walked back to peer down at the hall with him.
Dancers had begun to take their places for the first set. Emma and her beloved, Ellis, grinned at one another. Vincent Thatcher stood up with one of the Simmons girls and Eli with another. Little Matt Corbin, concentrating intently, got in line with Maud Styles, next to his parents. The vicar led out old Mrs. Ingleby, the haberdasher’s mother-in-law.
It all made Lucy smile.I suspect London is never like this. “There are some surprising pairings at a village assembly,” she said out loud.
“There certainly are,” he replied, nodding toward the sight of Brynn Morgan bowing over Her Grace’s hand as if to request a dance.
Lucy sucked in a breath. “Poor Morgan. I’ve never seen Lady Madelyn dance at a village assembly since she returned to Caulfield Hall,” she told him.
“Maddy was never high in the instep before.”
He calls the duchess Maddy?
Lucy’s shock must have shown on her face. He went on, “Her Grace, I should say. I wonder what Glenmoor did to stiffen her manners—or was it her mother?”
Lucy knew the duchess’s mother for the formidable force she was but had no answer to give this man whose time away made him more a stranger than not. “I think perhaps Her Grace’s aloof manner comes from something other than snobbery. You know the dowager countess?”
“Too well. I’m sorry if my frankness makes you uncomfortable.”
Guilt nagged at her. “It must be the night. My own tongue has run away. I ought to apologize.”
“Don’t. I—”
A disturbance below interrupted their concentration. A newcomer stood at the door, and the dancing stopped. The Earl of Clarion’s unexpected arrival riveted the entire assembly’s attention. He peered around the room, spied the guest of honor, and made his way toward him. Dancers reformed their sets as he passed.
The earl’s resemblance to the man at her side jolted Lucy. David has the same deep auburn hair, the same intelligent green eyes, the same height… She dared a glance at Sir Robert. None of the muscled strength and broad—
“Startling, isn’t it?” Sir Robert asked with an ironic curl of his lip. “Astounding that I could have grown to age fourteen without seeing it.”
Lucy had to close her gaping jaw.
They watched the earl shake Old Robert’s hand and smile at him. “Condescending to the masses…” the man next to her muttered.
She wanted to defend the earl, but something in Sir Robert’s eyes cut Lucy to the quick.Bitterness, confusion—longing?Both Caulfield and Benson, and yet neither.Something in her shifted. He still planned to sell her home from under her, but she wouldn’t be able to look at him the same way.
Sir Robert offered Lucy his arm. “Shall we go down and greet the lord of the Shire?”
*
Lucy’s fingers trembledon Rob’s arm.Afraid of me? Or the folks below? he wondered as he led her to the stairs. He covered her hand with his free one and smiled at her, bringing a blush to her cheeks. He had to remind himself that this fragile-looking bit of femininity was the same woman who greeted intruders with a gun and stood up to anyone who threatened her domain at Willowbrook.Miss Whitaker, you are anything but fragile!
She was, however, a menace. Rob longed to drag her out of the stifling assembly of family expectations, ogling neighbors, and overwhelming refreshments, and kiss her senseless on the riverbank. If he gave in to the urge, he would bind himself to Ashmead on Afon forever, the one thing he vowed to avoid at all cost.
The stairs from the mezzanine let out at the rear of the assembly room, and dancers blocked their path. The crush gave way along the edges to allow them through, but knowing smiles, congratulatory greetings, and glowing faces from the good people of Ashmead made him feel like a prize bull in a spring meadow.
If this were a London ballroom, an unmarried woman like Lucy Whitaker would have a doting mama or hatchet-faced companion waiting to demand to know what she’d been doing alone with a man. She had neither. Here the women beamed at them in approval, and the men cast Rob envious looks, an entire village of matchmakers.
How does one dispense with a lady on one’s arm at a country assembly?Would anyone care if I simply leave her here?He briefly considered leading her to Emma, but his sister and her husband were still dancing and laughing up at each other with embarrassing affection.
She clung to his arm as he kept moving around the periphery of the dancers until he wondered if she harbored the same hopes the villagers made apparent, even though he had made it abundantly clear to the woman that his life lay elsewhere.
When they turned a corner and came face to face with Old Robert and the earl, she dropped his arm and hurried to meet Clarion. The earl’s face lit up at the sight, and he held out both hands to take hers. A stab of jealousy cut through Rob. He had just been looking for ways to escape her, but seeing her reaction to Clarion, he fought the urge to pull her back.Don’t be daft Benson, he chided himself.
“When did you arrive? We didn’t expect you,” Lucy said.
“I was out of town and just now got your letter. I came as soon as I read it,” Clarion replied.
Hell.He ignores Eli but drops everything for Lucy.
