What had Lady Fosberry wondered? God help her, but she simply couldn’t resist a bit of prying. Just a tiny prick or two, that was all. “Are you well acquainted with Lady Fosberry, my lord?”
“We’re not acquaintances at all, Miss Templeton, but friends of long standing. Our families have known each other for decades.”
Decades? That long? “Have, ah…” She swallowed. “Have you, indeed?”
“I don’t know why you look so surprised. Prestwick House is just next door, after all. Lord Fairmont and I spent every summer together here in Hampstead Heath when we were growing up. Are you acquainted with Lord Fairmont, Miss Templeton?”
“No. That is, I know of him, of course, but he’s been away from England for some years now, and I’ve never been introduced to him.”
“Ah.” He stepped closer. “But I believe youareacquainted with Lady Harriett, are you not, Miss Templeton?”
When had he gotten so close? Dear God, he was looming over her, impossibly tall and broad and arrogant. The charming grin was gone. He gazed down at her with hooded dark eyes, every trace of teasing vanished.
But he wouldn’t intimidateher, for all that his shoulders were as wide as a mountain range.She raised her chin. “Very well acquainted, yes. I consider her to be one of my dearest friends.”
“She’s a lovely young lady. I quite look forward to sharing a dance with her this evening.”
A dance? Oh, no, that wouldn’t do at all. It was a quick leap from one dance to two, and from there to a carriage ride, then it would be a stroll along The Serpentine, and the next thing she knew, Harriett would be betrothed to London’s wickedest rake.
Why, a single dance tonight could doom Harriett to a marriage with Lord Prestwick! “I’m afraid that’s impossible, my lord. I, ah, I just left Harriett, and her dance card is already full.”
“Lady Harriett is fortunate to have such a vigilant friend in you, Miss Templeton, but I daresay she can spare a dance forme.”
“At the expense of some other gentleman? I don’t see why she should.”
He gazed down at her, his dark eyes glittering, that odd smile still toying with his lips. “Because, Miss Templeton, Lady Harriett is my betrothed.”
“Betrothed!” Surely, she’d misheard him? “She can’t be!”
“She can, I assure you. Sheis.”
“But how… Harriett never mentioned a word of this betrothal tome.” And that was to say nothing of the fact that Harriett hoped to soon be betrothed to Lord Wyle!
“No? Well, ladies do have their secrets, do they not? Perhaps you’re not as well acquainted with Lady Harriet as you imagine.”
“I… you…” Dear God, what was happening? “You can’t expect me to believe you’re betrothed to Lady Harriett when neither Lady Fosberry nor Harriett has breathed so much as a word about it.”
He shrugged. “You may believe what you like, Miss Templeton. It’s of no consequence to me, but the facts are what they are. Lord Fairmont and I reached an agreement some years ago regarding his sister becoming the next Countess of Prestwick. Lady Harriett and I were promised to each other, and I’ve come to London to collect my bride.”
It was a lie. It had to be, only…
Lady Fosberry had been agitated when she’d seen Lord Prestwick outside St. George’s—more so than a chance meeting warranted. As for Lord Prestwick, he was a scoundrel, to be sure, but would he go so far as to lie about a betrothal? Why would he go to the trouble, when such a lie was so easily disproven?
She cast one last look into his eyes— eyes as dark as midnight. If he was lying, she couldn’t see it there.
Had Harriett lied to her, then? Or…no! No, that wasn’t it.
Harriett didn’t know a thing about the betrothal! Lord Prestwick had mentioned Harriett’s brother only— he’d spoken of the agreement between himself and Lord Fairmont—but he’d never said a word about Harriett.
But Lady Fosberry knew. Shemust.
Why had she asked Phee to matchmake Harriett, then? Why was she so assiduously encouraging a match with Lord Wyle?
Dash it, none of this made any sense!
She must speak to Lady Fosberry at once. A ballroom stuffed to the rafters with gossipingtonwas hardly the place to discuss Harriett’s secret betrothal, if such a thing existed, but it simply couldn’t wait. “Forgive me, my lord, but I’m certain my sister must be looking for me by now.”
She backed away from him, stumbling over her own feet.
