He had the satisfaction of seeing Giles blink before he performed an elegant bow. “A pleasure, Lord Bankham. I’ve heard a good deal about you.”
He’d heard absolutely nothing except his name. And now he recalled: Heatherfield.
“An American,” Giles said predictably, because for heaven’s sake, they all did.
“What a fine ear you have for accents, Bankham.”
The two stared at each other.
“Gilly...” Lillias cleared her throat. “That is, Giles, Lord Bankham, as we mentioned to you before, has been a family friend since we both were... very small.”
“Since you fell into the pond...” Giles said, like a prompt to an old and beloved joke.
“...and you tried to fish me out...” Lillias said weakly, smiling. “But then you...”
“...fell in, too. And then you...”
“...accidentally on purpose kicked you. Giles, Mr. Cassidy and I are engaged to be married.”
Hugh saw the moment Giles stopped breathing.
And then Giles blinked as if something had been dashed into his face.
A long, strange moment passed during which Hugh merely observed, and the three of them seemed to be enclosed in a dome of silence while the ballroom full of revelers chattered, flirted, and gossiped behind them.
None of them spoke.
Lillias turned away to look at a cavorting statue, then down at her reticule. Then away again.
As if fantasizing about her escape path if she managed to muster the nerve to run.
“I see,” Lord Bankham finally said.
Which was an odd thing to say for someone who so patently did not see.
ButHughwas beginning to see.
See, but not understand. Suspicion was sprouting like a noxious little weed.
Lillias looked up at Giles, Lord Bankham, and her expression was faintly pleading.
“I’m afraid I don’t... that is...” Bankham had been badly shaken. “But you never...”
Lillias looked down at her shoes again. And this time that’s where her gaze remained.
Whatever the hell was happening here, for his sake and for hers, Hugh was going to need to salvage it in order to forestall gossip.
“We were much thrown together of late during various entertainments. And when you meet the person you hope to spend the rest of your life with, you don’t want to waste another moment.”
Her head came up. As if he’d given her the start of a script she could convincingly follow.
And then she produced a fond smile and aimed it up at Hugh.
Bankham didn’t speak.
He stared at her.
Then back at Hugh.
