“Much better. Mine at least contained a country.”
That earned another brief smile.
“You are severe, Miss …” He stopped.
The unfinished form of address seemed to hang strangely between them, and she felt the smallest, most treacherous flutter at her throat.
He did not know her name.
It was an absurd thing to feel relieved by and yet she was relieved. There had been no flicker of recognition and no small but fatal pause. He did not know who she was. He did not know of her family. He spoke to her as if she were merely a woman standing near him in a ballroom and not the daughter of a house once ruined in public.
For that reason alone, she was unwilling to enlighten him.
“Names are dangerous things,” she said lightly. “I would rather do without mine.”
“Would you now?” he appeared surprised by her comment. “I had always thought them convenient in conversation.”
“Only when one intends the acquaintance to progress,” she told him.
“And do you not?”
The question ought to have been forward, yet in his mouth it sounded only curious.
“I have not yet determined,” she said.
“Then I must endeavor to recommend myself before the matter is settled.”
“You may begin by answering properly,” she suggested, drawn into this conversation far more than she was willing to admit. “Where have you been?”
This time his pause was different. It was less playful and more considered.
“With the army,” he divulged.
Aurelia looked at him with renewed interest. “You are a military man?”
“I … have been one, yes.”
“And now?” Her curiosity about him seemed to grow with each passing moment.
“And now I am suffering the consequences in London.”
She smiled faintly. “You make it sound worse than war.”
“Not worse,” he shrugged. “Only stranger.”
His gaze moved once more over the dancers, the mothers, the clusters of determined young ladies, and the gentlemen circulating with either eagerness or fatigue.
“When one has been long away, all this can feel rather … contrived.”
“Then we are agreed,” she replied, feeling as if he were able to read her mind.
“You dislike it too?”
“I dislike parts of it,” she confirmed.
“Only parts?”
“I am trying to be charitable.” She was unable to resist smiling.
