There was no telling just how many people might be eavesdropping at this very moment, waiting to catch their every word so they might be the one to start a new rumor or circle around a little bit of gossip.
She had grown up in keeps just like this, and she knew how much people liked to run off their mouths.
After she took another sip, she pressed her glass into his chest, hoping that he would fetch her a refill at the very least. “At least we are guaranteed to have vexed me faither by dancing together. That shall make for a very fun conversation later tonight.”
Hamish had, under no circumstances, warned her that this was one of the few chances that she was going to get to choose a husband for herself before he intervened once more.
But he still failed to understand that she simply had no desire to choose a husband based on the three or four minutes that she might spend dancing with a suitor. She was fortunate that Magnus was a kind man with whom she had formed a solid friendship, but that was a fluke.
Friendship or not, it wouldn’t change the fact that they weren’t suitable for one another. A marriage would only doom them both to unhappiness. Why was it such a scandal to want to advocate for her own happiness?
Magnus turned to face her, words right on his lips, before their conversation was interrupted by the approach of a very cold-looking man.
He was taller than Magnus by a handful of inches at least, with shaggy dark brown hair that fell in natural waves around his ears and the nape of his neck. It didn’t hide the plethora of scars peeking from his collar and up the sides of his neck, never mind those that crisscrossed his shaven face with streaks of silver. His dark brown eyes were warm despite the unamused expression on his face.
The way he held himself hinted that he ought to have been bigger than he currently was, but even the lean muscles that covered his bones were impressive.
Emily would be lying if she said that he wasn’t one of the most handsome men that she had ever seen in her life. Something about the image that he posed took her breath away.
“May I?” he asked, but he didn’t really seem like he cared what her answer might be, for he shouldered Magnus out of the way.
Magnus’s eyebrows rose, and Emily couldn’t help but look at him to see how he might react. But, much to her shock and dismay, he moved away without further comment.
The man’s hand rose in invitation, but she had only started to lift her own out of reluctant compliance when he snatched it and spun her back to the dance floor.
People moved out of their way as he led her to almost the center of the room. She couldn’t stop looking at the faces that they passed; some looked shocked, others looked afraid. Her father, however, looked almost smug.
It immediately put her on edge.
“I kent that I had roused some people’s curiosity, but this is too much. I apologize for the stares…” Emily trailed off.
She lifted her eyes to the man, a little unnerved by the intensity of his stare. She waited a beat for him to fill the silence with either his name or to start twirling her about the dance floor. Though from the rigid way he held himself, she had a hard time imagining that he was able to move well enough around the floor.
The man swallowed thickly before speaking, tearing his gaze from hers to look at those around them. “Kaden. And I’m surethat it’s me they’re starin’ at. It must be the first time I’ve gotten off me chair at such an event.”
She started to ask him what he meant when he spun her out and then back, pulling her so close to his chest that she had no choice but to brace the palms of her hands against his chest to keep the distance between them. Her face flushed as something in her stomach twisted and fluttered uncomfortably.
She wasn’t used to not being the one in charge of any given situation. What was the matter with her?
“I do hope that yer self-imposed isolation isnae due to poor dancing skills, sir, for I daenae wish to be trampled,” she teased.
She watched his reaction carefully to see how she might be able to push him. But, to her dismay, she got nothing out of him.
It was hard not to keep stealing glances at his face. Despite his imposing figure, he was impossibly handsome. Almost to the point that it seemed as if he shouldn’t exist. Like he wasimpossible.
“I guess ye shall have to see for yerself,” he answered flatly.
She would have accused him of having less personality than a mop, but he spun her so swiftly that her heart stuttered in her chest. He moved as if he were weightless, with a skill that came from an upbringing of tutors that she had endured herself. Therewas nothing clumsy about his footwork, and he moved with great confidence through the song and into the next.
If he was having any fun from dancing with her, she couldn’t tell. It was irritating to feel almost like she was being used to make a point that she didn’t even know she was involved in. It felt like being a pawn in a game that she didn’t know she was part of, to begin with.
He didn’t let go, he didn’t enjoy himself, and he didn’t say anything else.
Before she could form something witty to say, the song ended, and Kaden walked away. Just like that.
What had just happened?
What was he doing with himself?
