Page 98 of A Winter Scandal

Rawdon stopped and bowed slightly to their group. “Miss Bainbridge. Lord Morecombe.”

Myles’s eyes widened further when Gabriel returned a polite greeting and bow. “Lord Rawdon.”

“Myles.” Rawdon’s firm mouth lifted slightly as he turned to the other man.

“Alec,” Myles replied with unflappable aplomb. “Thought you’d left.”

“I returned.”

“You would not wish to miss Mrs. Howard’s Twelfth Night.”

“Naturally.”

The greetings between Rawdon and the Woffords were chillier but polite. Ian cast Gabriel a questioning glance, but said nothing to him. For a long, awkward moment, silence reigned, but they were saved by the musical quartet striking up a dance in the other room. With relief, Ian turned to his wife and requested a dance, and the couple left.

“Does anyone want to explain what is happening here?” Myles asked after a moment, looking from one man to the other.

“Let us just say that Gabriel and I have reached an agreement,” Rawdon told him.

Like Gabriel and the other men, the Earl wore a plain black loo mask, which gave him a rather wolfish look, in Thea’s opinion. On the other hand, Gabriel … Thea looked up at him and realized, with an underlying dark ripple of desire, that Gabriel resembled nothing so much as a pirate in his mask. A smile curved her lips as she imagined him in a shirt with billowing, full sleeves, a rakish scarf tied round his head.

Myles, receiving little satisfaction for his curiosity from his friends, invited Thea to dance. Though she would have liked to stay while the men hunted for the maid Hannah, she knew that she was able to contribute little to the endeavor, since she had no idea what the woman looked like. So she accepted Myles’s invitation with a smile. Fortunately, the dance was an active country dance rather than a waltz, so there was little chance for Myles to ply her with questions about Gabriel and Rawdon. Obviously, Gabriel had not told Myles about Rawdon or Gabriel’s plan to talk to Jocelyn’s maid tonight, and she could not help but wonder why, but she did not want to let slip anything that Gabriel wished to keep hidden.

After their dance, Thea went out into the wide central hallway of the house, where she found Lord Rawdon, arms crossed, gazing down the hallway toward the front of the house, where Damaris stood talking to two of her guests.

“Having any luck?”

“Not a bit,” Rawdon replied. “The fact that everyone is wearing masks makes it rather difficult.” He nodded toward Damaris. “Our hostess—Mrs. Howard. Do you know her well?”

“She moved here a few months ago. We are friends.”

“She gave me the character Lord Frost.” He cocked an eyebrow at Thea, and the ghost of a smile curved his mouth. “Purposeful, do you think?”

Thea chuckled. “Mrs. Howard has a mischievous sense of humor.”

“Mm.” He was silent for a moment, then said, not looking at her, “I am curious, Miss Bainbridge. Why did you invite me that day to your Christmas feast? We had, ah, less than a harmonious introduction.”

Thea glanced up at him, then away, and said quietly, “I understand feeling … lonely.”

He glanced at her, startled, but before he could speak, Gabriel joined them.

“I have seen no sign of her,” Gabriel said. “You?”

“None.”

“I am beginning to think that it is a wild-goose chase. I can understand that Hannah felt safer meeting here, with everyone in disguise, but it’s bloody inconvenient. How am I supposed to find her?”

“I suspect that she will find you,” Thea told him.

“I am wearing a mask, just like everyone else.”

Thea gave him a speaking look. “You do not look like the local men. None of you do.”

“None of us do what?” Myles asked, coming up beside them.

“Look ordinary,” Thea said.

“Is that a polite way of saying we look like popinjays? I think my attire is quite unexceptionable tonight.” Myles looked down at his bottle-green jacket, then turned his eye toward Gabriel and Rawdon. “Not somber like some, of course. Gentlemen, has no one ever told you that black breeches and jacket are not required dress for a ball?”