Page 7 of The Marquess’s Forbidden Bride

‘Excellent. We shall be allies at repulsing the matrimonial assaults of Society! What a splendid fellow warrior you will make, Miss Wellingford.’

As he focused the full force of that dazzling smile on her, Emma felt a bit stunned. After needing a moment to regather her scattered wits, she said, ‘I’ll count on seeing you there, then. Now I must return. I’m to accompany Sarah to some tiresome fittings and don’t want to keep her waiting.’ She waved a hand to her waiting groom. ‘Jenkins can see me home. Having just returned to England, I’m sure you have dozens of things to do.’

‘Nothing more important than protecting the lady who’s going to ease my introduction to Society! No disparagement to your groom, but I insist on seeing you safely to Stanhope House.’

She could hardly fault his gallantry—a concern for a woman’s safety must have been instilled by his time with the army. ‘Very well. Escort away.’

As she suspected he might, during the ride back he amused her with a flow of light chatter. That barrier of charm redeployed against any further too-intimate glimpses.

After promising to seek her out at the ball and thanking her again for her company, he left her at the mews. She bid him goodbye and walked thoughtfully back toward her room.

She was happy to be seeing him again soon, she thought as she took the stairs to her chamber. The additional complexity of character she’d glimpsed as he revealed the story of his background added a deeper layer of interest to the surface handsomeness of his appearance and the admiration she felt for a brave and accomplished soldier. The undercurrent of vulnerability she sensed in him touched her and made her feel…protective.

And then she had to laugh. A hero of Waterloo, needing her protection?

Still, there could be traps for an unwary gentleman who paid too particular attention to the wrong single young lady, she acknowledged as she rang for her maid. She could make sure he did not fall into any.

It occurred to her that while his lack of title and fortune might protect him from pursuit by ambitious Mamas, he would one day become just the sort of country gentleman she hoped to marry. A remembered shiver of attraction rippled through her.

With a quiver of alarm, she stilled it. With Lieutenant Marsden entirely uninterested in marriage, she must remain careful not to fall herself into the trap of developing too deep an attachment to him.

Chapter Three

Two nights later, Emma entered Lady Huntersby’s ballroom, a flutter of excitement in her belly. Wearing a stylish high-waisted frock of white satin, the rouleaux and the ribbons trimming the bodice and sleeves a sea-green that highlighted her hazel eyes, she knew she was looking her best. Sarah would introduce the lieutenant to the matrons, while over the last two days, Emma had made a mental list of the single ladies most likely to fulfil his requirements. She looked forward to having his company, dancing and sharing refreshments and chat—and observing him charm the ‘safe’ ladies to whom she presented him.

He spotted her just as she saw him, giving her another of those smiles that, despite her best intentions, caused a rush of heat to her cheeks. Goodness, she thought, quelling that response, if that was how she reacted to a mere smile, what would happen if he ever kissed her?

And where had that thought come from? Her blush intensifying, she told herself to put out of mind a possibility that was surely remote and focus her silly brain on the introductions she needed to make.

After greeting her sister and Englemere, the lieutenant turned to her. ‘Good evening, Miss Wellingford. How lovely you are tonight! The green of those ribbons emphasises the unique colour of your eyes—though the pearls at your throat are hardly as luminous as your skin.’

Feeling herself blush, she said, ‘Save the flattery for other ladies, Lieutenant. You know I do not favour it.’

‘But it’s not flattery,’ he protested, ‘Only honest truth! Just as I promised.’

Not sure she believed him, walking him a bit aside, where they would not be overheard, she said, ‘Thank you, then. You are looking splendid in your regimentals as well! Though I should caution you to be more careful about your compliments. I have no idea what social rules apply in Lisbon, but here, while you may praise a maiden’s eyes or hair or general appearance, mentioning anything more intimate—her skin, her lips, her figure—would be considered indelicate. At least until you were engaged, when you might write sonnets to her lips, her brow—’

‘Her bosom?’ he suggested with a grin.

Though she rapped his wrist with her fan, she couldn’t help smiling in return. ‘Rogue! Was such a thing permissible in Lisbon?’

‘Well, I was always punctiliously correct with the wives of other officers, but the Lisbon ladies’ English being rather limited, one had…freer rein.’

She ought to reprove him, but she was too amused. ‘You’d better hope your eventual beloved’s father is indulgent, if he should overhear you praising that attribute before the wedding!’

‘As I don’t plan on any weddings in the near future, I will take your caution to heart.’ He shook his head with a sigh. ‘In Lisbon, being an English officer who would eventually return to his own country, one wasn’t considered by the local matrons as a serious matrimonial candidate for their daughters. And as a foreigner, one was forgiven a lapse in one’s grasp of the social niceties. I sincerely appreciate having you to guide me in avoiding saying—or doing—something that might cause offence, or worse still, cause onlookers to imagine I’m trying to court some young lady. I know only too well that if anything that Society might deem…compromising happens, a gentleman can usually extricate himself, with all the blame falling on the female. Even if I escaped unscathed, I’d never wish to be the cause of a lady’s disgrace.’

A disgrace…like the one that perhaps led to his mother’s death? Emma thought.

‘You will be vigilant and give me a check, should I say or do something I shouldn’t?’ he continued.

‘Having been thoroughly instructed in the proper interaction between unmarried maidens and Society gentlemen, I can certainly offer a subtle correction, if needed.’

‘I would be most grateful.’

‘Walk me to the refreshment room and I’ll give you a few basic instructions,’ she said, taking the arm he offered. ‘And stop me if I mention something of which you are already aware.’

‘Please say whatever you think appropriate. I shall listen with great interest.’