Page 19

“Major FitzRoy!”

She heard … and didn’t hear. She didn’t want to hear.

Behind heavy lids, Joshua’s eyes gleamed fever-bright. “Kiss number two,” he whispered, his voice a silky murmur.

Then he glanced up. “Lord Devin,” he acknowledged.

Livie squeaked, and would have jumped from Joshua’s lap, except he had an arm wrapped around her waist. She risked a look up at Lord Devin. Sure enough, the kindly face she remembered from her very first ball had transformed into that of a stern dragon.

His lordship looked every inch the scandalized nobleman, albeit a slightly disheveled one. He was dressed in an exquisite coat, gray silk with cream embroidery, but his cravat was not in its usual precise folds. He wasn’t wearing a mask or domino, and his black hair was tousled, as if he’d run an irritated hand through it.

Daisy stood beside him, still wearing her veiled hat. When Livie glimpsed the two of them dancing, Daisy had been in a state, her mouth set in a rebellious line. Her cousin had probably quarreled with Lord Devin throughout the dance.

But now she was staring with wide eyes, unquestionably because she had seen Livie kissing a strange man.

Livie started up again, but Joshua pulled her back against his chest.

“Not yet,” he murmured.

With long experience, Livie read Daisy’s surprise: of the two of them, Daisy was the one who fell into mischief, while Livie tried to persuade her to be respectable. Daisy was rash and impetuous; Livie always attempted to follow her father’s precepts.

Not this time.

“Take your hands off her,” Lord Devin snarled. “Do you realize that you have accosted a lady?”

“I do,” Joshua said, not moving. In fact, his arm tightened around Livie.

“Perhaps you should allow me to stand,” Livie suggested. “We need to leave.”

“The ballroom is twice as crowded as when I entered, and these idiots are four times as drunk,” Joshua said. “Lord Devin, be careful!”

An inebriated dancer bowled into Daisy, who gave a scream and returned a hard shove that sent the man careening away and her flying toward Lord Devin. He caught her against his chest.

The drunkard crashed to the floor, his arms thrashing in the air.

Livie looked up at Joshua with a giggle. “He looks like an agitated turkey with that odd, pointed nose on his mask.”

“That’s a Venetian mask,” he told her. “Will your cousin jump on top of his chest, as you did to Clod?”

“Oh no,” Livie assured him. “That would be most unladylike.”

“But you—”

“Yes, but as you can see, Lord Devin has taken care of the matter.”

Sure enough, his lordship leaned over the turkey and said a few words. Livie couldn’t make out exactly what was said, but Lord Devin’s icy tone spoke for itself, and the curl of his lip was frankly terrifying. The man rolled to his side, clambered to his feet, and scurried away.

“You must let me go,” Livie told Joshua. “This has been lovely, but the evening is over. As you can see, Lord Devin is cross—”

“I’m taking these two nitwits home,” Lord Devin barked.

“You mayn’t call us names,” Daisy cried, poking his lordship in the side. “Just because you are a stodgy man who never does anything out of line doesn’t mean that everyone is like you!”

Livie was still nestled against Joshua’s chest, so she felt his quiet chuckle as much as heard it. “What?” she asked, looking up at him. Daisy and Lord Devin had started quarreling with each other again, which meant that she could remain where she was for just a moment or two longer.

The expression in his eyes made her shiver: where they had been grave, now they held a spark of laughter. She might even have said tenderness, though Livie knew that was foolish. They were strangers, after all, and that’s all they’d ever be.

“Lord Devin is stodgy?” Joshua murmured. “Let’s just say that his lordship’s wild oats were notorious.”