Page 4 of Taken By the Duke of Stone

She gaped at him for a second, shocked at his audacity. How dare he? All her outrage came back two fold, the utter perfection of the man forgotten. "You bumbling idiot!"

"Excuse me?" The man stared down at her.

Her green eyes flashed at him. "This is the part where you apologize."

He took in the rest of her surreptitiously. Her hair was a deep brown wrapped up in a complicated style with two some loose tendrils left to fall around her face. Framing her expressive eyes were thick, sooty lashes, she had a small rosebud mouth that begged to be kissed and a jaw that ended in a stubborn point. His gaze flicked from her face down to the expanse of smooth milky skin exposed by the scooped neckline of her dress. Further down, he saw the damage he had done to her dress and his retort died on his lips. "My apologies, my lady."

The woman didn't seem all that satisfied with his apology and only narrowed her eyes at him.

"I fear your dress may have been ruined because of my carelessness," he continued.

"It has most definitely been ruined by your carelessness," the woman replied.

Despite himself, he found himself smiling and it only made the woman stiffen further.

"I was leading up to an apology, but now I’m beginning to think you don’t need one,” he said.

"An apology isn’t going to fix my dress,” the woman hissed.

"Say the word and I shall have the modiste here in no time at all with a selection of new dresses for you,” he teased. "Or is there a color you are partial to?”

A flash of red bloomed high on the woman’s cheekbones and she advanced at him, "You-”

"Vinny!" the woman beside her hissed. "You're going to cause a scene."

Victor reluctantly dragged his gaze away from the green eyed woman to her red-haired friend. He hadn't noticed the other woman until she spoke, which was strange.

He suddenly remembered his mother telling him about a lady with a shock of unfortunate red hair.

What had she said her name was? He couldn't for the life of him remember.

"I apologize for calling you a bumbling idiot," the woman said reluctantly, not sounding apologetic.

"It's quite alright, my lady."

A teasing smile pulled at his mouth, "I have never been called an idiot before and I must admit that it was an experience from you.”

"The people in your life have not been honest with you.”

His eyebrows shot up with shock, "So you were not honest about your apology.”

She thrust her pert chin in the air, staring him down even though he was several inches taller, "I apologized for saying it, but it does not make it any less true.”

"Vinny!” Her friend gasped.

Her plump mouth tightened, and then she dropped into a shallow curtsy that was over before it began, "my lord."

Victor didn't bother correcting her, "my lady."

And then she was gone, disappearing into the crowd with the redhead in tow.

Patrick approached him, staring after the women and then at him, eyebrows hiked to nearly his hairline, "what was that?"

"I find myself as perplexed as you are."

"I caught the end of that exchange, and it seemed the lady had no idea who you were."

Wasn't that something? Victor thought with more amusement than the situation called for. It was rare for him not to be recognized immediately by a member of theton, which left him wondering who the lady was.

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