Page 16 of A Spinster to Reform the Duke
She laughed into her glass before lifting those blue eyes to meet his gaze another time.
“I am beginning to think you are just a good actor, Your Grace.”
“Me? An actor?” he said, pretending offence as he turned back toward her, placing a palm to his chest. “No indeed, I have never even set foot on a theatre stage.”
“Perhaps the closest you have got to the stage is the actresses you meet?” Lady Rebecca’s words made him pause with the punch glass against his lips, nearly choking on the punch. “Ha! I have startled you.” She was triumphing in her words. It was a sight to behold, making him watch her all the more as she lifted her chin and laughed. “Have I shocked you very greatly?”
“Quite a bit,” he acknowledged, lowering the punch glass another time. “How do you know I have kept the company of actresses in the past?”
“You forget, Your Grace,” she made to walk around him, pausing by his side so she could whisper in his ear, “the scandal sheets talk of you even more than they talk of me.” With that word, she walked on, but he still couldn’t let her go.
“It seems we are both condemned by such sheets then,” he said, hurrying after her. As they meandered through the other guests, she looked over her shoulder at him, clearly startled he was still following her.
“I must say, you are eager to follow me tonight,” she commented as she moved near the dancefloor.
“I enjoy your company, is that so bad?”
“Bad? No. Unlikely? Very much,” she mused, looking up at him with her hands on her glass.
“You talk very ill of yourself,” he said, tilting his head to the side as he watched her. “You shouldn’t, you know.”
“Why not?” she asked, her fair eyebrows quirking together.
“All it does is make me like you all the more.”
“Ha! A likely story indeed.” She clearly didn’t believe a word he said, laughing so much that her cheeks pinkened.
“I see anything I say to you will be taken with a pinch of salt.”
“Have the scandal sheets got it wrong then? Are you not a man who likes to jest and jape at every opportunity?”
“Well, maybe they have got one or two things right over the years, but not everything,” he said with a firm shake of the head.
“Hmm, I see,” she was smirking. That look intrigued him, making him take another step toward her.
“That look, Lady Rebecca, it is as if you have some mischief up your sleeve.”
“Perhaps I do,” she acknowledged, her eyes flicking past him. “The latest lady that was mentioned in a scandal sheet, alongside your good self, is looking your way. If I’m not mistaken, she is most desirous to get your attention. In fact, I think her in danger of breaking her fan, she is waving it most animatedly.”
With reluctance, Timothy turned his head, to see that Lady Esther Baxter was indeed waving her fan with some vigor, trying to get his attention. He sighed and looked back to Lady Rebecca, only to see her trying to hide her laugh behind her punch glass.
“Oh dear, it seems the scandal sheets have got it wrong. That look on your face. It is certainly not the look of a lover.”
“No, indeed it is not,” Timothy said pointedly. Lady Esther had been pushed under his nose often enough of late by his mother. He had also heard her name many times in relation to marriage. She was perhaps timid enough at times to be someone he could consider marrying, yet every time he thought of the idea, something inside him jolted against the thought.
No. I do not wish to marry Lady Esther.
“Has she broken the fan yet?” Timothy asked, deciding not to look back another time. Lady Rebecca laughed and shook her head.
“Not yet, very nearly though. Perhaps it is her way of telling you she wishes to dance?”
“Dance? Then it seems I need rescuing, Lady Rebecca. Will you be the one to help me?”
“Help you?” she repeated, her eyes narrowing as she lowered the punch glass. “How can I do that?”
Timothy turned and laid down his punch glass on a nearby table. His arm brushed so closely to Lady Rebecca as he did so that her eyes widened, but she didn’t move away.
She is not immune to me then…
