Page 42 of The Virgin in the Rake's Bed
“You are a good friend, Samantha, you and Rebecca. I just wish I had what you have,” she said, and Samantha smiled.
“We have each other, that is what is important,” she said, and Catherine nodded.
She took a deep breath, nodded to Samantha, and stepped back into the ballroom. As she did so, she almost collided with the very figure she had intended on seeking out.
“Catherine, I have been looking for you,” Ian said, and Catherine smiled.
“Well, now you have found me, and in good time, too, for I was about to continue practicing my seduction,” she said, fixing him with a mischievous gaze.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Practicing?” he asked her, and she smiled.
“Is that not what one does during such occasions as this?” she asked, glancing over his shoulder to where the captain was already striking up a lively conversation with a young lady whom Catherine remembered from the Duchess of Sinclair’s salon.
“I am sure it is your prerogative to do so,” he replied, but Catherine could see the tops of his ears turning red, a hint of jealousy in his eyes.
“Was that not the purpose of our lessons? Am I not to attempt such a thing? I have no choice but to seek a man, for my father still intends to see me married to the Earl of Westwood, and the thought is quite unbearable,” she said.
“But the ruse will buy you some time. He believes we are to be married. That is all that matters, surely,” Ian replied, but Catherine sighed and shook her head.
“He believes it – for now – but it will soon become apparent that though betrothed, we have no intention of marriage, and then what am I to do? Say the whole thing was a misunderstanding? I am sorry, Ian, but I did not think this through. I led you into something which was foolish,” she said, and he smiled.
“I was easily tempted into it,” he replied.
They had stepped away from the terrace doors to a place by the windows where they would not be overheard. A dance was about to begin, and Ian offered Catherine his arm, pointing toward the throng of dancers now assembling.
“Am I to offer you my favor?” she asked, entirely forgetting the lessons he had taught her.
“Or am I to offer you mine?” he said, and she smiled.
“I had hoped you would come,” she said, and he nodded.
“I wanted to,” he replied.
The music was striking up now, and they joined the dance, twirling and whirling their way across the dance floor, caught up in the delights of one another’s company. All of Catherine’s misgivings had disappeared, and she was left feeling entirely at ease in his company, to all the world appearing as the betrothed couple they purported to be.
“I succeeded, you know,” she said, as they passed Lord Ardley with another woman.
“In seduction?” he asked, and she nodded, his face flushing red as though unable to hide his jealousy at such knowledge.
“At least to the first point you taught me. I made two gentlemen believe that my agreeing to dance was entirely a matter of their own making, when in fact it was entirely of my own,” she said, and he smiled.
“I am glad I was able to teach you something. Though I am glad to have arrived before you reached the second lesson,” he replied.
“And how do you know I am still not intent on it?” she asked.
There was something different about him that evening. Gone was any sense of stiffness or formality, replaced by a sense of openness. She wondered if he had discarded his own rules, and certainly he seemed more open and amenable to her words.
“Perhaps you are. I would not know,” he replied, “though I did not care to see you with those other men, and the eyes of others on you,” and she felt the blush rise in her cheeks.
“Why did you come this evening? Was it because you knew I would be here?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Was the entire thing not arranged for our benefit? I came because… I wanted to see you, and I did not want those others to be the ones to see those rules broken with,” he said, and she smiled.
“Samantha is well intentioned, and I am grateful to her for this chance,” she replied.
Gone were her nerves, her fears of their encounter, and gone was her anger and frustration at him for his previous comments. There was evidently something he wished to say, and her hopes were rising that it would be the very words she wished to hear more than anything else.
