Page 20 of A Torn Allegiance
“Price Hayes is too kind.” She held her hand out to the other, dark-haired brother.
“And this is Prince Marc.” Prince Hayes smirked. “I’m unsure London will recover once Prince Marc has swept through theton.”
“Oh?” Lady Elsie quirked an eyebrow.
“He’s—how shall I say it?—full of energy.”
“True. Brother, speaking of that, we haven’t told you.” Kristoff adjusted his jacket sleeve. “There are to be phaeton races in a month’s time.”
The brothers bowed in unison. Marc held up a finger. “And before you can explore the idea of a Wilhelm win, we are off to dance the first set.”
Prince Hayes closed his mouth.
“You seem as though you’d like to say something.” She raised her eyebrows, waiting.
“Do I?” He turned to face her fully. His happy eyes twinkled and sent a wave of anticipation through her. They made their way slowly toward the entrance. “I was simply wondering if my experience this past week has varied greatly from yours.”
“In what manner? I imagine White’s and Jackson’s and Tattersalls were greatly preferred over my drawing-room discussions with those who came to call.”
“My thoughts lay in a different direction. I wonder, most precisely, if your thoughts have been aligned with mine.”
“And how would I know in what manner your thoughts are engaged?” She watched him, bemused by this conversation. She couldn’t imagine where it was heading, but she enjoyed this hesitant, almost unsure side of Prince Hayes.
“Has it been as long and distracted a wait for you as it has been for me, to once again enjoy our conversations?”
My, he was bold. She studied his face and determined she liked bold. One more appealing aspect of Prince Hayes’s personality. She decided to be open too, just enough. She shrugged in an almost nonchalant manner, then frowned. “I will tell you I know exactly how many days it has been. Five endless days.”
“And several hours.”
Pleased that he would admit as much, or at least entertain the flirtation, she tucked her hand in his arm. “Have you counted the hours, then?”
“I have indeed. But I will admit to enjoying your brother’s company almost as much as I have enjoyed yours.”
“Almost.” Her smile widened; she was pleased Prince Hayes preferred her to her brother. Was that a twin competition? What did that say about her feelings for this prince? She didn’t know the answers to any of the pressing questions that flowed through her mind like the swirls in the creek back in Argyll, but she did know she was beginning to preferhiscompany to any other of her acquaintance. And she didn’t know whether she had a choice in the matter, now that it had happened.
But if she were to grow attached to such a man, if she were to suddenly wish to travel to his country, she would be leaving behind her beloved Argyll, and that was not a decision she felt she could make, at least not now. And would she ever need to? She thought not. The prince had shown no indication that he would ever pursue anything... permanent with her.
And besides, she was under orders from her father to watch him. Although she now thought the notion of his being a spy ridiculous, just the knowledge that the men of her father’s acquaintance watched the prince placed him, in her mind, as a man not to be considered as a suitor. Was she considering him?
As they entered Almack’s together, she braced herself for some of the looks and comments she usually received. Not everyone appreciated her “blue-stocking tendencies,” but as she felt the muscles tighten and release on Hayes’s forearm and his tall form strong beside her, she knew she could face anything thetonthrew at her with him at her side. She wondered if she might consider him.
Her brother approached then with what looked like half the ballroom full of women in his wake. “Prince Hayes, I have some introductions to make.”
Prince Hayes leaned closer to Elsie, his breath creating new sensations all along her neck. “Might I have the first set?” His look of desperation and his words tickling her ear brought a soft flush to her face and a laugh to her lips.
“Certainly.”
He nodded. “Saints be praised.”
Duncan held out his hand. “This, ladies, is Prince Hayes, crown prince of Oldenburg. He has two brothers here with him as well: Prince Marc and Prince Kristoff.”
As Prince Hayes was pulled into the center of the group of overeager women, Elsie could only pity him. Another emotion, not quite as laughable, peered out at her from behind the pity. A particularly handsome new debutante clung to his arm, and her laugh carried to Elsie. Jealousy? Was the sudden desire to yank on the woman’s overly shiny blonde curls a result of jealousy?
She pushed that emotion away as far as she could and instead chose to smile at Prince Hayes’s plight.
When she turned from him, she almost ran into a man she hadn’t noticed. A group of men, actually. Their expressions seemed eager, and she wanted nothing more than to turn back to Prince Hayes’s side. The first, a Lord Tenney, bowed to her. “I’m happy to see you tonight. It has been an age. Would you dance your first with me?”
She curtsied in response to his bow and declined the first dance but accepted the second with him. She was soon surrounded, her dances filling up, her conversation fully monopolized until the strands for the first dance began.
