Page 55 of Not Quite a Lady
‘Smile, Lily. People will be watching.’
‘I will not.’ He swept her round as the music started and Lily found she could not dance and quarrel at the same time, not without falling over her own feet at any rate. She plastered a complaisant smile on her lips and glared at him with her eyes.
‘Lout.’
‘Cat.’
‘Stubborn, pig-headed, snobbish, deceitful, odious man.’
‘Meddling, patronising, vulgar, spoilt brat.’
‘How dare you speak to me like that!’
‘I have absolutely to wish to speak to you at all.’ Jack said it so blandly that it took Lily’s breath away and she found herself whisked through the terrace doors and out into the open air before she had a chance to protest.
‘I just want to do this.’
The kiss was an outrageous, arrogant, gesture which rocked her back against his constraining arm. She could feel her heartbeat thundering in her breast, her whole body yearning towards him even as she strained away. Her hands were trapped, one in his grasp, the other pressed against his chest.
When he released her she staggered, too shaken to slap him as he so richly deserved.
‘Yes, that was inexcusable. Goodbye, Lily my love. Good luck finding your lord.’ He paused on the threshold of the ballroom,outlined in dark elegance for a moment against the rich gold brocade, smiling back as her as she stood panting with fury and arousal on the flags. ‘I do like your hair.’
‘Well, I do not like yours!’ she flung back childishly. But he was gone.
Somehow Lily got herself back into the ballroom, danced the final cotillion with perfect grace and an absolute lack of awareness, made her farewells and thanks to the duchess and, at long last, sank back against the squabs in the carriage.
‘You may well sigh,’ Lady Billington remarked, settling down opposite her. ‘What an evening, I declare I am quite worn out andIwas not dancing. You must have holes in the soles of your shoes, Lily dear.
‘But what a success you were. And of course, there was that incredible revelation with your Mr Lovell turning out to be an earl. I can recall his father, now I come to think of it: a more classically handsome man than the son. What a surprise, him appearing at the ball tonight.’
‘He came to challenge Lord Randall to a duel,’ Lily said listlessly. Her temper had ebbed into sick anti-climax, her feet ached and she was filled with the miserable realisation that not only had Jack hurt her abominably, but that she had been cruelly unfair to him. And that he was now in peril of his life. Because of her.
‘But why?’ Jane Billington dropped her reticule as she sat bolt upright.
‘Over Adrian’s insults to me.’
Oh God, Jack is going to die. Or he will kill Adrian and then he will be a fugitive. Or be hanged. And it is all my fault. I love him and I let my wretched pride and my temper rule me and now I have lost him for ever.
‘Lady Billington, what can I do to stop it?’
‘Nothing! Good Heavens, child, that would be a disaster – a scandal. And in any case, nothing you can do would stop them. A challenge is a matter of honour, they cannot withdraw now, not without one of them apologising.’
‘I’ll inform on them,’ Lily said vehemently, as the carriage lurched around a corner, hitting the kerb and throwing her against the door post. She pushed herself upright, hardly noticing. ‘I’ll find out where it is and inform at the magistrates’ office.’
‘They will simply go elsewhere. It is a matter ofhonour,Lily.’
‘I have to stop it. I love him.’
‘Who, Lord Randall? Surely not.’
‘No.’ Lily’s breath escaped in a little, gasping sob. ‘Jack Lovell.’
‘You mean once you discovered he was an earl?’
‘No, before then. Days ago. I did not care that he was poor and had no title. I proposed to him and he turned me down.’
‘You didwhat?Of all the fast, forward, imprudent things to have done. Why he might have made any sort of capital out of that, taken any sort of advantage. And he is so ineligible.’
