Page 98 of A Duke Changes Everything
“I only say you should have a care, Miss Thorne. Some are beginning to whisper.”
Anger flared like the ember of a hot coal sparking to life. “I spoke to a mason and several delivery men last week. Wilder and I drove alone in the pony cart together. Is anyone whispering about that?”
To catch her breath and get hold of her emotions, Mina fussed with arranging the trays of finger sandwiches and little squares of carved aspic. Dozens of cut crystal glasses were set precariously close to the front edge of the table.
“We should move those farther back,” she told Emma. “One swipe from a ball gown and they’ll come crashing down.”
As she worked, she soon realized Emma wasn’t offering any assistance. When she turned back, the girl was watching her with wide eyes.
“You’re smitten with him, aren’t you?”
The music of stringed instruments filled the air. The dancing would have begun. How many young ladies would be vying to catch Nick’s eye? However some might shrink back at the sight of his scar or striking eyes, the man was tall, broad, and sinfully wealthy. Lady Claxton certainly had her sights set on a match with her granddaughter.
“Are you, Mina?” Emma prompted.
“Come with me.” Mina led the girl toward the Claxtons’ long main hall. She followed the sound of music and stopped a few steps beyond the ballroom threshold.
“There, you see?” Mina indicated Lady Lillian, who was dancing her way around the ballroom in Nick’s arms. “She’s an earl’s granddaughter. I’m a steward’s daughter.”
At that moment, the couples turned in the quadrille and Mina shrank back from the threshold, determined Nick not see her peeking at the doorway like Cinderella wishing she could join the ball.
“We should refill the punch bowl.” Mina pointed to a table set along the back wall of the ballroom. “The guests will be thirsty now that the dancing has begun.”
“The Claxton footmen will see to it.” Emma stepped toward the ballroom doorway. “Don’t you wish you could take just one turn around the floor with a handsome man?”
“Yes.” Mina glimpsed Nick and Lady Lillian when the dance brought them toward the corner of the ballroom, and her stomach twisted in knots. She didn’t care about taking a turn around the dance floor, but she wanted to be the one in Nick’s arms.
He looked miserable. Lines knitted between his browns, he glanced down at his feet more often than at his partner. Lady Lillian seemed determined to get as close to him as possible, pressing her bodice toward his chest every time the dance required them to join hands.
“We should get back downstairs and see what we can do to help.” Mina forced her attention away from Nick and noticed Gregory Lyle at the edge of the ballroom. He was watching her intently and immediately started toward them.
“Oh goodness. Do you see who’s coming this way?” Emma was the only person to whom Mina had ever confided her foolish feelings for Gregory.
“We should return to the kitchen.”
They started back toward the door that led to the downstairs level, but the hard clip of footsteps sounded on the marble floor behind them.
“Miss Thorne, may I have a word?”
“Don’t do it,” Emma urged.
“Go ahead, Emma.” Mina stopped. “I won’t be but a moment.”
The young woman cast her a doubtful look over her shoulder and a very uncharitable glare in Gregory’s direction, but she continued on toward the kitchen.
When Mina turned to face him, he positioned himself near a potted palm. Eager to speak to her, but not eager to be seen, apparently.
“Might we step into the library?”
“No, we can’t have much to say to one another. Just speak your piece and then I must get downstairs.”
“I think of you quite often.” He cast a nervous glance down the hall.
Mina let out a weary sigh and took one step away from him. If he meant to try to charm her after all that had passed between them...
“Wait.” His hand snaked out, gripping her wrist.
“Let me go.” Mina twisted in his grasp.
