Page 73 of The Seductive Love of a Lady
‘All will be well, now,’ Andrew said to Caroline then stood and looked at her father. ‘I thought you were hungry, are we not going to eat?’
Her father chuckled, and raised a hand, which clearly told someone in the room they were ready as a moment later the dinner gong rang.
Andrew smiled apologetically at Mary, as he offered his arm to Caroline. But it had to be so.
Mary’s father offered his arm to Mary. They let Andrew lead Caroline into the dining room ahead of them. ‘I like him, now,’ her father said quietly. ‘But he is still on trial. Had he said he loved you in the beginning, instead of walking away with that cheque less than an hour after you were wed, with a cocky grin on his face, I might already trust him completely. But I have rarely wished to kill a man as much as that.’
‘He will not let me down, Papa. I know he won’t.’
Her father withdrew a chair for her to sit, rather than leaving the task to a footman. Then walked further along the table to sit beside her mother.
As Mary ate, raucous conversation, laughter and deeper discussions passed across the table, while Andrew and Caroline spoke exclusively to each other in low tones.
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When Kate rose and led the women from the room, to leave the men at the table, Mary heard Caroline tell Andrew she was going to her room.
‘Then I will leave the table and walk up with you,’ he answered. He smiled at Mary. ‘I will meet you in the drawing room.’
She nodded.
The men were still at the dinner table when Andrew came down, and the women were listening to Mary’s cousin Margaret playing the pianoforte. He looked about, unsure what to do. Mary stood and went to him, and in the same moment the men came back, drifting in in groups.
‘Let us dance!’ Mary’s cousin Eleanor called, clapping her hands to silence the room. Some of the men moved furniture aside to make space.
‘I am only participating if we are dancing waltzes!’ Mary’s father shouted at Eleanor.
‘And he will then only dance with Mama,’ Mary whispered to Andrew. ‘Will you dance with me? We have never danced a waltz.’
He smiled. ‘Yes. If that is what you want.’
He had promised her tolerance; she knew this was that. ‘I will sit it out if you prefer.’
His smile twisted and he leaned to her ear. ‘I am sorry if I seemed reluctant, it is just all evening I have felt your family watching. I do not like to be the entertainment. At least if they are dancing, they will have another occupation.’
‘Look at me. Do not think of them.’
Margaret played a slow waltz. There were too many couples in the room, and too much furniture, for them to dance boldly.
‘Happy?’ Andrew asked, as he spun her over-exuberantly.
‘Now you are here, yes. Andonlywhen you are here.’
His smile tilted sideways and he leaned to her ear. ‘Your father called me son.’
‘Then he approves of you.’
‘He approves if I am good for you. I am being good.’
‘You were always good for me, even when you were very bad.’
A chuckle rumbled in his throat. ‘Do I have permission to be bad sometimes then?’
‘As if you have ever awaited permission.’
She was pulled flush against him in response, her thighs moving against his, as her breasts crushed against his chest.
She would have backed away and told him off, but every couple in the room danced closer than they would in a ballroom among the rest of theton.
