Page 36 of The Duke's Last Dance
“I believe that would be me. Your father said I would have sets three and four,” he replied. “May I?”
Her face flushed. Was she trying to get out of dancing with him?
“Oh. Then, yes, you may have the next dance.” She took his outstretched hand, passing her cup off to her mother.
Her mother gave her a quick glance of disapproval, but then took the cup. Nicolas led Lady Catherine out to the area cleared for dancing as the music began.
He could not believe his luck. This was the song that he had given her the brooch after so many years ago. It would not have been better with anyone else, and he wondered if Lady Catherine remembered the song.
His eyes trailed down as he pulled her closer to him, and he happened to spot the brooch on her dress. It was the very brooch he had given her. This could not have been any better planned.
“Why are you smiling?” Catherine’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
This could not have been planned.
“I am smiling because this is our song, and you, Lady Catherine, are wearing the brooch I gave you so many years ago tonight,” he responded.
She looked down.
“Miss Amelia must have put the brooch on when I was not looking. I thought it looked too old to wear with this dress, but it appears she thought I was wrong,” Catherine stated. “I am sorry to say that it was not my idea.”
“I see…” He let the smile drop.
His shoulders followed suit though he was not supposed to do so. She wore the brooch unknowingly… and it seemed that she was putting distance between the two of them. He could understand that she was mad the letter had never come telling her what had happened, why he had left… but to go so far as to make sure that there was more distance between them than there ever had been before felt as though she was trying to move on.
He danced with her quietly. She refused to meet his eyes, and she kept her head angled away from him the entire time they danced.
He worried that he had upset her somehow by mentioning the brooch.
“Lady Catherine, have I done something to upset you?” He furrowed his brows, frowning.
“You are the one who left me without a word, Lord Lockhart.” She kept her response brief. “I will dance with you and be civil, but I believe there is something else that I need to do, and I need to give other men a chance to court me. Besides, you were dancing with Miss Alexia just before you danced with me.”
“Yes, I was dancing with Miss Alexia, but this is a dance, Lady Catherine. To have you all to myself, there would be rumors that I was to marry you, and I feel that it would be wrong to give those who like to rumor something like that to rumor about,” Nicolas said. “I am protecting your honor by dancing with other women.”
“You enjoyed dancing with her,” Lady Catherine returned.
“I did not.” He could not believe that she thought he had enjoyed dancing with Miss Alexia. “I could not get a word in when she spoke.”
“I have heard she likes to be the main one in the conversation, but I never thought ‘twould be so bad as to make you, Lord Lockhart, feel as though you were not being allowed a piece in the conversation,” Catherine said. “We ought not to talk of your other partners, nor of mine.”
He was not going to ask about Lord Burton, but he knew that she could have assumed that after she had asked about his dances with Miss Alexia.
“How is your brother, Lady Catherine?” He tried to make conversation again.
“Lord Radcliff is doing well, as is Miss Juliet. I believe you saw Lord Radcliff yesterday,” she snipped.
He was not making any headway with earning her love, and if there was anything left of what they had felt as kids, she was making sure that it was not coming back to give him any ideas.
But there was one thing she could not hide. He had seen her glance his way once while she was dancing with Lord Burton, and her eyebrows had furrowed, her eyes narrowed.
She, too, had been jealous of the fact that he had danced with someone else.
Jealous was indeed a green-eyed monster, as he had once heard it put in a play, and Nicolas wondered if she thought he had only danced with Miss Alexia so that he could have a better partner after, when he danced with Lady Catherine.
He would never play such games.
She walked away when the sets were done without a word, and Nicolas sighed.
