Page 17 of A Chance to Dance with the Duke
He made her feel weak.
Tears threatened again, and she couldn’t draw in enough air. “We shouldn’t be alone like this. It’s not proper.”
“There’s a veranda full of guests behind us. Surely you can spare me a moment to explain.”
She took another step back. She just needed space so she could breathe.
He frowned and moved toward her again. “Please, just?—”
“No.” She backed up again, and this time her bad leg hit the edge of the fountain.
Her leg was a mutinous beast at the best of times, but the surprise of bumping into the fountain’s edge, combined with a leg that had a tendency to give way at the worst possible time and?—
“Miss Taylor!” He lunged forward, trying to help her. But the next thing she knew…
Meg was falling backward…into the fountain.
6
Meg wasn’t entirely certain where her gasps began and the crowds’ ended.
She was dimly aware of shocked shouts and a cluster of partygoers coming her way. But mostly she was aware of the freezing cold of the water, and the large, determined-looking Duke who was now hurtling over the fountain’s edge and marching toward her in the water.
“Oh no,” she moaned, too low for him to hear.
This was a disaster.
“No, no, no, no,” she chanted as he waded toward her, not seeming to notice that he was knee deep in freezing, muddy water, nor the fact that his splashing was soaking the rest of his clothing.
Meanwhile, she was frozen. Some part of her thought perhaps she was literally frozen, that’s how cold the water was.
Seated as she was in this pool of icy, dirty water, the coldness made her legs and bottom numb, while her chest had constricted to the point where she could hardly breathe, let alone scream.
And scream was precisely what she wanted to do, especially when Carver loomed over her, leaning down with a look of such concern it made her want to cry.
With anger, she told herself.
And maybe just a little self-pity.
To think, she’d been out in society for more than a year now, and had managed to go that entire length of time without causing undue scandal. Refusing dances was the worst of her oddities—aside from the limp, of course.
Until now.
Until she’d made the foolish decision to say yes to a dare, and then a dance, and then had agreed to attend this evening’s ball.
She’d thought she was being brave.
Really, she’d just been a fool.
“Let me help you,” Carver said, his voice low and oh-so-serious.
It made her want to laugh.
But of course, this was no laughing matter. What would her father say when he heard?
She’d been useless before, and now she was positively ruined.
All these thoughts were rushing toward her at once, and so it caught her unawares when Carver…picked her up.
