Page 14 of A Lady's Wicked Revenge
But only for a moment. “Well,” said Adam brightly, springing to his feet and striding towards the door. “It sounds as though your Miss Hann is in need of not only a husband but something to buoy her spirits. Lucky for her that her cousin was unwise enough to invite Adam Radcliffe tonight.”
“She’s not my cousin,” Colin said sharply as he hastened to catch up with his friend. “But, ah, more to the point, Radcliffe, I really don’t think she’s in any mood for—”
“Stuff, Mullens. I’ve never met a girl whose mood can’t be improved by a chat with a handsome young swain like me.”
“Or you haven’t bothered to listen to any woman who’s felt different.”
“Precisely!”
Adam paced down the corridor towards the salon with great purpose, smoothing his hair with one hand as he walked. “I tell you, Radcliffe, you’re on treacherous ground here,” Colin protested.
“My preferred territory.”
“She’s a tiger and in no mood for nonsense.”
“She hasn’t triedmynonsense!”
Colin smiled and shook his head. His imagination supplied an image of how the ferocious Diana Hann might greet the clumsy flirtations of his friend Radcliffe.Unless …he thought, suddenly beset by a pang of trepidation.There’s no chance she would be fool enough to fall for his fast-talking and loutish wit. Is there?
The grand Leeson salon was buzzing with polite conversation … or as close to “buzzing” as such staid company ever was, Colin thought wryly. From his place by the doorway, he could see two dozen elegantly dressed guests, mostly older lords and ladies who had attended Leeson dinner parties on previous occasions. The guests had not yet progressed to the dining room for the meal and instead were sipping aperitifs and speaking gently with one another about the ton’s scandal du jour. Standing by the cold hearth wreathed by candelabra, Sir James Leeson was holding court with some of his favourites.
“Aha!” exclaimed Adam as he approached Diana, still trapped in conversation with the Westermonts. She regarded him warily, but he strutted in her direction like a peacock, his flaming red hair sticking out from his scalp at odd angles. Colin covered his mouth, praying he would not burst out laughing at an inopportune time.
“So, this must be the lovely Miss Hann. Adam Radcliffe,” said Adam, bowing deeply. He raised a hand as if to take Diana’s and kiss it in the continental fashion.
Seeing that she did not move to accept this gesture, he leaned forward instead and spoke to her in a conspiratorial stage whisper. “I assure you that whatever you have heard about me—whether from Mister Mullens or other disreputable characters—is all completely true.” An easy smile spread across his lips at this jest, and he punctuated it with a lightning-fast wink.
For a long, long while, Diana showed no expression at all. She neither moved nor spoke, instead just looking at Adam with a completely blank face. Colin could see his friend sweating under this gaze from his distance several yards away, and out of the corner of his eye, he thought he detected other guests turn subtly from their conversations to watch this unfold.
At last, a flash of irritation crossed Diana’s features—the sort of look one might have after noticing a large insect on the floor or treading on something foul in the street—and then she turned to excuse herself politely to nearby Priscilla Leeson and walked off to speak to someone else without so much as a word in Adam’s direction.
The force required to hold back waves of laughter seemed to buffet Colin powerfully from the inside. Chest shaking, eyes freely flowing with tears, he coughed as he approached the deflated Adam Radcliffe and handed him a glass of wine retrieved from one of the servants.
“Mullens, why didn’t you warn me?”
“I did, Radcliffe. I specifically said, ‘treacherous ground.’”
“You didn’t say just how treacherous. Nary a word from her, yet I feel certain I’m lucky to be alive.” Still in a daze, Adam accepted the proffered glass in a limp hand. He glanced back in Diana’s direction and loosed a sigh of admiration. “Still, how splendid must it be to perish in such a fashion!”
“Cheer up, old man. I’ve no doubt you’ll find a manner of death all your own before too long.”
The two friends shared a weary laugh and retreated to a secluded corner to drink and nurse the fresh wound to Adam’s ego. Before they had made it ten paces in that direction, however, they heard Mister Davenport announce in his clear, nasal voice that dinner was to be served at the guests’ convenience.
Colin could not deny the bright, warm feeling that spread throughout himself as he glimpsed Diana smile and laugh in her conversation with his mother. Nor the inexplicable relief he felt at having seen her reject Adam’s advances.
I’ve seen far too many clever women fall for his charms and regret it later. It’s good that Diana is too intelligent for that.
Diana looked up and met Colin’s eyes. With a start, he realised he had an imbecilic smile on his lips, and before he could erase it, he saw Diana scowl and turn her back to him.
* * *
“Mister Arnold!”
“As I live and breathe, Victoria, here she is!”
Diana rushed to the side of the wizened couple, feeling joy rush through her body and fill her with life once more. Though both Mister and Missus Arnold were hardly any older than her parents, they were small, thin people by nature. Tonight, they appeared much older than the last time she had seen them, so papery and delicate that she feared they might blow away in a mild wind.
At the last moment, Diana held herself back from wrapping her arms around the pair, pausing a pace away and folding her arms behind herself awkwardly. She looked around them, feeling dozens of eyes take in her girlish run disparagingly.
