Page 21 of The Scarlet Lady's Duke of Desire
The longer the event went on, the more and more determined he was that he would not see the one face he had truly wished to see that evening. Ever since their turn about the lake several days earlier, James had been anticipating the ball.
Even when he had not had any word from her, he had been hopeful. Yet, with every moment that passed and with every glance at the grandfather clock at the other end of the ballroom, he became more certain that the beautiful Miss Thornton would not show her face.
“Would you cheer up?”
Edward’s question was not nearly so shocking as the sudden jab at his ribs and James turned to glower at his cousin. The two had been standing at the edge of the dancefloor, absentmindedly watching the dancing play out before them, each with a drink in hand.
“I shall cheer up when something worth cheering up for happens,” James responded, glancing about them in the hopes that he might catch sight of something interesting. If Miss Thornton did not show, then perhaps he would have to find something else to keep him entertained for the foreseeable future until it was acceptable to leave.
“Your mood of late is quite concerning, cousin,” Edward announced, looking at James out of the corner of his eye as though he wished to keep one eye on the room so not to miss out on anything.
James scoffed. It was no great mystery why he had been low in mood of late. Edward’s own mother had been the one to make him so with all her insistence that it was time for him to find himself a bride, one like the very daughter of their host that evening.
He could see her now on the other side of the dancefloor, a wealth of men pottering about her as though they all wished for a dance, but many of them were clearly too nervous or even too frightened to approach. A part of James wondered whether he should just head over there and get it over with.
Maybe if he showed an interest, another man might pluck up the courage to try his luck and beat him to the punch just so that he could put his aunt off the idea that they should court.
But just as he was considering the idea, looking at the slyly beautiful Lady Florence, James heard a commotion coming from the main doors of the ballroom.
“You have got to be jesting,” Edward hissed under his breath even as they both turned to follow the sound of hissing whispers and other stirs that came from the arrival of new guests at the doors.
And the moment that the crowd near the door parted, James felt his heart skip a beat.
There, standing in a gown of dark emerald green with matching gemstones decorating her striking red hair, was Miss Melody Thornton. In the candlelight of the ballroom, Miss Thornton’s pale freckled skin practically glowed with a luminescence that reminded James of many an angel he had seen portrayed in artists most prized paintings.
For just a moment, as she paused in the doorway beside her friend, Miss Blackford, James could almost imagine her set into a painting, framed by the doorway, and standing out against the pastel painted walls.
Then she moved and her head turned slightly as if to listen to something being said close by and James saw the way her cheeks blushed. The way she turned her head back quickly, whispering something to Miss Blackford, suggested she had heard something from someone close by, something she had truly not wished to hear.
And the look upon her face made James angry, not at her but at whomever who had said something to upset her.
“That woman has some nerve showing her face here,” James heard woman hiss from somewhere close by but when he turned his head to see where the voice had come from, he could not quite tell.
“What is she doing here?” Edward demanded, sounding just as annoyed as several others around them were. “I cannot imagine that Lord Faversham invited her.”
James could not stop himself. He looked his cousin dead in the eye and said, “No, I did.”
Before his cousin could respond, he turned and began to stride across the room, growing angrier and angrier the more he saw the scathing looks on the faces of those all around Miss Thornton.
He did not allow himself a moment to stop and think, or even to offer a remark or two to the nay-sayers all around her.
Instead, he approached and with a swift bow, he offered his hand to the woman who looked entirely shocked at seeing him stood before her. “Miss Thornton, I am so glad to see you here. When I did not receive an acceptance to my invitation, I feared you might not come.”
He spoke loudly and clearly so that all those around them were easily able to hear and it was clear from the gasps and hisses of shock that swept all through the crowd around them that enough of the ballroom had heard. Soon it was certain that the entire party would know all about the fact that a duke had invited the daughter of scandal to the ball.
Already feeling quite guilty for having been the one to invite her into the lion’s den, seeing the sneers and scathing looks that so many aimed in her direction, James cleared his throat and quickly prepared himself to ask her to dance.
Standing up tall and straight, he never took his eyes off Miss Thornton’s. And though she looked quite shocked at his presence before her, and perhaps a little terrified of all those unfriendly faces around her, the look in her eyes warmed his heart.
The longer he gazed into her clear grey eyes, the more James felt the rest of the room fading away around them. In fact, for several seconds he felt as though they were the only two people in the room and it took all he had in him not to immediately take her into his arms.
He would have liked to dance with her until she forgot all about everyone else around them. He would have danced with her until every single person in the room was clear that she was not to be trifled with, that she was not the bottom of the barrel lady that they all made her out to be.
“Your Grace, I could not find it in me to decline your invitation,” Miss Thornton announced though her voice was much quieter than his own had been and it was clear she did not wish for the entire ballroom to hear them talking. Even Miss Blackford took a step away from them, greeting another couple of guests as though she wished to give them a little privacy.
James was not concerned for the viscount’s daughter. She was well enough liked that she immediately found a place among the rest of the party.
Miss Thornton, on the other hand, did concern him greatly, and he knew without a doubt that it was entirely his fault.
