Page 36 of Burning Secrets of a Lady's Pen
“I am, I am. If the four of you will excuse me, I think that my fiancée, Miss Annalise Trenton, has already set my cello up.” Tristan was all smiles as he bowed his way away from them, all but jogging across the room toward the beautiful redhead standing on a podium at the front of the room.
“I didn’t know we were going to be treated to his musical prowess as well,” Spencer commented with a wry smile, watching as Tristan took his place after soundly kissing Miss Trenton.
“Oh, he always does this!” Charlotte exclaimed happily. “And it is a treat! Tristan is so talented, really. I’ve never heard anything like it.”
Imelda caught Corin’s gaze, her cheek dimpling slightly as they watched the Spencer fawn over Charlotte.
“Perhaps you’d do me the honor of making it more special, Lady Charlotte,” Spencer murmured, “and do me the honor of accompanying me in a dance as well?”
Corin was impressed. Spencer seemed to grow smoother the longer that he pursued Charlotte, more charming and sure of himself.
And, for what it was worth, ever since the incident with the boats, it seemed that the change in his demeanor was having an effect.
“I would be honored, Mr. Merrit,” Charlotte agreed happily, taking his arm and grinning up at him as Spencer led her away.
“She didn’t even pause that time,” Imelda said wonderingly, obviously catching onto the same clues that Corin himself had.
Corin laughed.
“Should she have?”
Imelda looked over at him with a slight frown, her shrug only a very slight movement. “I think he’d prefer she didn’t.”
Corin wasn’t sure they were strictly talking about his cousin and her brother any longer.
“No,” he agreed slowly. “It helps sometimes to know that such feelings aren’t so one-sided as they might seem.”
Imelda stared at him, the green in her eyes dazzling, and Corin found himself unable to look away. Something heavy passed between them, heavy and breath-stifling. There was something in her eyes, something…something that made Corin pause, his heart heavy in his chest. It was a dangerous line that he was toeing.
“Imelda,” he murmured, her name more of a caress on his lips than he wanted it to be. “Would you do me the honor of giving me this dance?”
That was the real question.
Would she hesitate or would she not?
Was she, too, warming up to him like Charlotte was to Spencer? Or was it all one-sided, and her reactions nothing more than a friendship and convenience to her?
“Corin, I—”
“Corin, darling!”
Corin could have bitten his own tongue off.
Belle’s jarring, honeyed tones interrupted Imelda’s response, ruining the moment between them as surely as if she had forcibly pushed them apart.
Damn her.
Chapter 13
Imelda’s voice died somewhere between her heart and her throat as she was so jarringly interrupted. They’d been dancing around one another for weeks now. One step forward and six steps back. She was consistently questioning whether or not she was imagining the inconsistency between them. Whether her still lingering feelings were influencing her or if she was right in thinking…
“Darling, look at you,” Belle trilled, ignoring Imelda entirely to wedge herself between she and Corin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you attend quite so many gatherings as you have been this Season! Not for an age, anyway. Ever since…well.” She laughed, the sound trilling, and Imelda watched as Corin grew more and more tense.
“Lady Belle,” Corin greeted staunchly. There was no warmth to her name. “I’m delighted, as always, to see you. I would stay and visit, but I had just promised Miss Merrit to dance to this song. It’s her favorite of Tristan’s.”
Imelda wouldn’t be able to identify the song if her life depended on it. She had barely heard the music at all since Corin and she had started talking after Spencer led Charlotte away, but she smiled and nodded as if it were the truth all the same.
“And you’re such a lovely dancer,” Lady Belle purred, fluttering her lashes as she looked up at Corin.
