“You hadn’t even spoken to me tonight, yet. If you mean to compliment my manner more than my looks, then I know you are lying.”
“I tell no lie,” he whispered and released her far enough so that they danced apart, mirroring one another in their steps. They moved to one side and the next, clapping their hands in rhythm to the music. The entire time, they did not take their eyes off each other. “Perhaps I know you better than you think I do.”
“How is that?” she asked. They moved toward one another, linking arms and circling each other again.
“Well, let us say this,” he murmured, his voice no longer as husky as it was before though the deep tone was instantly familiar to her. “I have often wondered how you are with a gentleman that is not a Moore. Now I know the truth. You smile, you’re polite, enigmatic even. Quite charming in general, Lady Helena.”
Oh, God’s wounds. It is the Duke after all!
She leapt back from him. Though the dance permitted it, she moved further than she should have and collided with the lady behind her. She turned to apologize, but an arm was wrapped around her waist, and she was swept away before she could say anything at all.
The Duke turned her with ease and held her in his arms, performing the previous step of spinning the two of them around the floor. His head was turned down toward her, so close that she wondered why she had not recognized him before. It was his eyes beneath that mask, but she had to strain hard in order to see them.
“You tricked me,” she muttered sharply.
“Can you blame me?”
“I most certainly can!” she seethed, barely taking notice of what they did next in their dance, for she was so angry. She performed the steps woodenly. “You deceived me, completely. I thought you were another.”
“Who?”
“Anyone but you,” she muttered as he turned her under his arm and pulled her closer to him again. “It was a cruel scheme.”
“No cruelty in it, none at all, and you can hardly accuse me of scheming when it is the very thing you and I have been doing for the last few weeks now.”
“I beg your pardon?” she spluttered, wondering if he was referring to their new closeness. He passed an arm around her waist and turned her so that her side nestled against his own then he led her to another part of the floor where they began the reel all over again.
“You and I have been plotting to bring our families closer together and have facilitated our siblings’ meetings more than once. Such as tonight.” He smirked. “I may hazard a guess well enough that you contrived to have your sister brought here tonight.”
“It was a small scheme, nothing more.” She couldn’t help smiling.
“Impressive. I would have thought it impossible your father would allow your sister here at all.”
“There are ways to persuade him when you know how.”
The Duke drew her toward him as they circled one another. This time, when his hand took hers, there was a firmness to it, one that had her heart in her mouth as she wondered if he felt this heat there was between them too. Surely it was possible; why else would he ask her to dance? Just to tease her? Just to see her squirm?
“Why dance at all with me?” she asked as they turned the other way to dance around each other. “You blamed my charms. Ha! We both know that is not true.”
He caught her waist and spun her with him, so close now and so energetic in their number that neither one of them could speak for a minute. They simply stared each other in the eye as he turned them round. When they parted, moving into the next part of the dance and circling other partners on the floor, she realized hastily that he had not denied her question. They returned to facing one another.
“Maybe I like your charms, after all,” he whispered, turning her under his arm. She flicked her head round, hurriedly trying to look at him. “I certainly like your competition.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean simply this,” he paused with his words as he caught her with his other arm, halting her from any more spinning, then drew her side to his side, her body close to his. “Your life might be quite dull if you didn’t have me to bicker and compete with all the time.”
“You think that?” She laughed at the idea. When they parted ways again to circle the others, Helena’s eyes stayed with the Duke. She saw him hand in hand with a lady who had been mentioned alongside him in one of the scandal sheets. Her disguise was so poor that Helena recognized her immediately. The Duke smiled at the lady, and she blushed in return.
Such jealousy curled within Helena’s gut that as the Duke returned to her, her grip was lighter than before. He must have sensed it, for his hand tightened through hers.
“Judging by what the scandal sheets say of you, Your Grace, then you would not know what a dull or boring time is.” She laughed at the idea. “No doubt, you fill it with your own sort ofentertainment.”
“Pray, do not speak of such things again,” he begged of her. The music came to such a sudden halt, they were both wrongfooted, holding onto one another. She breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath, very aware that he made no effort to release her. They only remembered to bow and curtsy as the others around them did the same.
He offered his hand, and she took it, yet rather than leading her off the dance floor, he led her across it to another space entirely. In the silence that followed as they both panted, catching their breaths, she thought only of that touch he had on her hand. It was soft, even delicate, his fingers brushing against her own. There was a time when she would not have thought the Duke of Bridstone capable of such a touch. Now, she knew she was wrong.
He drew her to face him, and a slower tune began.
