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I wonder how many poor souls have been lost to that damned smile of yours,she cursed inwardly, for when he smiled, it was akin to seeing the sun peek through the clouds after a terrible storm. Indeed, his smile took his handsome appearance from pleasing to magical—precisely the charm and enticement she would have expected from a renowned rake.

Nevertheless, she put onhermost charming smile, watching as his eyebrows raised slightly and his lips parted in a fabricated sort of wonder and accepted. “I would be delighted, though we have no music,” she said inherloudest voice. “I do not mind, but I fear we shall look rather strange if we dance without music.”

“I will play!” Caroline yelped, jumping to her feet and running to the pianoforte in the corner. It appeared the dance had spared her from continuing a rowdy conversation that the Dowager and Olivia’s mother were engaged in.

Olivia paused in astonishment for a moment as Caroline’s fingertips graced the ivories with an immediate talent, running through several scales and little ditties while smiling over at Olivia and Evan.

“Will it be a lively tune or something more… romantic?” Caroline asked, chuckling with a girlish innocence that Olivia wished she still possessed.

Olivia, led by the hand to an open square to the right of the pianoforte, said, “A lively dance, I think, for I ate so much at dinner that I feel the need to exercise most vigorously.”

“Is that so?” Evan whispered, close to her ear, almost making her choke on her breath.

As Caroline launched into a spirited song, Olivia barely had the chance to catch her breath and gather herself before Evan began the dance—a country dance filled with sprightly leaps and complicated steps that she ordinarily loathed at balls. Or, instead, she was too embarrassed or too busy with her friends to even think about mastering.

I must end this quickly,she reasoned, as the dance called for them to step into the middle together and step back out four times. Thinking fast, she surged forward for the third repetition and made sure she stepped too far, her foot landing squarely upon his toes.

He hissed a breath through his teeth, eyes narrowing in pain.

“Goodness, I am so very sorry!” she gasped, doing her best to sound sincere. “I should have warned you that I am particularly clumsy, but there was no time.”

Evan flashed her an irritated look, but he quickly recovered, putting on a smile so false it resembled a painted mask. “Not at all. I should have given you the opportunity to tell me of your dancing prowess, or lack thereof.” He bowed to her. “You would not be the first lady to accidentally step upon a man’s toes. Have no fear; I shall not hold it against you.”

But that is what I want! I want you to think me an unmarriageable oaf!Olivia longed to reply, but one look at her mother, smiling and shiny-eyed with joy, and she knew she had to keep holding her tongue.

“Aside from that unfortunate incident,” Evan continued, “I thought you were wonderful.”

Olivia cast him a sideways glance of doubt.

“In truth,” he added with a warm smile, “you have been a very welcome surprise. I misjudged you upon our first meeting, and though I wish I could blame that orange gown again, it is my own ignorance that is responsible. I saw beauty without substance, and I have since learned my mistake, for you are extraordinarily beautiful but you are also graceful, intelligent, amusing, and kind of heart. If you were not, Caro would not be besotted with you.”

It was an unexpected compliment, heating Olivia’s cheeks without her say-so. For a moment, gazing up into his unusual green eyes, the color of a rare emerald, she forgot that she was supposed to loathe and repel him. For a moment, her mind savored his compliment and his smile, her heart beating hard in her chest, and not because of the lively dancing.

It is a trick,the sensible part of her mind leaped in, admonishing the foolish part.He likely says this to every young lady he has ever sought to seduce, and you are falling for it!

She dropped her gaze, not trusting herself to look at him. “You are too kind, My Lord.”

“Evan,” he corrected, taking hold of her hand. “You must call me Evan.” He brought her hand to his mouth, and though her hands were covered in delicate kid gloves, she felt the pressure of his lips as if there was nothing between them.

Her heart jumped, her mind spinning. “As you prefer.”

“May I call you by your name?” he murmured, the movement of every word etched into her glove like a rune being carved.

She swallowed uncomfortably. “If that is your preference.”

“It has been a glorious evening, Olivia,” he purred. “I do hope we shall dance again, and often.”

With that, he let go of her hand and dipped into an elegant bow before announcing to the room that he was too warm and required his evening turn around the gardens before he retired. A moment later, he was gone, leaving through the French doors where she had made her floundering attack.

As she watched his shadow disappear across the lawns, she covered her freshly kissed hand with her other one, brushing her fingertips across the material as if she might feel a trace of him there. At that moment, her cheeks hot, her heart fluttering, her eyes wide, her skin tingling, she realized she was in far more danger than she had bargained for. After all, if the evening were a battlefield, Evan was most certainly the victor.

CHAPTERSIX

Evan had wandered for hours through the gardens, needing every breath of fresh air and the serenity of the gravel walkways and walled hideaways to clear his mind. By the time he had returned to the Dowager House, his mind no clearer than when he had set out, it had been past three o’clock in the morning. As such, being awoken at seven o’clock and informed that he was to ready himself for the excursion to the lake had not put him in the most favorable of moods.

“Why are you so glum today?” Caroline asked, reclining on one of the many picnic blankets laid out upon the sun-drenched shore of the lake.

Evan shook his head. “Pardon?”