"Too romantic for words," he said with a slow smile. "I was tumbled from my horse far from my party and my lodgings. It turned my ankle badly and I wasn't able to right myself to go for help without a struggle. I was barely making it a mile in hours when this lady rode from the mists and found me. She didn't know who I was and I didn't tell her of course, but she helped me to shelter just as the storm found us. I was terribly out of it,concussed I think, but she talked to me all night and we fell in love under the stars. I swore my heart to her and she to me."
Louisa stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. It was exactly the plot of the most recent novel she had been reading. He was copying her novel just to tease her. Just to tease her onpurpose. Oh he wasmaddening.
He grinned, eyes sparkling as he could see her recognize what he was doing. "No stain can lie on her honor either, she was driven by the desire to help her fellow man. All she knew me by was my initial which she got off my handkerchief, I was too out of things to tell her more. And all I knew about her was my lovely angel who rescued me from a worse injury which I no doubt would have seen if I had continued to march about in that storm. No she saved me, of that I am certain. You had to return home the next morning, did you not, my dear? And of course by the time that you returned I was gone. I thought that you were a product of my delirium and you thought you should never see me again until we found each other in that church."
"I was quite worried," Louisa managed. "He did not look at all well and I thought perhaps he might be a lost soldier, though he was clearly well bred. Maybe he had lost all his fortunes and gone quite mad, otherwise why would he be walking about just before such a terrible storm?"
"But your human kindness," Cedric said and Louisa knew he was laughing at her. "Just couldn't let you leave me to die."
"I suppose it doesn't hurt that you have quite pleasant features," Louisa said calmly, seeing him bite his lip hard. "At least it has all ended well."
The Allingtons had their mouths open in astonishment.
"What a story," the Viscount said, amazed. "It is really quite romantic, isn't it my dear?"
"Terribly," the Viscountess agreed. "Oh the most romantic thing I have ever heard. What else could you have done, my lady, but stop the wedding, knowing what you knew?"
"Exactly," Louisa said, hoping that her tone was enigmatic and not hysterical. "There was simply no other course of action."
Cedric kissed her hand and drew her away, his eyes still dancing and Louisa promised herself as sincerely as she could that she would eventually kick him, even if it looked like an accident when they danced.
"I think you ought to bring your lady wife to visit," Lord Castlegate was saying as Cedric idly waited on a fresh glass of champagne for himself and for Louisa. "The ladies can talk about whatever it is that they talk about and you and I can do some good hunting out in the woods. Damned fine grouse this time of year, I have. Damned fine."
"Quite," Cedric said shortly. "I will check my engagements and see what I can do."
It was not that he wasn't listening to Lord Castlegate, but like so many elderly bores who wanted a piece of the Earl of St Vincent, his wealth and his power, Cedric had learned how to glean the important things from the conversation on automatic while filtering out the rest of it. Castlegate was not a bad contact to cultivate, yet the idea of spending a weekend hunting with him made his teeth ache.
Perhaps if it was absolutely necessary for his business dealings in York, but otherwise...
His eyes caught on the most glittering figure in the room and he couldn't help a small pleased smile. He had sworn that his wife would look better than any other lady present as befitted her new status and she certainly managed the part today. The dress was tasteful but eye catching and it set off her dazzling eyes and dark hair well.
Of course there was the matter that she was so unused to being the center of such attention that she had spent the first half of the party trailing after him like a terrified duckling. Perhaps they were finally past that seeing as she was now standing there speaking with Genevieve, wife of the Earl of Stapleton who was introducing her around several other figures including -
Was that Hector?
Cedric swiftly stopped listening to Castlegate on any level as he saw his younger friend bow slightly over Louisa's hand, saying something that made her smile in the way she did when she was trying very sincerely not to laugh.
He said something, he wasn't sure exactly what, to Castlegate before excusing himself as quickly as was polite, eyes fixed on his wife.
Making his way quickly through the ball he could start to hear some of their conversation.
"Aye and I am enjoying the parties here mightily, Lady St Vincent," Hector said in his broad Scottish burr, eyes dancing. "The ladies are lovelier than the English rose, I think is the saying?"
"I don't know that I have ever heard such a saying, Your Grace," Louisa said, glancing to the lady next to her with a smile. "But if you have coined it, it is a very fair one."
"Fair words for fair ears is what I always say," Hector said. He was the new Duke of Murray, more used to running his business than a dukedom, but from what Cedric had noted he was picking things up quickly.
"Thank you, Your Grace, and thank you for the tip on the flowers, I will keep it in mind."
"Och, la - my lady, it was no trouble," he laughed, his head thrown back. Cedric noticed how the laughter seemed to make Louisa's eyes sparkle more and that was enough for him to move into the circle and place his hand on Hector's shoulder.
"Take it easy, old man," he said thinly. "This lady is spoken for."
Hector turned, an eyebrow rising but a pleasant smile on his face. "Pembroke, it's good to see you, aye it is indeed. And this is your lovely wife, isn't it?"
"Mywife, yes," Cedric took Louisa by the hand. "Excuse us, I promised her this dance."
It was only good fortune that ensured that as they stepped away music was starting, Cedric had been paying no attention to anything but the blush on his wife's cheeks and the way she had been looking at the Duke of Murray with a smile that should by all respects be saved for him.
