“The Viscount,” Marina repeated warmly. He could hear an embellishment of pride in her voice.
“He is your first favorite, I take it.”
“He is. Least of all for his title. Look there. He is anxiously waiting for her to finish dancing with her current partner, so he can ask her for the next dance. He does not dance with anyone else.”
Phillip’s gaze followed the direction Marina indicated with a flicker of her eyes and saw the Viscount Thomas Baker standing at the very edge of the dance floor, his eyes locked on Olivia.
“So, he has made up his mind,” Phillip murmured, knowingly. He had watched Marina the same way while they were engaged. He knew without a doubt that the Viscount was already planning to propose.
“Do you really think?” Marina asked, her voice edged with excitement.
“I know for a fact,” he asserted with confidence.
“What doyouthink of him, then, Your Grace? Surely the two of you cross paths in parliament.”
Phillip nodded. “We do, on occasion, but I am afraid that I am a disappointment to you, my dear. I do not know him as well as I ought to. He is young and a bit timid. He’s often overpowered in meetings by stronger voices. When he does speak up, he is…ah, intelligent but not always realistic.”
Marina hummed as she thought about this. “You are right. You have disappointed me. I am afraid that this information does notbear much weight in the matter of whether or not he will make a fine husband.”
“What do you think of his prospects as a husband?”
Marina watched the Viscount carefully as the quartet that played ended, and Olivia bowed her head to her first dance partner. She smiled when Olivia immediately turned to look for Lord Baker, but he waited a hair too long for her. Another prospective partner approached her long before he had the chance. Marina frowned, and Phillip seemed amused.
“He must first become one,” she muttered, clearly disapproving of his timidness. “But I do think that Olivia is quite taken with him. I think that she would do well with someone whose disposition is quieter than hers.”
Phillip bit back his laughter. Marina was right though he thought she perhaps loved her sister too much to see exactly how right she was. “And your least favorite? Who is he.”
Marina gave Phillip a sideways glance. “Should you really like to know?”
“Of course.”
“There.” She pointed again with her eyes, and Phillip found the figure she spoke of—the same man Olivia had just finished dancing with. He recognized him as the son of a lord but could not recall his name or title.
“Lord Bannerman. His background is well enough, but he is courting a fair many ladies of the ton right now.”
“A fair many?”
“Indeed.”
“How unseemly.”
Marina hid her giggle behind her fan, but Phillip caught the playful glimmer in her eyes as she looked toward him. “Precisely.”
“What does Olivia think of him?”
Marina chuckled. “She does not.”
“How unfortunate for Lord Bannerman. Who is it she dances with at present?”
Marina smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “I have never seen him before. He is a soldier, but he must come from a family of some wealth if she accepted his invitation to dance.”
“A rejection this early in the evening would keep her from dancing very much if at all,” Phillip mused. “She said yes to him so that she might dance with the Viscount, yes?”
Marina seemed pleased. “You’ve been listening well, Your Grace. Yes, she likely said yes because she wants to dance with the Viscount, but if she had accepted the dance and he was of poor background or parentage, then she might also have encouraged others of his stature to rush to fill her dance card before the Viscount had the chance.”
“Ah, yes. I see.”
“Ideally, the Viscount would have asked her first. Afterward, it would be a bit of a social faux pas for anyone else to ask her to dance unless he chose another dance partner as the highest-ranking man here.”
