“I see ye are not on familiar terms with the truth still.”
Damn it all. He’d not intended to speak so candidly.
She made a misstep, and he clutched her closer to steady her. For a heartbeat, their chests brushed, and his blood heated in recognition like a wolf to its prey. As she put a respectable distance between them once more, it occurred to him that she had changed in another way.
“Ye’re quite an accomplished dancer now,” he noted.
Her eyebrows drew together. “You sound oddly regretful. Why is that? Were you hoping to find me the bumbling fool so that you could laugh at my abilities?”
Her seeming vulnerability took him off guard. “Guin—”
“LadyGuinevere, if you please,” she said, tart as a lemon.
He clenched his teeth together at her highhanded tone. Maybe this was the true Guinevere, the one she’d hidden from him before in order to draw him into her web. Or had he walked into her web voluntarily? “Is itLady Guinevereto Kilgore?” he bit out. He sounded like a jealous husband. Damn it all. He should stop this now, but the desire to push forward was too great.
“You are beyond the pale!” she gasped.
“Aye, aye, I am. Does that scare ye? Do I scare ye?”
What in God’s name had taken hold of him? He’d lost his mind, and it had only taken half a waltz for it to happen. He wanted Guinevere to show some sort of genuine emotion. Regret would be good. He’d been trapped in a marriage with a woman he did not care for because of Guinevere, after all. She had jaded him to women forever. It would be damnably nice to hear her admit the truth and maybe even apologize.
“You do not scare me, Your Grace.”
Her civil tone made him want to let out a string of curses.
“I know exactly who you are now, and to answer your question, I am ‘Guin’ to Kilgore. Not,” she said, all haughty disdain, “that my personal life is any of your affair. I cannot fathom why you even care—unless, of course, there is someone new you mean to thwart by using me once more.”
The music ended on her last words, and she tried to pull away from him, but he pressed a palm to the small of her back to hold her in place. “Useye? It seems the years have muddled yer memory.”
Her gaze skittered around them, and she paled considerably. They were drawing attention, but he didn’t give a damn.
She lifted her chin in a show of impressive pride. “We shall have to agree to disagree, you louse. Oh, pardon, I mean, Your Grace. Now if you will please release me, people are beginning to stare, and I cannot afford to become fodder for the gossips because of you again. I have my future, as well as my sisters’ futures to consider.”
Even as his anger ticked to a degree he had not experienced since the night he’d seen her with Kilgore on the balcony, he released her, well aware what she said about her future was true. She turned away, and though he should have stayed silent and simply let her depart, he could not seem to manage it. He wanted to warn her and injure her at the same time. It was bloody awful, and he knew it. “I would not continue to pin yer hopes on Kilgore, if I were ye. The marquess is not interested in marriage. I should think it time ye quit dwelling in a fool’s paradise.”
Her eyes blazed magnificently. “We circle back toRomeo and Juliet, I see,” she said, matter-of-fact. Her head tilted ever so slightly as she studied him, a fierce frown developing. “Did you just call me a fool?”
He shrugged, though he felt as nonchalant as a soldier preparing for battle. “I simply meet fire with fire.”
She looked momentarily surprised, but then she smirked.“King John.”She narrowed her eyes. “I find it rather interesting that you know so much Shakespeare now. If I recall correctly, you knew nothing of him and his work five years ago.”
People were openly staring now. He didn’t care, except that he would hate to think her poor innocent sisters’ futures were ruined because of this exchange. As far as he knew, they did not deserve that fate. He could tell her that he’d begun reading Shakespeare because, as furious as he was at her, he was drawn to the text, drawn to the memories of her spouting Shakespearean quotes, and he had wanted to know what the comical words that had come out of her mouth meant. He’d been looking for answers that he had, of course, never found. Hecouldtell her all that, but he wouldn’t. The thing about men like him was, they could be beasts when cornered. He’d like to think he was better than that, but he wasn’t.
He shrugged. “Elizabeth loved Shakespeare.” It was a guess. He and Elizabeth had barely tolerated each other. He didn’t know what she liked, only what she didn’t—Scotland and him for taking her there. She especially had despised him when he refused to accept his courtesy title or take the money his father had offered.
Guinevere looked stricken for a moment, and his chest felt as if it were being constricted by a band. He was the largest arse in the world. “Guin—”
“Lady Guinevere,” she corrected in a wooden tone. She bit her lip, looking away from him. “I’ve missed my next promised set, and I do believe my mother is striding this way to take me to task.” Her beautiful face turned to his, and he could not see a trace of the vulnerability he thought he’d glimpsed in her eyes a moment ago.
She regarded him now with all the impassive coldness of the women of thetonthey had once made jest of together. “Thank you, Your Grace, for the dance and the interesting conversation on Shakespeare, whom your wife loved.”
She was gone in a twirl of silk and a swirl of lilies, and he was left standing there, disgruntled. He studied her progress through the crowd. She moved gracefully, head held high, shoulders back, not pausing, though he noted several men attempt to stop her. Perhaps she only deigned to halt for Kilgore?
Good God, he had to get control of himself. He needed to cease watching her, but where the devil was she going? Certainly not to meet her draconian mother…
He tracked her across the ballroom, keeping his gaze firmly on her as she paused a moment to glance around, and then she slipped from sight into a darkened passage. The perverse need to discover if she was slipping away to meet Kilgore had him glancing at the man to confirm he was no longer standing with Beckford, nor where he’d told Guinevere he would wait for her. He wanted to know for certain, though he was well aware he should not care at all.
Chapter Six
