Mad for Love
by L.M. Connolly
Copyright © 2017 by L.M. Connolly. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Chapter One
LONDON, SPRING 1755
“If you listen hard you can hear the sound of keys turning in locks,” d’Argento remarked, gazing around the crowded ballroom. In spring, at the height of the Season, the matchmakers were in full cry. Everything glittered, from the jewels to the spangles sewn on some of the gowns and waistcoats to the brilliance of the chandeliers above. The pier-glasses set between each window reflected the light back at the participants.
Blaize enjoyed the spectacle but preferred to remain apart from it, if he could. He glanced at his friend, a cynical smile quirking the corners of his mouth. “Mothers locking up their daughters, you mean?”
“From you. They like me.” D’Argento arched a brow, daring Blaize to disagree with him. Why should he when he was telling the truth?
Blaize laughed outright. His reputation was bad, but d’Argento could meet him and even overtake him in the right mood. However, d’Argento had only recently arrived on these shores and they didn’t know him very well. Yet. “If only they knew. You’re a new conquest for them. Pretty, isn’t it?”
“What’s pretty?”
Blaize moved across the ballroom toward a waiter bearing a tray of wine, his manner easy, not revealing his need for the drink. “All those silks and satins, the candlelight—in our day we had torches and drapery.”
“Our day?” d’Argento purred, but the sound held a warning. “It’s always our day, my friend.”
It had been his day for the last thousand years, although Blaize himself could only claim a couple of hundred. But his forebears had borne the same gifts—or curse, as he preferred to call them on occasion—for as long as human memory lasted.
One day he would forget and allow the oblivion of total madness to descend on his soul. The way to do that was to stop drinking alcohol. He couldn’t afford that indulgence, but it remained a tantalizing promise just out of reach.
He snatched a glass of wine off a tray and tried not to gulp. D’Argento watched him with satisfaction. “If you had not done that, my friend, I would have forced it down your throat. The last time was enough for me.”
“I liked Bedlam. One day I will claim it for my own.”
“It’s already yours.”
“Not yet.” The wildness, never completely at bay, receded as the wine filled his system, but it never completely left him. Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. He was that god. Bacchus, the god of wine and madness was here, alive and well in this exclusive, beautiful room in the person of Blaize, Marquis of Stretton. If they knew, the mamas would do more than glare.
The Comte d’Argento—or as the legends had it, Mercury, messenger and physician to the gods—stood next to him, watching and waiting. They’d come here searching for more of their kind. After their enforced dispersal thirty years before, the quest had become Blaize’s raison d’etre. Nothing else mattered next to that. Once completed, he’d allow himself the sweet forgetfulness of insanity.
He sensed something. Just a twitch, a tinge of the mental communication they could use or disguise at will, but it flashed through his senses like wildfire. A buzz, like a sound only a bat would hear.
“Feel that?” d’Argento said sharply.
“Yes, but only a little.”
“It’s the first hint we’ve had for months.”
They’d been hunting the lost gods, the re-creations of the divinities destroyed in an explosion thirty years ago. Nearly thirty-one now. They’d lost most of their number and the battle between the Olympians and the Titans, which had died down in recent times, revived in full force to clash swords, minds and bodies in the ballrooms of fashionable London. Blaize and d’Argento were two of the few gods to escape the slaughter, the others scattered, living in hiding or simply ignorant of their true nature.
That nudge of a mind against his meant back to work. They needed to discover what it was and if it was deliberate communication or accidental. “We should split up. The mamas love you, so you take the ladies and I’ll stroll to the card room and see what I can find there.”
“Torturer.” D’Argento adopted a plaintive tone. “You have a way of turning every situation to your advantage.”
Blaize chuckled. “One of the best parts of a fearsome reputation as a rakehell is being avoided by designing mamas.”
“Not all of them are designing. And you’re rich enough that most don’t care.”
He deposited his empty glass on a tray and seized another before the waiter could pass him. “True enough. So I’ll take the ones that don’t want anything but enjoyment and good company.”
Grumbling under his breath, d’Argento left him. After pasting a smile on to his face, Blaize headed for the corner where the older matrons clustered closest. He only avoided them because of their marriageable daughters, for scandalous though he was, he still held one of the highest titles in the country. Marquess of Stretton, no less. A less scrupulous mama might still try to net him for her daughter. The daughter would get a great deal more than she bargained for.
He took his time strolling down the window side of the elegant room, a salon converted to a ballroom for the occasion. All fashionable elements lived in this gilded space, every candle in the two big chandeliers was lit. Wall sconces enhanced the glitter, while mirrors over the fireplace and between the windows added to the glare. Too much, in his opinion, but it reflected off the jewels and shining fabrics of the people pacing the stately moves of the minuet played by the quartet stationed in one corner of the room.
He could appreciate the sight, though often he wished himself a thousand miles away. Still smiling, he managed to snag and drink two more glasses of red wine before he reached the end of the room. People stopped him to exchange words and he began to relax, the tension caused by abstinence leaving him, sanity returning, the wildness banked down deep inside. Resting, not gone. While he walked, he scanned, tracking the room for a trace of that supra-normal buzz. Blaize didn’t care how many people watched his progress and his consumption of wine. They could think what they liked, as they always did. Besides, he wasn’t the only person taking advantage of the generous hospitality their hosts offered. The Dowager Duchess of Kentmere and her daughter had newly arrived from Scotland. In London they were known by repute only, but by this display they were certainly not short of the means to throw an elegant ball. He was about to leave the room, heading for the smaller salon beyond, when he felt it again. Another twinge, like catching a nerve unaware, and then it disappeared. He had no idea if the flicker was meant to draw him or if the owner was unwittingly sending it, but someone had contacted him mentally, and it wasn’t d’Argento.
He glanced around. He didn’t know everyone here. A young woman snagged his attention. Her hair gleamed dark through its covering of fashionable powder, her eyes clear and blue. She was innocent, respectable, no doubt wellborn. Everything he’d determined to avoid. Short, slender, a fairy of a woman, she appealed to him like no other.
His heart beat harder, then subsided. A warning, and a recognition. One hammer blow against his chest told him the truth.
This woman was his. Deep down, something primitive and unreasoning called to her. She belonged to him. Even though men thronged around her, he’d kill them all to get to her.
Every rational bone in Blaize’s body screamed against him approaching her, but she drew him like no other person in this place tonight. His cock twitched most inappropriately. He wanted her in private, alone, where he could strip that pretty pale blue gown from her body and feast on her pearly skin. He stared at her like an untried boy, yearning to touch her, to take her.
Despite having calmed the beast inside him with wine, it strained at the leash, drawing him as inevitably as a snake drew a rabbit. Blaize was used to being the rabbit. He chafed at the reversal of the roles.
The older lady sat on a wide sofa, her voluminous skirts spread wide. She held court while the younger woman, her daughter, stood just to one side of the sofa. As he approached, Blaize took note of her pure, cut-glass accent. “Indeed, Scotland was good enough for us, sir. Edinburgh is an elegant city with many attractions. You know it?”
She took her time turning, a play for power. He glanced around, found someone he knew, Lord Siddling, and put a subtle persuasive hint into the man’s mind. Siddling glanced at him and bowed. “May I have the pleasure of introducing someone to you, ma’am?”
She scanned him. Blaize took care not to let his attention stray to the young woman standing by the sofa smiling gently. Too much interest and the guardian would slam the door on him. He’d wait to be invited in.
With only a brief second of what am I doing? astonishment, Blaize went through the introduction. “Delighted to meet you, Duchess,” he murmured, his breath whispering over her hand.
An invisible net closed around him, gilded and glittering, but only one of his kind would see it. The pretty snare sent to trap a man in seduction—a spell. It was nothing he couldn’t slice his way out of. He’d escape long before the cords strengthened enough to hold him.
This woman had psychic power of some kind. She might even be one of his own, but some mortals had powers too, and a few witches remained, despite the purges of the last century. Although—could they cast a spell powerful enough to ensnare a god? Certainly they could, especially if the god in question went eagerly to his fate. But they couldn’t hold him.
Blaize made his bow to Lady Aurelia Welles, and when he took her hand, he touched his lips to her skin. Barely, lightly, but he might as well have pressed his naked body to hers.
Shock arced through him with the power and intensity of pure emotion, no reason in the way. Civilization dropped away from him and he wanted to grip that little hand and drag her away so he could have her to himself. It took a considerable effort of will to batten it down.
Not that he would, of course. Not yet, at any rate. But he wanted her.
…
Aurelia gazed at the man who’d had the temerity to kiss her hand. Very few gentlemen did, either here or in Scotland. With that brief, barely there kiss he’d attracted her attention. His intention, she imagined. The thrill of real contact in this most artificial of places.
Everything stilled as he lifted his head. Clear grey eyes met hers, his gaze frankly open, with a gleam she couldn’t interpret or didn’t dare to. Possessive? Surely not in a man she’d only just met. Not someone she didn’t know. If Aurelia were the fanciful kind, she’d have imagined they’d bound themselves together with that first touch.
Those things didn’t happen outside the old romances, and they never ended happily. She should remember that. A reasoned, negotiated marriage was what she should be looking for. A suitor like the ones who had sworn to follow them down from Scotland to London. However strongly she emphasized that in her mind, rational thought dissipated in the presence of Lord Stretton.
Her mother spared her a glance. “Are you quite rested from the exertions of the dance, my dear?”
Aurelia took a step closer to Lord Stretton. Near enough to feel his warmth over the heat of the candles and the other people standing around, talking. And her usual court of admirers, the men she almost took for granted. They surrounded her every time she appeared in public, even in the presence of women as wealthy as she was, and far more beautiful.
His lordship bowed. “Would you care to dance, Lady Aurelia?”
Relieved to get away from the tedium, delighted and nervous in equal measure, she smiled and glanced at her mother, who gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Go, girl. Let me discuss the newest gossip with Lady Nottingham. I know how such nonsense bores you.”
Resting her hand on his arm in the approved manner, she let him guide her away. “You dislike gossip?” he asked. “If so, you’re the first female I’ve met for a long time who feels that way.”
“Just discussing it for hours,” she confessed. “I don’t consider myself too high-minded for it or anything like that. But once I’ve heard it, then it’s done.”
“A woman of determined aspect.” He smiled, an edge of wicked adventure in his gaze. She repressed a shiver. His increased intimacy had a definite effect on her.
“Doesn’t that deter you?” It had certainly done so to a few men of her acquaintance, even though they usually came back. She sometimes used the forthrightness of her nature to turn them away, but it didn’t work for long. But her mother seemed in no hurry to marry her off quickly, as many did. As the daughter of a duke, she said, Aurelia could afford to pick and choose. That Aurelia had been grateful for.
He drew her, the sun to her daisy. So much that the power of her attraction for him scared her. It threatened her good sense and the control she kept hold of so firmly she didn’t know what it was like to let go. Usually she liked the men she attracted, no more. Some she disliked, some she tolerated. Nothing else. But this—a man she’d just met, whose clever grey eyes seemed to take her in with a glance—this was unlike anything she’d known before.
They walked to the part of the room designated as the dance floor. When the servants had rolled up the carpet yesterday afternoon, her mother had breathed a sigh of relief that the floor was polished wood and didn’t need too much doing to it to make it presentable. In hired houses sometimes the floors had rougher surfaces.
At least they’d started on the country dances now. Formal patterns like strip the willow and threading the needle would separate the partners for large portions of it. He was dangerous. With every smile, and the way others looked at him, she knew. Some stared openly until he stared back. Others gave him a glance and turned away to gossip. Wherever he passed, he didn’t go unnoticed. She could slink through a ballroom and if people didn’t know who she was, they wouldn’t take any notice of her. He’d never go unremarked whether they knew him or not. His presence was too powerful for that.
“Is it tedious being so notorious?” she asked as they took their places.
He shot a startled glance at her, eyes wide, and then the corners creased when he smiled. Goodness, that was far too attractive. For a moment she’d reached the real man, the person behind the glossy exterior. Then he covered up again, drew his smooth society aura around himself, and the quartet struck up.
She’d learned this measure in the schoolroom and danced it any number of times. Just as well, because her memories scattered. She had to let her body take control and follow the remembered paces by itself. In the same way she pasted on a practiced smile for the ten minutes or so they were on the floor.
When she had to take his hand to “thread the needle”, she looked everywhere but at him until he said, “In answer to your question, the answer’s yes. Sometimes.” He paused long enough for the dance to take them apart again and give her the moment she needed to recall what she’d said ten minutes before.
The music came to its natural conclusion and somehow they ended at the other side of the ballroom. In the usual confusion of couples leaving the floor and more moving in to replace them, then forming sets for the next dance, Lord Stretton seized her hand and drew her in the direction of the exit. God help her, but she went.
The grand salon was on the first floor, but a few rooms on the ground floor were open. “Let’s find something to drink,” he suggested, as he guided her down the stairs. Aware her mother would expect her back directly, that only proved as an incentive to go with him. Besides, when would she ever get this chance again, to enjoy the company of a man like this?
Her behaviour was a little daring, but not too much. Made more when he procured them each a glass of white wine and then took her not back upstairs, but to the open door that led to the garden.
Gardens in London were more spacious than they appeared from the front, but this one contained a greater number of people than it was used to, so Aurelia assumed she’d be reasonably safe. Until he turned to her and she realized she’d never be safe anywhere. Not with him.
His eyes gleamed in the moonlight, seeming to take on the silvery hue. Transfixed, she let him take her glass and set it down on a nearby parapet before taking her hand to lead her along a path to a small pavilion set by the wall to the next house. “We’re in luck,” he murmured. “We have the place to ourselves. But who knows for how long?”
He gave her no warning before he took her in his arms and kissed her. No sweet kiss of friendship either, but a sealing of something, a taking, though what he took she had no words for.
Except maybe he stole her heart.
Aurelia lifted her hands, pressed them against his chest with every intention of pushing him away, but somehow she ended up flattening her palms against him. His arms banded around her, dragging her close, forcing her hooped skirt to crush between them. Not close enough, but closer than she’d been to any man.
She’d never felt this way before; safe and yet in the greatest danger. She was in danger of losing everything to this man.
He kissed her sweetly, but deeply, touching her lips with his tongue so she opened her mouth and gasped as he deepened their embrace. He licked the inside of her lips and she shuddered. She’d never realised that was such a sensitive area before. Then he withdrew and gently sealed their mouths.
After he finished the kiss he didn’t release her and she didn’t force the separation. He gazed down at her and cupped her cheek. “You feel it too.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“Do I?” Felt what? She wouldn’t admit what she felt. She was too vulnerable to allow any more than he’d taken already.
“I needed to kiss you more than I needed my next breath, Aurelia.” He murmured her name like a prayer. “Don’t look at me that way.”
With a groan, he kissed her again. His lips moved over hers with soft insistence while he held her close and ravished her senses. He smelled of pure male, overlaid with a sharper scent, akin to an exotic fruit. She breathed it in while he kissed her with a command she was powerless to resist.
He stroked the bare skin exposed above her gown, the slopes of her upper breasts. She shivered, arching into his touch. One part of her stood back, lifting a warning finger, telling herself she should not do this, but the rest of her didn’t care. Warmth enveloped her inside and out, as if he’d thrown a protective shield around them, one created for them alone.
When he moved his mouth slightly, she followed, and that opened her lips enough for him to plunge his tongue inside her mouth. She responded by stroking her tongue against his, letting instinct be her guide, for he had now moved her into a place she’d never been before. A feverish moan reverberated in her mouth and throat—his. Even the notion of him tossing her down to the stone floor and throwing up her skirts didn’t alarm her. She trusted him, something reason told her she should never do with Lord Stretton.
His body rocked as he shuddered and drew a sharp breath in through his nose before he withdrew and finished the kiss with a gentle caress. Planting his hands firmly at her waist, he pulled back quickly, the movement shocking her from her trance. She jerked back, her breath coming in short gasps, and lifted one hand to her heated cheek.
“I need to—” She turned, intending to race from the pavilion, but he stopped her with one outstretched hand, palm up.
“Stop. If you rush from here in a distressed state, people will see you and assume all manner of things. Do you want that?”
Blinking realization back into her confused brain, she understood what he was saying. Bringing other people into this would force events neither of them wanted. Or at least, they shouldn’t want. She’d only just met him, for heaven’s sake.
At a cautious distance, she watched him. He glittered, the myriad buttons on his coat catching the light of the full moon, the sapphire pin at his throat gleaming with insouciant wealth. His waistcoat was embroidered with silver thread—even that caught the light when he moved. She wore soft satin and pearls. She wouldn’t glitter like that. Besides, he stood in clearer light, between her and the exit.
“I’ll take you back.” He spread both hands now in a gesture of appeasement. “I’m sorry. I meant to kiss you, but not go that far. Just initiate. And it’s your fault, you know.”
“How do you work that out?” All she’d done was—well, if to accompany a man to a quiet place in a garden was provocative, then she had been so. “I’m not experienced in this—kind of thing.”
“I know. I can tell,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. The low tones increased her sense of intimacy, and she repressed the urge to step forward, back into his arms. “You’re lovely, Aurelia. More than I can express. The moment I saw you I wanted you, and I still do. However, I’ve forced civilized behaviour on myself, and I have enough control not to do anything you don’t want me to. Barely.” He smiled, a gleam of teeth in the gloom.
“Sir, what can come from this?”
“My name’s Blaize. I’d like you to use it. After all, I’ve made free with yours.”
“You have a terrible reputation,” she said. As she’d told him, she was too high-minded to listen to gossip.
“Well earned, I assure you.” He said it as if he didn’t care one way or the other. “It doesn’t mean I’m not capable of being reformed by a good woman.”
Although her mother would have reprimanded her for unladylike behaviour, that didn’t suppress her snort of derision. It made him smile. “If I believed that, I wouldn’t just be innocent. I’d be a fool.”
“It could be true.” He moved toward her, but only to offer her the support of his arm. “If you’re feeling better, we should make our way back. I won’t apologize because I don’t regret a moment of having you in my arms. It will be my fervent ambition to repeat that experience.”
“But I couldn’t help myself—” She broke off, aware of revealing a weakness he could well take advantage of, should he wish.
“I know. I felt it too. I know what I want. Precisely and in great detail. I know all the ways I want to pleasure you. To touch your bare skin, to leave no part of you unkissed and uncaressed.”
She caught her breath, startled by his frankness, but pleased he didn’t hold back, as so many men did. They assumed she’d faint or something equally ridiculous if they told her the truth, in detail. Stories of roses and princesses had ceased to enthral her many years ago. These days she longed to experience the real thing. That, she had to admit, had driven her out here with him tonight almost as much as her desire for this man. A desire she couldn’t allow to get out of hand again. Already people would notice her absence, and if she wasn’t careful, word would spread. Such behaviour had led to society condemning a young woman out of hand and forcing an issue neither party wanted.
“I won’t let it happen to you,” he said, as if she’d spoken her fears aloud.
Alarm spiked through her. Occasionally her mother had done that, answered unspoken questions. Aurelia had accepted her explanation, that her mother knew her well. But this man? “Did you read my mind?”
His half smile demonstrated his amusement. “How could I? Of course not. It’s merely I guessed what you were thinking because I was too. We have to avoid scandal, for your sake.” He began to walk, careful to guide her down the two shallow steps before the pavilion.
Then he took her in the opposite direction. “If this garden conforms to most I’ve seen, then we should have an exit by several better populated areas. We will claim we have been in that vicinity all along. We were gone barely ten minutes, by my reckoning. It should be enough to calm your mother’s fears.” He gave her a mischievous smile. “The pavilion was a lucky chance. They are often situated in such places, but I had no guarantee it would be there. We should pass this off as a stroll in a well-populated garden.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.” They walked by a group of trees, the foliage bursting out in green abundance. “I want to see you again. If I’m in disgrace with your family, I can hardly do that, can I? Do you think your mother will receive me?”
“With your reputation, sir, I’m not sure. Mama is very protective of me.”
He nodded. “You’re a prize, my sweet. Any fortune-hunter would be glad of your hand.” The evening was crisp and invigorating. Despite her inner turmoil the small diversion was helping Aurelia regain her equilibrium.
“Are you a fortune-hunter, then?”
He gave a crack of laughter. “Hardly.” They strolled into a better-lit area, flames from torchères illuminating the broad paths, and the house came into view. Other people strolled around, and a few glanced in their direction. Stretton nodded to one or two, his movements unhurried and easy. Graceful. “I have fortune enough for two. Or twenty, come to that. If your mother should enquire, she’ll find my estate in good order.”
That sounded alarmingly like intent to serious courtship. She needed to get a grip of herself first and control this wayward emotion that could lead her into so much danger. “Why would she enquire? We only just met.”
“And kissed. Tonight we must keep our meeting brief.” He turned, facing her, and she let her hand drop away from his arm. “If you tell me to go to perdition, I will. But if you give me any encouragement at all, I will come back.” An impression of complete sincerity shaded his grey gaze. No teasing smile, no polished society mask. She sensed that few people had seen that expression, as if he’d let his mask drop for a bare moment. Just for her.
“I don’t know what this is.” A kiss meant nothing. She hardly knew this man, except, deep down, she did in a way she didn’t begin to comprehend. It was a foolish notion. It had to be. It could not signify a thing. She had to think of her future, who would make her happy and in what ways, not succumb to instinct and emotions.
“We’ve met before, surely.”
“No, I’ve lived in Scotland all my life. This is my first visit to London.”
“And my last visit to Scotland was a very long time ago. You wouldn’t have been out.” He gave one of his short laughs, as if momentarily distracted, but returned to his point. “I will take this as slowly as you need to, Aurelia.”
“As slowly as we both need to.” As a peer of the realm, he needed more than instinct too. He needed a wife who could hold her own in society. And approaching someone like her, well-connected, wealthy, protected and a spinster, he could only mean one thing: she was a prospective wife. He could dally with her for a while, but not too long.
The next measures of the dance she knew well, although she’d never trodden it herself, only seen it in others and watched. She was relatively sheltered for her age, but her father’s long illness and the surety that she could, unlike other less well-born and wealthy females, take her time, made her secure in her desire to wait.
He leaned a little closer. “We’ll take as long as you like. But don’t take too long, sweet Aurelia, or I fear I’ll never last.”
“You’re fickle?”
“Not when I’ve seen what I want.” His voice turned grave. “Once that happens, nothing will deter me from my course.”
Would she like that? With an inward shudder of desire, she knew that she would. Any attempt to fool herself otherwise would be futile.
Back in the ballroom, little had changed. People still danced. With a shock, Aurelia realized their absence had encompassed barely twenty minutes. The pretty gilt clock set above the cold fireplace told her so. However, her absence wouldn’t have gone unnoticed.
As soon as she set foot in the room, her mother was on her, her glare asking her where she’d been without words. Aurelia felt the force of her mother’s anger like a strong breeze blowing over her cheeks.
Blaize took a small step forward, partly sheltering her from her mother’s fury, but he didn’t know how she reacted. Aurelia had learned that resistance only made her mother worse and more determined to have her way. She found it much better to docilely agree and then take her own path anyway. The few times she’d been forced into doing something she didn’t want to had proved worth all the times she’d done as she wished.
Not that Blaize would know this. Aurelia could only try to warn him off. If her mother took against him, their opportunities to meet again would be severely curtailed.
Almost as if he could hear her, he glanced at her and stepped to one side, performing an elegant bow. “It has been my privilege to escort your daughter to the refreshment room, ma’am, and for a brief foray into the gardens.” He gave her another glance, but none of the intimacies they’d exchanged showed in his gaze, friendly at the most. “Many others were doing the same. I trust I didn’t outstay my welcome?”
The duchess stared at him for one fraught moment. “Are there other people outside?”
“Twenty at least, by my reckoning.”
She gave a sharp nod. “Very well.”
A tall, dark figure was heading determinedly toward them.
The dowager exclaimed in delight. “Why, I didn’t know the Duke of Lyndhurst was arriving today! What a pleasant surprise, your grace!”
Aurelia had to smile too. Although the duke had a naturally stern mien, he’d never shown her anything but kindness and consideration. Instead of moving away, Blaize remained by her side, and she felt the tension in the atmosphere increase as the two squared up to each other.
Blaize was leaner, more athletic, but the men were of a height, Lyndhurst perhaps an inch taller. Lyndhurst’s shoulders were squarer, his chest broader, but Aurelia didn’t know which she’d back in a fight, because Blaize had a slick swiftness that the more powerfully built Lyndhurst could lack. Why was she thinking of fights?
However, Lyndhurst had one major advantage, which he was currently explaining to Blaize in answer to his query as to why they hadn’t met before.
“I’ve been abroad until recently, with the army.”
Blaize frowned. “Lyndhurst. Yes, I have it now. You’re the second son, aren’t you?”
The insult had nothing subtle about it, but instead of taking umbrage, Lyndhurst’s eyes sparked in delight, accepting the gauntlet as if it were a game. “Yes, I am and heartily wish I’d remained so. My advisors virtually ordered me to sell out when I inherited the title.”
“The army suited you?”
Although wearing ordinary clothes, Lyndhurst had the air of a military man, his coat and breeches a dull olive in contrast to his cream waistcoat, everything arranged with clean precision. As were his movements. “It did. The battleground I currently find myself on is far less well-defined.”
“And you like definition.”
Lyndhurst gave a grim smile. “Who does not?”
“Subtler minds, perhaps?” Blaize drew a diamond-encrusted snuffbox from his pocket and flicked it open with a practiced gesture of finger and thumb. After the briefest of hesitations, he offered Lyndhurst a pinch. The pause didn’t go unnoticed.
Lyndhurst glanced at Blaize’s face before he shook his head. “Thank you, I prefer my own blend.”
Blaize helped himself, taking snuff with such a graceful gesture, Aurelia’s attention remained on him. He smiled. “I take it you don’t indulge?”
She shuddered in revulsion. “No, thank you.” She’d tried it once, stealing a pinch from the box her brother kept in his study. Disgusting. She hadn’t stopped sneezing for an hour. Some women took it, but she was not one of them. Blaize’s fond smile indicated an intimacy that took her back to the scene in the pavilion. Meant for the others to see, probably, but that didn’t stop her smiling back.
A moment of intimacy passed between them, even in this crowded space. The ballroom had filled up since they’d left. Already comfortably full, now the affair threatened to become a sad squeeze—in short, a triumph. For a first ball, her mother had handled it beautifully, managing to get a date early in the Season that was crammed with rival events. Only three tonight.
“You wish to dance, Lady Aurelia?” Lyndhurst sounded smug, and the implied intimacy of using her given name indicated a familiarity Blaize shouldn’t have won yet. Even if he had. Curtsying, she gave the correct response and went with him.
He was handsome, attentive, and he had her mother’s blessing. What more could she want than Lyndhurst, who was showing a decided partiality for her? Her gaze strayed to the corner of the ballroom where Blaize stood, silently watching, his lips compressed into a tight line.
She wanted him.
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