He came to her and immediately wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace. “You don’t have to, Annalise. I can put a stop to this. No one will mind, I promise. I wasn’t sure I agreed at the beginning, but I thought I would stay out of it because you seemed so happy about it. But I was worried, and now I can see that…”
“No, you don’t understand!” Annie cried, whirling out of the temptation of his arms. “I want to do this. I have never wanted anything more in my life than this.”
He reared back in shock. “You do?”
“Does that surprise you?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. “That someone like me would want to aspire to such grand imaginations?”
“Annalise, that is not what I…”
Feelings that she had never imagined surged within her and her face heated without the slightest bit of embarrassment. “I have never had a choice in anything at all. I knew what my future was set to be from the moment I was old enough to understand. It wasn’t happy, but nothing else was, so I accepted it. Then you came and showed me a different way to live, one where I could choose, I could have opinions, I could change things. Whatever I wanted!”
He watched her with fascination, as if he had never seen anything like her before.
She was not surprised. She hardly recognized herself. “Then Tibby offers me this chance, this once in a lifetime opportunity to go even further than the freedom I had begun to imagine. To change my station, even if only for a little while. I may become what I had never even dared to dream of. Of course, I wanted to do it. But even then I knew it was a ridiculous idea. I’m not suited for this, how could I be? I am nothing!”
His brows snapped down and he stepped towards her. “Annalise, that is not true.”
“Are you blind, Duncan?” she cried, knowing she was probably going mad. “Do you really not see how foolish it was for me to think I could do this? To even want this? I couldn’t even read, Duncan! What kind of young woman in society cannot read?”
“Annalise,” he growled, his voice low.
She shook her head. “I am the poor, plain, obscure daughter of a horse tradesman. I have never even seen the inside of ballroom, I could not tell you the difference between a duke and an earl, I couldn’t even begin to tell you what my dresses are made from or what the fashions are. I don’t know if I can converse with a stranger and not make a complete mockery of everything your family stands for. Marianne seems to be the only one who sees the most likely outcome of this whole affair, and has bowed out, and who can blame her?”
He came towards her again. “Annalise!”
She moved away, the panic welling within her so strongly it did not even occur to her to be afraid of his advance. “I’m not worth this! For all your kindness and flattery and assurances, I will be a laughingstock. No one will seek me out, no one will take me seriously, and it will be a grand waste of everyone’s time, not to mention money. Perhaps it would be best if I just left and…”
Suddenly Duncan was there and took her face in both of his hands, bringing his mouth crashing down on hers. Her mind went completely blank and her panic evaporated under the captivating onslaught of his mouth. She could not respond to his attack, it was too much, too sudden, too delicious to believe. And she had no idea how to respond, what to do.
Her pulse thrummed in the base of her throat, and he could feel it, as his thumbs caressed the throbbing skin there, soothing what he himself was agitating. Her head began to swim and her breathing became more erratic. Teasing and prodding and heated, his lips worked wonders and she gripped his wrists for balance.
Just as her knees began to shake, he broke off with a gasp that she faintly echoed.
“That is enough,” he rasped, touching his forehead to hers. Their breath mingled, each panting desperately, the air dancing across her cheeks. He nuzzled her slightly and gave a sharp exhale. “If that does not make you feel beautiful and desirable and wanted, nothing will.” He gave her another brief, but searing kiss, then strode from the room, the door thumping the wall with the force of his exit.
Annie stared at the door in bewilderment, her breath still gasping, her legs feeling exactly like jelly, and finding thought was completely impossible.
What, in the name of all that was holy, was that?
“All right,” Moira’s voice called from the hall, “we’re coming back in, and the dancing will commence, because you really are quite good at it!”
“There is no need to shout, Moira,” Kate scolded as she entered the room first. “Oh my,” she murmured softly as she looked at Annie.
Annie cleared her throat and shook herself out of her rather pleasant stupor. “Yes?”
Kate’s eyes were wide and she bit back a grin. “Nothing,” she replied, her voice full of restrained merriment. “You are just too precious.”
Annie snorted, knowing it was out of character for her, but needing something to take the focus off of her discomfort. “I am no such thing, my lady.”
Kate narrowed her eyes. “Call me that again, my dear Annalise, and I will make you eat lemons. Come here.”
That drew a laugh from her and she moved over to Kate’s open arms and let her friend embrace her.
“Are you better now?” Kate murmured softly.
Annie nodded and stepped back. “Panicked, I’m afraid.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Moira said loudly as she entered, followed by the others. “But never fear, most of the men you shall be dancing with are smart enough to think they are at fault for any missteps in the dance and will blame themselves. Just let them think that and you will be fine.”
“Thank you, Moira,” she muttered drily, accepting her hug as well. She glanced out of the door and saw Duncan walk past, and their eyes met again.
The heat, which had simmered in her stomach, flared once more at the look in his eyes.
He moved out of sight swiftly, and she knew… or sensed… that he had felt the same thing.
“All right, enough with the niceties; you will make me cry again,” Moira scolded as she stepped back. “Time for dancing. Ready?”
“Yes,” Annie replied firmly, releasing a deep breath. “Yes, let’s dance.”
Two hours out in the cold should have been enough. He finally had lost feeling in his fingers, and his lungs were burning with the frigid air.
He was still too warm.
He shook his head and grunted as he headed back towards his house, his greatcoat billowing out behind him like a cloak.
His feelings for Annalise were beginning to border on the obsessive. Every shift in her mood, every flash of hurt or pain in her eyes set his world adrift. After her outburst today, he was more convinced than ever that he needed to do something for her.
Besides kissing her in the middle of his music room.
Although that had been a pleasant surprise on his part as well.
He had not planned on kissing her, let alone doing it so thoroughly, but it had seemed the simplest way to shut up her ridiculous tirade about not being worth all of this and being too low for consideration. And once he had started, it had been impossible to stop.
She thought she wouldn’t attract anyone? He would be beating men away with sticks and have to recruit his friends to help him. She would be irresistible to them.
She was irresistible to him.
He exhaled sharply to remove the pleasant images from his mind as he entered the relative warmth of his home. A gift. He needed to get a gift for Annalise. Something to make her smile. Something to make her laugh. Something that might take away some of his drive to protect her so desperately.
“Duncan!”
He winced at his aunt’s calling him. He shucked off his greatcoat and handed it to the footman nearest him with a nod of thanks. “Yes, Tibby?”
She came out of the music room and tapped her foot impatiently. “Come here, I need you!”
He grumbled under his breath and went over to her, cursing his inability to refuse his aunt anything. “You bellowed?” he
replied mulishly.
“I never bellow,” she corrected with a sharp finger of reproof. “It is unrefined and far beneath my dignity.”
He heard a snort of laughter from within the room that he knew belonged to his sister. He grinned at the sound and then wiped his expression clean at Tibby’s glower. “Of course, Tibby. How can I help you?”
She took his arm and pulled him into the room.
To his horror, all of the women were still there. Kate was still at the pianoforte, Marianne sat perched on a chair in the corner, Moira and Mary stood in the middle of the floor, and Annalise was next to them, her eyes wide and uncertain as she looked between him and Tibby. What in the world?
“We,” Tibby said, gesturing to the room as a whole, “have need of you.”
He swallowed and said, “You all look very pretty and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Moira covered her mouth as she snickered, while Mary and Annalise merely grinned in delight, and he could hear Marianne just behind him giggling. Kate had a watchful eye on Tibby, and suddenly grinned very mischievously.
Oh, that was never good.
“We need a male partner for Annalise,” Tibby explained, raising her chin in that way that told him he would not get out of this one. “We females have run our course of experience and now we need two couples to get the full scale of the dance. Moira and Mary will partner, as it will not be too taxing for our sweet and expecting friend.”
Moira curtseyed playfully. Mary mouthed the word “sweet” and snorted.
“But Annalise needs to practice with a man, and as you are a man…”
“Well spotted,” he retorted.
“…you are the only one that can aid us,” Tibby finished, completely ignoring his outburst.
“Tibby,” Annalise ventured, stepping forward nervously, “I really think that…”
“So what about it, Duncan?” Tibby asked, completely turning her back on Annalise, effectively cutting off her timid suggestion.
He looked down at his aunt, then glanced at Annalise. She bit her lip and shrugged helplessly. They had no choice. He returned his attention to Tibby and nodded. “All right. But just this once. I will not be your dancing monkey.”
Tibby grinned and whirled away, saying something that sounded suspiciously like “we shall see” as she approached the others.
He took his place opposite Annalise, meeting her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she mouthed, one side of her mouth quirking in an apologetic smile.
He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not,” he mouthed back.
She looked surprised for a moment, then her cheeks flushed, making him grin.
She widened her eyes at him in response, and he forced his grin back.
“All right, couples set?” Tibby called.
“No, Tibby, give them another few minutes,” Marianne replied in a droll tone.
“Ready!” Moira crowed in delight.
“What would Nathan say if he knew you were dancing right now?” Duncan wondered aloud as he looked over at the woman next to him.
Her bright eyes flashed in the dangerous way he knew to fear. “If you breathe a word of this to him, Duncan Bray, your aunt’s plans for you will be the very least of your concerns.”
He swallowed and nodded. “Understood, Lady Beverton.”
Annalise covered a smile with her hand, and he winked at her.
Kate began to play and Duncan nearly groaned again. This was one of the few dances that would force him to be in close proximity with Annalise for periods of time, as it was neither light-hearted nor short. He and Moira bowed to their respective partners, who curtseyed in return. Then he took Annalise by the hand and proceeded to hold his breath.
For the first few motions, everything was fine. She did not look at him and he did not look at her… much. She was graceful and light, and there was an ease in the dance with her, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He was not a dancer by nature, being far too taciturn and too large to be a desirable partner. But he could become quite attached to dancing if this was the result of it.
Then he spun around Moira and rejoined his hands with Annalise. She brought her eyes up to meet his and it was as if fire raced through her fingertips and coursed directly into his heart. Her eyes widened, but she continued expertly through the motions of the dance. Her hold on his hand tightened, and he felt his skin burn beneath it.
So this was why polite company wore gloves when dancing.
He swallowed hastily and forced himself to look away, to keep his gaze above the heads of the women, as polite dance partners do. He caught Tibby’s eye and saw the grin on her face. Blast her, she knew there was something between him and Annalise and she was using every chance she could to exploit it. To expose him. To force him to admit something he couldn’t. Not yet.
She raised a brow at him, seeing what he did not want her to see. Just as Annalise had said she did. It was Tibby’s greatest skill.
He forced himself to look back at his partner, and found himself imagining how she would look in two nights at the ball. Her hair would be expertly pinned and decorated with flowers or ribbons or pearls; her gown would be fitted and flowing, her figure on display for all. Her cheeks would flush from the shower of compliments that would rain down her, and from the dance, as she would likely do so all night, and her brilliant eyes would sparkle in such an enticing way, capturing all candlelight in their beauty, that no one could help but to love her.
He nearly stumbled in his shock at the thought, but covered it so that no one was the wiser, not even Annalise, who was so focused on her own steps she could have been dancing with anyone. He did not want her dancing with just anyone. He wanted her to dance with him.
“Look at me,” he murmured, his voice scratching in his throat.
She looked up at him, and he could see her nervousness swirling in them.
“You know the steps,” he told her, keeping his voice low enough that no one else would hear. “Look at me. Trust me. Stay on me.”
She dropped her chin once in a deliberate nod, and her eyes locked onto his.
He smiled at her, unable to help himself. Looking at her just made him smile.
Made him want to smile.
Made him want…
His arms and legs were suddenly alive in a way he had never known before, his entire being filled with energy. Not to dance, but to be with her. To hold her. Every motion of the dance that brought her near him was not close enough. He caught her scent as he twirled her beneath his arm. Lavender and honey and something else, something that compelled him to pull her closer than he should have, to tighten his hold on her…
Then he felt it, the throb of her pulse in her wrist, caught tightly in his hold, and it was racing.
Could she feel this too? This pull, this connection, that he was too weak to resist?
As if she heard him, she stepped closer, close enough that he could have kissed her so easily.
So close, so easily…
Without thinking he dipped his head closer to her, unable to restrain the moan of despair as the dance forced them away. But he clenched his hold on her hand all the same, and he saw the way her eyes darkened as they remained on his. He saw her breathing speed up and the heightened color in her face.
It was not all on his side.
Not at all.
“I… I don’t remember any more,” Annalise said suddenly, wrenching her hand away from him and stepping back, shaking her head a little. “I can’t…”
“You were doing perfectly!” Marianne squealed from her chair, rising and coming over to hug her. “I couldn’t believe my eyes, but you looked so accomplished! And you were nearly done, the only thing left was…”
“I thought you did not approve, Marianne,” Tibby crowed with a grin, giving Duncan a bewildered look that he could only shrug at.
Perhaps Tibby did not know everything after all.
The girls began bickering, and Duncan backed away from wha
t could have been the greatest disaster of his life.
The most enjoyable one, too, but undoubtedly a disaster.
All were fussing over Annalise except for Kate, who watched Duncan with her steady, dark eyes. Of all the wives of his friends, she was the one he feared most. Moira was lioness, Mary the mother hen, but Kate… Kate was a mystery. Stubborn, willful, proper, loyal, fierce, and she always seemed to know something that no one else did.
She glanced over at the other women, then back to Duncan. She gave the briefest indication towards the door behind him and a bare imitation of a smile quirked at her lips. He understood her immediately. He could leave at this moment unobserved, which was exactly what he wished.
He gave her a nod of thanks and escaped without being noticed by anyone else.
There was absolutely no time to waste. He needed to find a gift for Annalise, something to ease her mind. Something to distract her from him. He would force a distance until he could control himself better. This was her greatest opportunity to find future happiness, and he would not spoil it for her by confusing her.
A gift would be just the thing to ease her away.
And he would need to get it today.
Now.
His hand clenched at his side, the only sign of protest.
He nodded to himself. This was the right course.
His only course.
Chapter Fifteen
The ball was already a triumph and they had only been here for three quarters of an hour. Of course, how could it be anything but? The girls had dressed Annalise in a gown of purest white, which served to make her appear as the goddess of the sun. Every light in the room seemed to reflect off her gown and her hair, which was twisted and curled and dotted with flowers of a similar shade as her gown. Her eyes sparkled, their emerald majesty only increased by the contrast of her gown and the rosiness of her complexion.
She was nervous, he could see it from here. Her smile was slight, timid, and very shy, which only made her more appealing. She did not hold the gaze of anybody for any period of time, making the brief moments of eye contact a rare gift for those blessed enough to receive it. She was surrounded by both men and women, all eager to make her acquaintance, but it was not so crowded as to be oppressive.
The Dangers of Doing Good (Arrangements, Book 4) Page 19