“I apologize,” she said, and Myles shrugged.
“No,” he said. “I do not mind. At this point, I could be anyone.”
“Well, with a surname in place, we could certainly find out more about you,’ she said. “For example, do you remember anything else about home? Perhaps if you remembered more of your neighbours, we could find out about your own family?”
“I don’t know if I remember too much more,” he admitted. “I have been thinking about Steven quite a bit, but I can’t seem to remember more details about him. What I can remember, however, are more details about the ship.”
“Well, that would be helpful,” she said. “Perhaps you remember somebody on the ship that has family here?”
“Lieutenant Konrad was some sort of titled nobility,” he said. “I remember having an extensive conversation with him about why he chose the military life as opposed to living his life as a titled noble.”
“Was he a second or third son?” she asked. “That could be the case, if he bought his commission”
“Um...no,” Myles replied. “He was quite ill...and he had a child by a peasant woman. So he decided a life at sea, living adventure and being able to sneak home to see her whenever he wanted was much better than festering and eventually dying in a parlour.”
“Oh my,” Lady Emily said, and he realized what he had said.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I hope I haven't offended you.”
“No, of course you haven’t,” she said. “I just...It is rare to hear a story such as that. The poor man.”
“And now, I suppose he has had his life of adventure,” he replied. “That letter that I have, I don’t think it is addressed to a Mrs. Konrad...but rather, the peasant woman he fell in love with.”
“That will make her even more difficult to track down,” Lady Emily replied. “I don’t mean to be difficult but…”
“Yes, I understand,” he replied. “Peasants have less records than the nobles.”
“Exactly,” she said. “And in addition, the family name is unknown, so we would have no idea where to look. If she had a child out of wedlock, then she will not want to be found.”
“The letter I have is the last letter he wrote to her,” he said. “I think he was hoping that I could place it in her hands.”
“How sad,” Lady Emily said. “But all hope is not lost.”
“No,” he said “No, it is not. I suppose I could do my best to figure it out, in the time that I am here. I can’t help thinking though, that whatever opportunity I am here for must be expiring soon.”
“Expiring?” she asked. “Why would you think that?”
“Because no opportunity waits forever,” he said. “You could step into the most perfect situation of your life, and have it disappear if you wait too long.”
The two of them locked eyes again and Lady Emily felt like he understood her very soul.
“Yes,” she said, quietly. “Yes, that could be the case.”
At that moment the others came down the stairs, fully dressed for the ball, and she knew she could not continue the conversation. There was something about talking to Myles, with the connection they had, that made every conversation feel improper, even if it wasn’t.
“What do you think?” Catherine asked, giving a little twirl as she showed Lady Emily her dress.
“I think it looks stunning,” Lady Emily said to Catherine. “You look like you belong at the ball.”
“That colour suits you,” Edward said, once again trying to be noticed by Catherine.
“Thank you,” she said, and Lady Emily felt like hitting her friend’s head against a wall.
“Shall we?” Sir Preston said, the last to come down the stairs. “You all look lovely.”
“The carriages are ready,” George came in and everyone headed towards the front door. Myles held the door for Lady Emily, and she smiled at him before she got into the carriage with Catherine. Myles and Lord Reginald slid into the seat opposite them, and the carriage started to roll down the path.
“I hope it isn’t too much,” Lord Reginald said. “If you are not aware of the protocols of balls, then you may find it overwhelming.”
“I am quite sure I will be all right,” Myles said. “I have handled worse.”
“Have you?” Lord Reginald asked. “I thought you could not remember anything.”
“I could not,” Myles said. “Until this morning. Every single day I remember more. Today, I remembered some of the men I was on the ship with.”
“Oh,” Reginald said. “That is helpful.”
“It is,” Myles replied. “And I think it will be more helpful as the days go on. Before you know it, I’ll be able to tell you everything about myself.”
“How lovely,” Lord Reginald replied, and rolled his eyes.
Lady Emily shot him a look. He was becoming quite bold in his insults, and she wondered whether it was due to the fact that she wasn't hiding her interest in Myles. If her potential husband was this jealous before marriage, she had absolutely no interest in what marriage would entail
“You never know,” Myles said. “I could be very entertaining”
“I’m sure you can be,” Lord Reginald said, without any enthusiasm.
When they pulled up at the house where the ball was, Myles gasped.
“I don’t believe I have ever seen anything so lovely in my life,” he said. “How do people afford to live here?”
“The house has been in the family for many generations,” Lady Emily said. It was an odd comment, but she knew that America was different. “Do you not have such big houses in America?”
“We do not,” he said. “The houses in America are big...but nothing like this. This is a palace.”
“Sort of,” Lady Emily said, as the carriage stopped. Myles jumped out and helped Lady Emily out of the carriage. He managed to get there before Lord Reginald or the servant, and Lady Emily took his hand with a smile. “You did not have to help me.”
“Of course I did,” he said. “That is what you taught me.”
“That is true,” she said. “I suppose I taught you a little too well. Normally, the servants do it for us.”
“Oh,” he said. “Well, lucky for me.”
Lord Reginald held out his arm and Lady Emily took it, because she did not want to start a fight in the middle of the ball. When they walked in in, Sir Preston gave their names to the footman, who announced them.
Lady Emily saw that there were a few raised eyebrows when Myles was announced as a stranger without a title. Still, she was just incredibly grateful that Myles was still smiling when they were finally all standing together.
“What do you think?” she asked Myles, who was looking around in awe.
“Everyone looks so lovely,” he said. “But you look the loveliest of all.”
Lady Emily blushed.
“Do you feel like you are confident enough to dance?” she asked him.
“I think I am,” he said and held out his hand as a new tune started.
Lady Emily had been waiting for days to dance with Myles, and now her heart leapt. She wasn’t normally one to succumb to such emotion, but there was something charming about him that she couldn’t ignore.
Perhaps it was that he was foreign and exotic. At least, he was in her eyes. Perhaps it was the American accent, or perhaps it was just the fact that he looked at her like she was the only woman in the world. Either way, she was absolutely delighted as they swirled around the dance floor.
“You dance so well,” Lady Emily said to him, as they moved through the steps.
“Perhaps it’s been buried in my memory this whole time,” he said. “Or perhaps I am just a very fast learner.”
“Well, we did spend a lot of time practising,” she said. “I can’t be that surprised”
“Something to keep me occupied,” he said, with a smile. “And make me forget that I didn’t know who I was all this time.”
“At least you remember your name now,”
she said. “So things aren’t so bad.”
“This is true,” he replied. “And I vaguely remember something about a solicitor, so that’s also good. I’m sure the rest will come crashing back to me, eventually”
“Hopefully crashing is not the way it will come,” Lady Emily replied. “I think it’s a wonderful story, to be honest. Years from now, you will tell your grandchildren about the time you spent in England where you couldn’t remember your name.”
“Ha,” he said. “That is, if I have grandchildren.”
“Are you certain you don’t have a wife somewhere?” she asked. She wasn’t asking to be kind so much as to find out for her own sake. “And children?”
“I would hope that if I did, I would remember them,” Myles said. Lady Emily realized that they had been dancing through two tunes, and they really should stop and find someone else to dance with. After all, it wasn’t proper to dance with someone the whole night if you weren’t engaged to them.
Lady Emily, however, felt like she could dance with Myles all night and then all day, if no one was looking. She didn’t feel the least bit tired and she wanted to know more about him.
“I would hope so,” she said, mostly because she wanted to know if he was available to be danced with all night.
She knew she shouldn’t be having these thoughts. It wasn’t like she could plan to marry him. After all, she didn’t even know who he was. For all she knew, he could be a criminal.
The music eventually ended, and Lady Emily noticed that Catherine was not dancing. As usual, Catherine was standing off to the side, shy and timid.
“Why don’t you dance with Catherine?” she asked Myles, as she led him towards her.
“Why don’t we dance again?” he asked, with a teasing smile. She wanted to say yes, but she knew that she couldn’t. Instead, she brought him to Catherine, and put his hand in hers. Catherine looked surprised but accepted the forced invitation. Soon, Myles and Catherine were swirling around the dance floor, while Emily watched.
Spending all this time with Myles had made her see life differently to how she had before. It made her feel she wasn’t the only person in the world and her way of doing things was not the only way the world existed.
She also seemed to forget many of her problems when she was with Myles. Lady Emily perceived her life was full of many problems, but they seemed to pale in comparison to what Myles was going through.
When Catherine came back from dancing with Myles, her face was flushed and she was smiling.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so happy,” Lady Emily said to Catherine with a smile. “Is Myles the best dancer that you have ever danced with?”
“Just about,” Catherine responded. “You have taught him well over the past few weeks.”
“Or maybe he remembers because he was a gentleman,” Lady Emily said. Catherine raised her eyebrow.
“Do you really believe that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Lady Emily replied. “I don’t know what to believe about him. I do think he truly can’t remember and that everything he remembers is genuine.”
“I think so, too,” Catherine said. “I never doubted him. I’m just...a bit afraid of what he will remember.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Lady Emily said. “I think he has a good heart, and he will figure out what he needs to soon. Although I am worried the memories of the ship has set him back a bit.”
“The ship?” Catherine said. “You mean the shipwreck?”
“That and he seems to be focused on finding the families of the people on the ship,” she said. “Which is very kind of him, but has nothing to do with his past in America.”
“Of course,” Catherine said. “But maybe if he took care of those things, he would remember more about his past?”
“I wish I could help him,” Lady Emily said. “But I don’t know anything about the people he is talking about, at all.”
“Do you think that there is…” Catherine paused, “…something wrong with his memory of the ship? Is he possibly mixing up things on the ship with things in his past?”
“I don’t know,” Lady Emily said. “And the doctor doesn’t have any ideas. He just says that he’ll remember when the time comes.”
“Well, I wonder when that time will be,” Catherine said, as Lord Reginald swept over.
“Hello, Lady Emily,” Lord Reginald said, formally. “Would you like to dance?”
Lady Emily would rather dance with Myles, but she knew that she couldn’t go back to doing that quite yet.
“Of course,” she said and took his arm. Lord Reginald, however, was not as easy on his feet as Myles, and he didn’t look at her as though she were the only girl in the world. He looked at her, but it wasn’t smooth, and she didn’t feel butterflies in her stomach like when Myles looked at her.
“Are you enjoying the party, Lady Emily?” he asked.
“I am,” she said. “But it seems different from in previous years.”
“Different how?” he asked. “I’ve not been before.”
“You’ve never been to this ball?” she asked, in shock. “But everyone goes.”
“I know,” he said. “But London is a very long way from here, and London seems very comfortable when you think about the travelling involved to get here.”
Lady Emily resisted wrinkling her nose at the thought of staying in London all the time. One thing she was sure of was the fact she would want to come to back to parties and balls if she lived in London. She was sure then and there that Lord Reginald was not the person she wanted to marry.
Lord Reginald, however, seemed to think that they were a perfect match.
“I’m sure you’ll understand,” he said. “Once you see the beautiful city, you’ll never want to leave.”
“I...don’t think so,” she said. “The city has never appealed to me.”
“You just haven’t spent a lot of time there,” he said. “You’ll fall in love with it.”
“Uh…” she said and was grateful for the fact that the music ended. “Thank you so much for the dance.”
“Would you like to dance another?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“I’m tired,” she said. “But thank you very much.”
Lord Reginald looked disappointed, but he let her go.
Lady Emily went back to Catherine, who was standing on the sidelines again.
“Where’s Myles?” she asked.
“I think he is dancing with Lady Jemima,” she said. “Last I saw.”
“Lady Jemima has a fiancé,” Lady Emily snorted.
“So?” Catherine asked. “There was nothing wrong with that. She is allowed to dance with different people.”
“I know,” Lady Emily said. “But everyone talks about her wandering eyes.”
“That is not nice,” Catherine said and Lady Emily sighed. Sometimes, Catherine wasn’t very open to her opinion, which annoyed her.
A Lady's Taste For Temptation (Historical Regency Romance) Page 16