Julianna snapped her jaw closed, forcing herself to behave like the proper young lady Mama and Papa had reared her to be. “You can’t truly think the scandal of a supposedly broken engagement would simply die off so easily.”
“Of course it would,” he countered. “Miss Selwyn, I can assure you I am well acquainted with the fickle nature of the ton and their love of the latest on dit. As long as you are the one to cry off, it will pass from their minds as soon as anything else even remotely salacious passes into their collective consciousness.”
Blackmore did have a point about the general capriciousness that ran rampant through Society, yet she couldn’t believe something such as this would be as easily passed over as he wished her to accept.
Further discussion would have to wait, however, as they were once more being relegated to their separate lines to wait until the next time they would meet in the middle.
As she watched him across the way, Julianna couldn’t help but notice that the manner in which he was staring back at her had changed. Before, there had been a slight hint of curiosity in his eyes, as though he merely wished to know what had drawn her to rescue him in the garden. That had only seemed natural, because she wasn’t entirely certain about that herself. But now, while his curiosity remained, there was also a hint of something else in his gaze.
Something that brought heat to her cheeks. A sense of desire.
When they met again, only the very tips of her fingers grazed his waiting hand before a trail of goose flesh shot through her body and left her a trembling mess.
“You’ll recall,” he said, the timbre of his voice smooth and low, “that only days ago my brother and his intended were being whispered about in every drawing room in Town, and yet, now, everyone in Society is here to toast the pair of them.”
“But this would be an entirely different sort of scandal!”
“And you would be free of Lord Medeley.”
Julianna felt a great deal of temptation to allow the liberties Lord Blackmore had suggested, primarily because of the lure of avoiding any further interest from Lord Medeley. She couldn’t help but feel hesitant, though, because…
“What if my father or one of my brothers tries to avenge my honor?”
“Leave dealing with your father and brothers to me,” Lord Blackmore said a moment later. Then he smiled so fully upon Julianna, charming every bone in her body so thoroughly that she found herself nodding and agreeing to do just as he’d asked even as he walked her back to her mother’s side.
Now she wished she’d allowed Blackmore to claim every single dance upon her card. But she knew this ability to fascinate her so completely was why the ton called him a devil. It was exceedingly doubtful that she would have been the first to fall victim to his allure.
Even so, as he made his way back across the ballroom, disappearing into the throng, she firmed up her resolve to guard her heart. Going along with his plan might safeguard her from being courted by Lord Medeley, but nothing had been said by either of them about defending her sensibilities. That responsibility would surely fall upon her shoulders.
Mama took firm hold of Julianna’s arm and, with an expression that would have cowed each and every one of Julianna’s brothers, hauled her from the ballroom floor. The only reason Julianna wasn’t thoroughly mortified by her mother’s treatment was because Lord Medeley had been heading in their direction, surely to ask for a dance, and this would prevent her from having to grant one to him.
Her mother didn’t stop until they’d gone all the way down a long corridor and stopped at the ladies’ retiring room. It was only after her mother made certain they were alone and closed the door behind them that either of them spoke.
“Would you care to explain what that was all about?” her mother practically shrieked.
Ignorance seemed as good an excuse as any, particularly since Julianna still wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened. “I would tell you if I understood it myself, Mama, truly I would.”
Mama let out a harrumphing sort of sound, so Julianna rushed to close the brief distance between them and clasped their hands together.
“Lord Blackmore only wished to aid me in avoiding having to dance with Lord Medeley,” she said half desperately. “He saw my panic, and so he unthinkingly thought to rescue me, Mama. He’s not truly going to claim all of those dances.”
Mama scowled, her brows knitting together over her nose. “That much I could have told you. I won’t have it.”
“You mustn’t worry over it. Lord Blackmore brought me back to you after that set just as he ought to have done. He didn’t attempt to claim another set or take me out into the gardens…” Julianna purposefully neglected to mention that she’d already met the earl out in those very gardens earlier. It wouldn’t serve any purpose at this juncture. “Nothing untoward has happened.”
Her mother narrowed her eyes and reached for the dance card where it hung from Julianna’s wrist. “I suppose we can secure another dance card for you.” The corners of Mama’s lips turned downward, but her posture was far more relaxed than it had been a few moments ago. “You can sit this set out, and we can find you a partner for the rest of them. No real harm has been done since no one saw this card but the two of us and Lord Blackmore.” At that, Mama’s eyes flickered up to meet Julianna’s gaze. “No one else has seen, have they? It would not do for word of this to get out…”
“No, Mama, I swear.” It was the truth, too. By some miracle, Lord Blackmore had spirited Julianna off to the dance floor so quickly that no one had come close enough to see Lord Blackmore’s name filling every line of her card.
“Very well. Perhaps we can still find a good match for you. Why, if Lord Medeley and Lord Blackmore both appear to have an interest in you, there is no telling what other men of Quality might come around for an introduction! I want you to promise me that you will not do anything else that might harm your chances. And really, your avoidance of Medeley simply must end.”
Of course, Mama did not see any harm in marriage to a man like Medeley. For her, such a marriage would secure Julianna’s future and increase the Selwyn family’s standing. She’d already told Julianna on more than a few occasions that marrying an elderly peer would be ideal because she would not have to suffer long before she could enter her widowhood. Mama seemed to think that would be the absolute perfect solution to Julianna’s unmarried state.
With Julianna’s nod of acquiescence, Mama straightened her own gown and then adjusted the headpiece adorning Julianna’s hair before giving her a pained look. “We should return to the ballroom before we’re missed.”
Julianna was fairly positive that she’d already been missed, however—by both Lord Medeley and Lord Blackmore. Her heart hadn’t stopped pounding since the moment that Blackmore had voiced his idea, and she still wasn’t sure how she would survive it if he did claim the three dances she’d agreed to grant him.
She took a deep breath to try to slow the furious pumping of blood through her veins and followed her mother out of the retiring room, all the while saying a silent prayer for some brilliant explanation she could give her parents if the rogue kept his promise.
Luke’s heart plummeted all the way to his toes when the baronet’s wife practically dragged her daughter from his sight and out into the corridor as soon as he’d deposited Miss Selwyn with Lady Selwyn after their dance. An intense urge to follow them and ensure the young lady was all right pulsed through his body, but how could he could explain himself if he did something of that nature? Dealing with her mother, at least for the time being, was something he would have to entrust to Miss Selwyn and her alone. Interfering at this juncture would not be the intelligent move to make.
He never should have written his name on every line of her card, whether he intended to follow through and claim the sets or not. It wasn’t fair to Miss Selwyn, and he could have caused irreparable damage to her reputation if the wrong person were to take a glance at the thing. He should have come up with anothe
r plan.
A niggling voice at the back of his mind warned that he would damage her reputation just as irreparably if he claimed both the waltz and the supper dance as he intended to do, but he pushed that voice to the side as soon as he saw the two ladies return to the ballroom a few minutes later. He was dancing with Amelia for this latest set, and he breathed a sigh of relief, which his sister questioned with a simple raising of her brow from across the expanse between them. They weren’t close enough for him to answer without allowing the dancers on either side of them to hear every word he said, so he simply shook his head, hoping she would take that as an acceptable answer, at least for now.
She scowled, but she didn’t press the matter. He had no doubt she would do precisely that after the ball came to a close and they could speak more freely. Luke and Amelia had always had a special bond, one that neither of them truly shared with Gabriel. The younger brother had always set himself slightly apart, at least until more recent events had transpired.
This set seemed to drag on interminably, leaving Luke anxious to draw Miss Selwyn into his arms and waltz with her. That would be their first true opportunity to speak without barriers. He needed to reassure himself that she was none the worse for wear after her conversation with Lady Selwyn.
Yet, even after returning Amelia to Mother’s side, he had to wait for another set to pass before he could claim that waltz.
Luke couldn’t stop the scowl from forming upon his features when Lord Goderich, a pestilential viscount who’d attempted to woo Amelia all Season long, stood before Miss Selwyn and her mother. After only a brief moment of discussion, the damned man held out his arm and Miss Selwyn placed her hand upon it, and then they went out to the dance floor together.
It was only when she smiled up at Goderich that Luke recognized that his displeasure went far beyond simple annoyance—it was jealousy.
There was no cause for him to be jealous. He hardly knew the young lady, and their engagement was to be nothing more than a farce to save her reputation and prevent her from being courted by an unwanted suitor. He needed to get himself back under control.
At least it wasn’t Medeley she was dancing with. Luke scanned the crowd, searching for that gargantuan oaf of a man. It wasn’t difficult to find the marquess’s balding pate and enormous paunch among the other guests in Luke’s ballroom. Medeley was huffing and puffing as he bustled through the room toward Lady Selwyn.
Damn his eyes.
There wasn’t a doubt in Luke’s mind that Medeley intended to secure a dance with Miss Selwyn by somehow coercing her mother to grant it to him.
Lady Selwyn must have obtained a new dance card since Goderich had claimed a set. But had Miss Selwyn insured that Luke’s name was still penciled in on the appropriate lines for the waltz and the supper dance? Had there been enough time for her to do so without her mother becoming suspicious? If she hadn’t, Luke needed to be certain that Medeley didn’t claim them.
Without even the beginnings of a proper plan in mind, Luke set off across the ballroom heading straight for Medeley.
“You’ve not read the version with the gloss?” Lord Goderich asked Julianna as they met in the middle of the ballroom.
He was speaking of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the primary topic they’d been discussing during this set. It wasn’t particularly intriguing conversation, as hers had been with Lord Blackmore only a short while ago, but neither was it one that might land her in trouble with either of her parents. All in all, she supposed she ought to be glad for the viscount’s insistence upon propriety this evening.
She performed the next turn, her hand raised in the air to meet his for the briefest of moments. Then she straightened to face him again. “I’m afraid I have not. Papa only has the original edition of Lyrical Ballads in his library.”
Goderich gave her a passing smile. “I’ll have to bring you my copy to borrow, then. The gloss is invaluable to truly understanding Mr. Coleridge’s intent.”
Julianna’s lips turned down slightly as she spun away from him. He intended to call upon her so he could court her—she was sure of it. Bringing a copy of the poem was merely an excuse to do so. She shouldn’t encourage him. Lord Goderich inspired no great feeling in her one way or another, but that was neither here nor there. The fact of the matter was that if she did encourage him and then Goderich harbored a secret tendre for her, he might very well be heartbroken by the end of the night.
And she couldn’t be certain just how zealous the viscount might be at present. A few other times this Season, he had asked her to dance a set, but tonight he’d asked not for one, but for two, and Mama would have flayed her alive had she not granted them after the earlier mess with Lord Blackmore.
But what if Blackmore did not follow through? Encouraging Goderich’s attentions would be far more tolerable than suffering through whatever attempts Lord Medeley might make at wooing her.
Forcing a pleasant smile to her face, Julianna turned again to face Lord Goderich. She hadn’t yet opened her mouth to respond to him when all thoughts fled her mind at the sound of raised voices behind her.
Throughout the ballroom, the crowd turned to see what was causing the commotion, but Julianna’s blood cooled in her veins before she could even spin to see what was going on. She recognized the two voices that had risen above the din.
“I’ll thank you to find someone else to dance with,” Lord Blackmore shouted.
“And why should I do that?” Lord Medeley barked in response. “Unless Miss Selwyn holds you in special favor, there is no reason I should not claim a dance.”
Goderich took a step closer to her, reaching out a hand to steady her. Thank heavens he did, too, because she felt faint as soon as she heard her name being tossed about in such a manner. Even with Goderich’s hand beneath her elbow, Julianna wobbled unsteadily. What she wouldn’t give for a chair to sit upon, or better yet, a hole to crawl into and never come out of. Her cheeks felt hot in sharp contrast to the rest of her body, which was shaking and chilled to the core.
“She does hold me in special favor,” Blackmore retorted, and Julianna spun around, willing him to stop before another word passed through his lips. “In fact, I intended to announce our betrothal this very night before supper.”
Every eye in the ballroom turned to stare at her, and Mama’s shrill sound of dismay echoed throughout the grand room. For the first time in her life, Julianna wished she was the fainting sort.
Regrettably, she was not, and she might as well be betrothed to the devil, himself.
And all because of a dance.
Luke walked the hedge-lined path leading to Selwyn House with Gabriel’s words echoing in his mind: “You might as well give me the ten quid now. You won’t get out of this scrape unmarried.” But whatever the details of the deal Luke would strike with Sir Henry today might be, marriage to Miss Selwyn was not, ultimately, in his cards—regardless of whether it was included in said deal or not.
He’d promised her she could cry off in a fortnight and come away from this ordeal relatively unscathed, and he had every intention of keeping that promise. Somehow. How he intended to do that was still a bit fuzzy in his mind, as though he’d had too much whiskey at his club before making the short jaunt over to Curzon Street. But it would come to him.
Eventually.
That said, he needed to start thinking before he acted. This was thoroughly unusual behavior for him. Luke had always been one to consider all the possibilities in a precise and exacting manner before taking any sort of action. It had served him well in gambling hells, as well as in the rest of his life—in particular his dealings with his mother. Yet, in all his encounters with Miss Selwyn up to this point, he was causing himself far more trouble than he ought to be. It was that look in her eyes, surely. Like she was ready and willing to play along with anything he might toss in her direction. He had to get himself under control as quickly as possible.
After climbing the few steps leading t
o number ten, he reached up and struck the brass knocker of Sir Henry’s door. As soon as he released it, he pulled his calling card free from his inner coat pocket.
When the door opened, the butler, an imposing man with dark hair spotted with a few silvery streaks, stared at him with practiced disdain. “May I help you?”
Luke passed over his card. “I have an appointment this afternoon with Sir Henry.”
The butler glanced momentarily at the card before returning his haughty gaze to Luke’s face. “Ah. Yes, you are expected, my lord.” He stepped aside and allowed Luke to enter.
As soon as Luke divested himself of his hat and gloves, the butler showed him up the stairs. A footman opened the double doors to the drawing room, and the butler preceded Luke inside.
“Lord Blackmore,” he said before stepping out.
Luke nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw practically the entire Selwyn family gathered together—well, all of Miss Selwyn’s brothers, at least. They stared back at him with a particular ferocity that made it seem as though they were waiting for nothing other than to tear him to shreds. As well they ought to be, he reminded himself. He hadn’t gone about any of this very well. For that matter, he was probably lucky that none of them had seen fit to challenge him last night when he’d shouted about his betrothal to Miss Selwyn for all the ton to hear.
And just why had he done that? There was no cause for him to do anything beyond what the two of them had planned. She’d already been dancing with Goderich, and so allowing Medeley to claim a single dance before they executed their plan would not have harmed anything. Yet some fit of madness had taken over him and had brought out a jealous streak he hadn’t known he possessed.
He could only hope that when Miss Selwyn cried off in a fortnight, she would do so in such a way that the men in her family would not attempt to murder him.
A Dance with the Devil (The Devilish Devalles) Page 3