Page 73 of An Unlikely Debutante

‘Steady,’ she whispered to herself. She’d managed to maintain her composure these last few weeks; she wouldn’t slip up in the final few days before the wager was over. It was important Alex didn’t know quite how much he affected her—although by the amused glint in his eyes she suspected she didn’t look quite as composed as she hoped.

‘Now you have your escort, I must take my leave,’ Mr Braithwaite said as they reached the entrance to Hyde Park.

‘Thank you for your company,’ Lina managed, smiling at Mr Braithwaite as he bid everyone goodbye.

Georgina and her husband were a few paces ahead as they left the park and Lina felt Alex slow to increase the distance between them.

‘Miss me?’ he murmured in her ear.

‘You’ve been somewhere?’ Lina asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

‘Your indifference would wound me,’ Alex said, ‘if I believed for a second you weren’t suffering in my absence.’

‘You have a very high opinion of yourself.’

‘Maybe you should see if it is justified.’

Alex was still pursuing her, still intent on making her his mistress. Since the ambush and their overnight sojourn in the barn he’d stopped trying to convince her it would only be a short-term affair, instead insisting they would both gain from the liaison.

‘Did you achieve all that you wanted to?’ Lina asked.

‘I did. I have a surprise for you later.’

‘What?’

‘It won’t be a surprise if I tell you.’

He wouldn’t budge on the subject, no matter how hard Lina tried, and she was still trying to wheedle information out of him as they entered the dressmaker’s.

‘This is where I leave you,’ Alex said.

‘Do you have to go?’

‘Why, do you need my help slipping out of that dress?’

‘I think the seamstress might protest if you step behind the curtain to do her job.’

‘I wasn’t thinking of doing her job.’

‘Truly, I don’t want to know what you’ve just said to make Lina blush that much,’ Georgina said, swooping in and taking Lina firmly by the arm. ‘Alex, go away. You’re not to see this dress until the night of the ball.’

The chaste kiss he gave her on the back of her hand had Lina’s legs feeling all wobbly as she entered the shop and she was grateful when one of the shop girls offered her and Georgina chairs to sit on whilst she fetched the dress.

As they sat and the shop girls flitted around, fetching and carrying all the while chattering away, Lina closed her eyes for a moment and tried to regain some equilibrium. These last few days in London had gone past in an absolute whirl and not an entirely good one. She’d shopped, taken tea, made small talk with women she had nothing in common with. It was only all made bearable by coming home to Alex every evening, joining him in his study before dinner, where they would discuss her day and he would make her laugh and make her blush. It made her realise it certainly wasn’t the lifestyle she was in love with. She would be happy if she never had to hold another parasol or spend six hours being measured for a dress again. No, the one thing she liked about her life these last few weeks was Alex.

‘Penny for your thoughts,’ Georgina said quietly.

‘I don’t know how you do it,’ Lina said. ‘The endless polite chit-chat, being perfectly presented all the time, never knowing who is watching you and who is judging you.’

Georgina shrugged in her ladylike manner. ‘I suppose when you’ve lived like this all your life it comes naturally.’

‘Very true.’

Lina knew she didn’t fit in in Alex’s world, not even as his mistress. She might be able to pull off one evening, one ball, but she couldn’t imagine living with this level of scrutiny the whole time.

As one of the shop girls invited her through to try on her dress for the Wilcox ball, Lina realised what she’d just thought. Not even as his mistress. It was getting harder and harder to resist Alex, to remember all the reasons why it would be a bad idea to give herself to him. In a way, it was a relief she had less than a week left in his company. When they were hundreds of miles apart, she couldn’t very easily succumb to his seduction. The only problem with that was that she wasn’t sure how she would survive without seeing his smile, feeling his hands grip hers and hearing his laugh every single day.

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