“Lady Barrington is a splendid dancer.” A telling sparkle lit Jacob’s eyes when he looked at her. “It truly was my pleasure, my lady.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.” She warmed beneath his fond regard and the desire she swore flashed in his obsidian gaze. Desire that made her bold, indeed. “We will have to dance again before the night is over.”
His smile never wavered. “Nothing would make me happier.”
He was about to go on when he was summoned to join several gentlemen, without doubt, to talk business. But not before he murmured in her ear that he would seek her out later and resume spending time with her. Something about the look in his eyes made her suspect he would prefer that time be spent alone. Or perhaps that was her own wanton response to the way his warm breath felt against her skin and the shivers of awareness that had raced through her.
“It seems I am needed elsewhere at the moment as well,” Maude said. “I will catch up with you again soon enough, sister.” She smiled between Lady Campbell and Prudence. “I am sure Lady Campbell would enjoy your company until I return.”
Maude was up to something again. She was certain of it.
“I would very much enjoy Lady Barrington’s company.” Lady Campbell smiled at Prudence as they took flutes of champagne off the tray of a passing server. “Might we stroll? This castle is spacious enough we need not remain in such a busy room.”
“That would be lovely, Lady Campbell.” Yet she suspected there was more to it and that in some small way, she was being evaluated and perhaps even held up against Jacob’s late wife.
“I insist you call me Emma when we are alone or with good friends,” Lady Campbell said. “For I do so hope we become dear friends.”
She did? Whatever for? But she supposed she must be polite. Not just that, but the idea of making new friends was not so terribly awful. She would have to see how things went with Emma. What kind of person she was.
“That would be lovely.” She met Emma’s smile. “Though I am not sure how often I will be in Scotland.”
“Well, I can only hope often enough,” Emma said bluntly. “For it does my heart good to see the Duke of Argyll so happy again.”
“Is he not usually happy, then?” While days ago, she would have thought the woman far too forthright, it seemed Jacob preferred to keep such company. Moreover, having such an honest conversation with another woman made it feel like one more bar had fallen from her cage. Not just that, but she was curious about what Emma had to say. “He has struck me as content thus far.”
“Content, yes.” Emma’s brows pinched as they made their way down a hallway of portraits she had not been down before. “Happy? I would say not, however much he tries to convince me otherwise.”
“You speak rather plainly about him, considering you have only just met me,” Prudence could not help but point out. “Would he approve of such?”
“I think, in your case, he rather might.” More astute than anticipated, Emma considered her. “Either way, I admire your need to protect him despite your own curiosity.” She cocked her head and spoke more plainly still. “Because youarecurious, are you not, Lady Barrington? Perhaps not as curious about me anymore, but very much so about the duke.”
She nearly denied it but found Emma’s level of honesty preferable to the usual verbal dance of half-truths and outright lies of which those of their society were so adept.
“I will admit I was curious about you earlier today but regret to confess it was for all the wrong reasons.” She nodded graciously. “So, yes, it is safe to say my curiosity now lies solely in the Duke of Argyll.”
“I cannot tell you how glad I am to hear that.” Emma linked arms with Prudence as they strolled. “Yet still, I would like you to know me a tad better before divulging more about our dear duke if you would not mind?”
“I would not.” She sipped her champagne and swallowed back a flash of fear that, despite all she had learned today, Emma secretly pined for him. “Do tell.”
It turned out the things Emma shared really were about herself. From her upbringing to how she met her first husband when she debuted into the ton. How he had passed quite suddenly, and she found herself adrift.
“However briefly, we shared an amiable few years together,” she went on. “When he passed, I felt off-kilter, for lack of a better way to put it. Unsure how to go about things since I was no longer in those first few years of blooming youth.”
“Yet you are so very lovely.” Prudence took in her soft, golden curls and flawless skin. “And still quite young, so undoubtedly young then.”
“To other eyes, perhaps.” Emma shrugged. “But it took some time to see what they saw. To rejoin society with confidence, whether I remarried or not.”
“Ah.” She saw where this was going and, in the spirit of honesty, said as much. “You assume because I wore this dress tonight that I am seeing my way through the same struggles.”
“Are you not?”
“I suppose I am,” she said. “Though, if I were to be truthful, I did not choose to wear this gown of my own volition.”
Emma’s brow perked. “No?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes. “But I suspect you already knew that.”
“I may have,” Emma confessed. “Though I hazard to say, however unique the circumstances, you did, in the end, wear it of your own volition.”
