CHAPTER TEN
“Explain yourself at once!” Selina squeaked, once she had pulled Evelyn into the seclusion of the gardens where they would not be overheard. “That was… incredible! I have never seen you dance like that before! My goodness, I could feel the… the… frisson between you!”
Evelyn glanced around, not quite certain that they were alone. She had not seen her brother on the dance floor, but that did not mean he would not be lurking somewhere nearby.
“There was no frisson,” she muttered, her mind all tangled up in confused knots. “It was… it was just a dance to say ‘thank you’ for me helping his sister.”
Selina snorted. “It was nothing of the sort. I saw the way he was talking to you, how he kept leaning in, wanting to be closer to you. You do not fool me, Evie. You might have bid on him for me, but I daresay it isyouwho shall reap the rewards of the cost.”
“That is… ridiculous. He was just trying to… trifle with me, that is all.” Evelyn’s heart would not settle, racing so fast that she could feel it pulsing in her temples.
Ever since her debut, she had longed for a dance like that, so it was rather inconvenient and exceptionally annoying that it had happened with Hugo. She was not stupid; she knew he had merely been employing his charm to try and prove a point. The trouble was, it had worked much better than she had expected it to, for she was not impervious in the way that Selina was.
It was a trick,she told that giddily pounding heart of hers.It was not real. It was revenge for me trying to give him advice.
Indeed, ifanyonehad danced with her like that, she would have been feeling the same way. She had no choice but to tell herself that, for Hugo was supposed to solve the Sir Anthony problem; he was not going to solve any of Evelyn’s own problems. Namely, whoever it was that her father was going to choose to be her husband.
“I am happy to relinquish him,” Selina said with a grin. “Have him. He is better suited to you anyway.”
Evelyn clenched her hands into fists, her fingernails digging into her gloved palms. “I do not want him, Selina. I want the two of you to fall hopelessly in love with one another. So, please, when I tell you that there was nothing between us just now, I need you to believe me.”
“But why?” Selina frowned. “Surely he is preferable to whomever your father will pick. He is young, he is reasonably handsome, he is of immense fortune, he is well connected, and he seems to have some… attraction toward you.”
Taking a deep breath, Evelyn shook her head. She did not know how to explain that they were not alike, that gentlemen did not fall over themselves to win her favor and her hand, and that her dance with Hugo had just been a trick, a game, an education.
“Because it is not real,” she said with a sigh. “He was just being nice. Trust me when I tell you that. Now, if you do not mind, I think I shall find my brother and depart. I feel rather… unwell, all of a sudden.”
Selina took Evelyn’s hand, her face etched with concern. “Did you exert yourself too much?”
“I must have,” Evelyn replied, gently pulling her hand free. “I shall see you again soon. Enjoy yourself.”
As hastily as she could, she hurried through the walled gardens and across the lawns until she came to the last place she had seen her brother. He was still on the terrace, seated in a wrought iron chair, staring out at the same view that he had scolded her for admiring.
“I would like to leave,” she announced, her voice catching.
Luke glanced up. “Excellent. Not a moment too soon. I have much to do this evening.”
If he noticed there was anything wrong with his sister, he did not say so. As he led the way around the house to where the carriages waited, Evelyn took that time to steady her breathing and to suppress the stinging in her eyes, where silly tears threatened.
It had been the best dance of her life, and it had been a lie, a punishment like everything else in her twenty-two years upon this earth.
“You danced so well together,” Octavia cooed, her arm through Hugo’s, as they wandered the gardens together in the golden light of the early evening.
He had given up trying to convince his sister not to risk the effects of the pollen, for she so desperately wanted to see the famed gardens of Throckley Manor and there was nothing he would not do for her. She would protest later about her streaming eyes and blocked nose, but at least she would have seen the beauty of the place to make it worthwhile.
“She was a gifted dancer,” he conceded, although it was not a subject he wished to discuss too much.
Indeed, he likely could not have discussed it even if he had wanted to, for he was not sure what to think of what had justhappened. It had been a dance like any other in that the steps were the same and the music was familiar and there were many other couples doing the same thing, but he felt strangely uneasy. He could not explain why.
“I rather like her,” Octavia said. “We ought to invite her for tea one afternoon.”
“Youmay invite her to tea if she is to be your new friend, but I shall be otherwise engaged,” he replied.
Octavia cast him a curious look. “How do you know you will be occupied? I have not yet told you when I wish to invite her to tea.” She paused. “This is not because of the lady who bid on you, is it? She is beautiful, I cannot deny that, but you do not seem as interested in her as you do with Lady Evelyn.”
“I was being courteous, not interested,” Hugo argued. “There is a difference, albeit subtle. You asked me to dance with her as payment for her part in preventing you from falling. I did so. There is nothing more to it, so cease your scheming. It shall not work.”
A sly grin crept onto his sister’s lips, one that he did not like the look of. “I am not scheming, brother. I would not know how to. I just think that, perhaps, there is a great deal of merit to Evelyn that you are not fully appreciating.”
