“I like music for couples that is more fluid. And it is kind of you to notice, Sir Raphael.” She also liked his regard to place a hand at her waist to lead her back to Scarlett Hawthorne and Princess Elizabeth.
“Durham is better, mademoiselle. And I do I try to take good care of a young lady. Especially one who dances so well.”
“You have done admirably so, merci beaucoup, Durham.” She beamed as he bent like a chevalier and kissed her glovedfingertips inadieu. “I look forward to many more dances with you. Might I ask if you have a partner for supper? They call that in a few minutes, and I would be delighted to have your company.”
“Merci, monsieur. I accept.”
Scarlett blessed Durham with a grin. “Mademoiselle Bechard takes to our customs very well.”
“Ladies,” he said, excusing himself. “Until later,” he said to Inès.
“He is quite dashing,” she said as she watched him weave his way through the throng.
“Sir Raphael Durham,” said Scarlett, “or simply Rafe or even Durham, as he prefers, is not the only man who uses his social dexterity to cleave his way toward his goals.”
Inès was pleased to hear what others had to say about him. “I read his description inDebrett’s. He is from an old family with record of service to the king. He tells me he is an advisor to Prime Minister Pitt.”
Princess Elizabeth tsked. “Sir Rafe works too much. He, Carlisle, and Halsey all keep our prime minister well informed. He enjoys his work too much to—how do you say?—become leg-shackled.”
Inès froze. Halsey, too, advised the leader of the government? That was news. Good news. Terrible news.
Scarlett considered Durham’s form as he took the hand of another lady and led her to the floor. “But at thirty-seven, he must consider his lineage soon.”
“Durham is a unique man with unique knowledge of parliamentary rules. That is his specialty, or so he tells me,” the princess boldly told the lady beside her.
Scarlett, who ran the largest network of espionage agents in Europe and North America, shook her head and smiled as if she were any ordinary lady of Society. “Interest? Yes, of course.Rafe has studied law. He knows it so well that it seems he has been at the business of governing since he was in leading strings, I do believe. His whole life has been shaped by what we do. We were childhood friends, our fathers in each other’s pockets. Each year I think he will declare he is fed to the gills with the intricacies of it. But no.”
“He did wonders for me, Scarlett,” Princess Elizabeth said in a low tone. “He and Carlisle together. I would not have survived Vaillancourt’s household without their connections to get me out of there.”
Inès was shocked that Elizabeth ventured to say these things in public. She had overheard a hint of rumor that Elizabeth had worked in Vaillancourt’s Parisian kitchen as a maid. Elizabeth evidently got into a tangle in Vaillancourt’s kitchen, and was discovered relaying information about the deputy’s latest arrest to her contact in Paris. Vaillancourt chased her personally and she escaped the house. Elizabeth fled to Lord Ashley’s former majordom, a Florentine, Magnus Corsini.
That news had come to Inès piece by piece days ago from Gus, who’d immediately realized her error and told Inès to forget what she’d said. But the news stuck in Inès’s head—and now it meant more. Years ago in Paris, Elizabeth had been working for Lord Carlisle, for the government advisory group that Inès now knew included Carlisle, Durham, and Halsey.
Inès knew of Corsini. It was that man still running Ashley’s Continental ring, who had most likely shepherded Elizabeth out of Paris, onward to the east and Baden. But also, it was her own runner who’d told Inès that Corsini had arranged for her secret passage out of Boulogne all the way to England.
If Elizabeth still worked for Carlisle and her husband still worked for Scarlett, Inès had no knowledge. She would not ask. No one would tell her. She was out of the business of working for them.
She was alone in the world now.
In a new country, she had only herself to rely upon.
She had done enough reading inDebrett’sto fortify her. Now she needed to gain actual experience with a man who could further her ambitions. The man who was now very much her best choice.
Her gaze drifted to dashing, enigmatic Lord Halsey. But she did not want her future to be with him. He was too bold, too insightful, too dangerous to her heart. She would not ruin him.Mon Dieu, non.She wished to savor him.C’est impossible, ma petite.
Did he suspect how she cared for him? He did not glance her way. Minutes after she arrived, he had welcomed her and left her with Amber and her husband, Ramsey. Since then, she’d felt the lack of his gaze upon her. Was he no longer interested in her? Did he not wish to renew his challenge that he had posed a week ago at the Carlisles’ home in Richmond?
She would never reveal the full of that which he had so uncannily deduced about her. But she now had reason to give in, even a little, to her desire to befriend him. He could tell her facts without even knowing he revealed them. She was perceptive, after all.
She stilled. He was as perceptive…and she must not underrate him.
He had shown his true colors yesterday when he helped to carry to her new home the old violincello.
Now the dangerous part reared its head. Could she make him her friend? Keep him at arm’s length? Never allow her actions to tarnish him? And yet accomplish her goal?
She must tread carefully.
Halsey was the host here tonight. She’d allowed herself to catch glimpses of him as he danced, it seemed, with every woman here. Still, he did not come toward her.
