“She is,” Nicholas managed before they switched partners again and Lady Mercy’s hands were back in his own.
Lady Mercy leaned forward while she danced. Apparently keeping track of her feet was not as hard for her as it was for him. “Lord Bryant thinks the world of your mother and sister. He is quite taken with them.”
Thatwas what Lord Bryant had been talking to her about? The women in his family? Nicholas cared about women. Ottersby and his father cared about women. But Lord Bryant had some strange obsession with them. “Lord Bryant seems to be taken with most women.”
Lady Mercy laughed. “I’m not certain that’s fair.”
Lady Bryant laughed to his side, and he glanced once at the two of them. At least the look in Lord Bryant’s eye while speaking to his wife was quite different from the one he had given Lady Mercy. “Whether it is fair or not, it is generally true. However, I must begrudgingly admit there is no woman he cares about as much as his wife.”
Lady Mercy snuck a glance at them and then returned her steady gaze to Nicholas. “I’m certain thatisfair.”
Then she was gone, and Nicholas found himself dancing across from Lord Bryant again, empty-handed. Their feet pounded out the last few bars of the reel, with the women laughing softly and he and Lord Bryant both perfectly executing the quick steps.
When the music stopped, Lady Mercy bowed to each of them and clapped her hands together. “That was wonderful. It was lovely to meet you, Lord and Lady Bryant.” She walked toward Nicholas and took him by the arm.
Whatever distance Nicholas felt from Lady Mercy in their past encounters had melted away while dancing with her. With the music playing and their feet tapping out rhythms, Lady Mercy seemed wholly at ease.
He still had one more dance with her before dinner, and this one was a waltz.
He would be able to say more things to her during a waltz, and he would be the only man to make her laugh. But could he make her laugh? He could sometimes coax a laugh from Patience—however, it was often an unintentional occurrence.
Other couples were finding space on the floor, and some were headed to the refreshment table. He hadn’t seen Lady Mercy stop dancing since the music began earlier in the evening. “Would you like any refreshment before our next dance?”
“Oh no.” She shook her head with a smile. “I don’t want to miss any of the dancing. Supper is directly after this one, and I’ll have plenty of refreshment then.”
She wanted to keep dancing with him. Her words lifted him even more than the bouncing notes of their previous reel had. He didn’t want to miss any of their waltz either, although it was certainly not only because of the pleasure of dancing. He wanted his hand on her back and her arm on his shoulder. He wanted her mouth next to his cheek while she spoke to him, and most of all, he didn’t want that time interrupted or shared.
They said their farewells to Lord and Lady Bryant. The eyes ofthe men and women nearby followed Nicholas and Lady Mercy back to the dance floor. Nicholas tried very hard to ignore the glint in Lady Bryant’s eye. Nicholas couldn’t remember the last time he had been anywhere near Lord Bryant, and the focus had remained on Nicholas. There was no reason anyone should be paying him more attention with Lady Mercy than they had with any of his other dance partners. He had paid all of his previous partners the proper respect.
But dancing with Lady Mercywasdifferent, and apparently he wasn’t hiding his feelings very well.
She smiled at him as he led her to a new location, away from the dancers already eyeing them. The outer edge wasn’t much better, for here, not only the dancers, but the rest of the room watched them as well.
No matter. He would ignore them.
The quartet readied their instruments. Nicholas took a deep breath and placed his palm against the upper curve of her spine. The silk of her ballgown was warm even though his gloves. Lady Mercy settled in closer to him and placed one hand in his and the other on his shoulder. She smiled unabashedly up at him, as if he weren’t a duke, not a suitor, not a friend. Simply another dance partner, and the person she was going to share her joy with for every single second the music played. That smile... that smile was making it difficult for him to remember to breathe.
The first strains of music started, and at the slightest movement of his leading hand, Lady Mercy was off.
Gone were any thoughts about their strange afternoon together, and gone were the thoughts of marriage and propriety. Nicholas’s breath came back in full force. It had to. Lady Mercy was here to dance, and he would do his utmost to ensure she was not disappointed.
Nicholas had missed many dance lessons in his youth, but after he returned home from serving in the military, he’d hired adance instructor on his own and had worked and rehearsed until he had every dance down perfectly. His waltz was flawless.
But dancing with Lady Mercy made his flawless steps feel stiff. While he executed steps and turns, she breathed life into them. Dancing was life. He had no doubt that after only a few bars, Nicholas faded from Lady Mercy’s mind, and she was simply living and breathing the waltz.
He’d looked forward to speaking with her, but he hated to interrupt.
So, he didn’t.
Instead, he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to imagine what she was experiencing. A place of music, movement, and discovery. With his eyes closed, there was only her hand in his, his hand at her back, and her other hand resting feather soft on his arm.
He forgot his lessons, forgot to count the steps in his head. Instead he moved the two of them in circles drawn with sentiment instead of precision. It was as if they had the floor and the instruments to themselves, and nothing in the world could infiltrate their space.
Until a woman’s skirt brushed up against his leg.
Nicholas whipped his eyes open. They had narrowly missed one couple, and another was angled in their direction. He quickly navigated a turn before he ran into anyone else.
What had he been thinking, dancing with his eyes closed? How was Lady Mercy supposed to enjoy her dance if he had them knocking about the room, disturbing other dancers? He glanced at Lady Mercy. The corners of her lips were lifted, and her eyes sparked with a look he knew all too well from Patience. His desire to make her laugh was about to be fulfilled.
