“Did I say his name is MacBeth?”
“No, Lord Lymington, I do not believe you did,” Isabel said.
“Right,” Lord Lymington said, “so MacBeth keeps throwing his shoes. I really think he knows what he’s doing.”
“I see,” Isabel said, though she did not see at all. Though, she thought shedidbegin to see what the ladies had been debating about when they’d discussed Lord Lymington’s unfortunate interest in horses.
Carlson appeared at the doors to the drawing room and nodded to the duchess.
“We will go through,” the duchess said to the room. She turned to Lord Lymington. “My lord, do be so kind as to take in Lady Isabel.”
The lord nodded and put out his arm. “Lady Isabel, did I say that MacBeth is descended from the Byerley Turk?”
“You did not,” Isabel said.
“I sometimes wonder if the Turk threwhisshoes. MacBeth throws his shoes and I think it’s on purpose.”
“Yes, you mentioned that.”
“Did I? Horses…”
Chapter Five
Harry was, asexpected, seated next to Miss Rightstone. The delightful Lady Heathway was on his other side. At least, he supposed Lady Heathway could be delightful when she felt like it. Most of the time, he found her rather acerbic.
He hardly needed to note Lady Isabel seated across the table and next to Lord Lymington to understand the evening’s point.
He had been brought in to entertain Miss Rightstone and Lymington had been thought suitable for Lady Isabel. The rest were just filling chairs.
Well, perhaps not all of them. Lady Redfield was a widow and Lord Jeffries was a widower and they seemed to hit it off very well.
What an introduction to Lady Isabel he’d had! She had assumed he was Lymington. She’d assumed he was the eldest son of a duke. The look of disappointment when she discovered he was not had been unmistakable. He had since overheard the duchess tell Lord Featherstone of Lady Isabel’s rarified Plantagenet blood.
Harry presumed she shot rather high in the marriage mart. To be introduced as a marquess, eldest son of a duke, was to be greeted with all smiles. To be nothing of the sort, only a Mr., engendered disenchantment.
He ought to laugh it off and turn his mind away from the lady. And yet, he could not quite do so. She was magnetic and he was having a very hard time controlling his staring. Left to his own devices, he would look at her all night long.
He was beginning to wonder if Lady Isabel might beher. The one he’d looked for. He could not know it in any logical way; he did not know the lady’s temperament or her views on things. He might very well be mistaken. But what he did know is that he’d been struck the moment he’d seen her. He did not want to stop looking at her.
He had never been struck before, not by any other lady during any other season. He had almost begun to wonder what was wrong with him. How was it when so many gentlemen were bowled over by this or that lady arriving to Town, all he felt was a disinterested shrug. He had begun to fear he never would be bowled over.
Now he had been. He’d been struck hard.
It had not occurred to him thatshe, the one he looked for, might be entirely uninterested in him. He had somehow assumed that there would be a mutual attraction.
He must find out if it was really her, the one he looked for. He must get to know her and see what feelings developed. As for her obvious disinclination to stoop to his rather unexalted level…well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
At the moment, he would like to get up and throw Lymington from his chair and take it for himself.
Instead, he had turned to Lady Heathway and prepared himself to row hard across a conversational lake neither of them was interested in traversing.
“Lady Heathway,” he said cheerfully, “Gresham writes me that he has been blessed with a daughter. He says you are very much involved and have been a comfort to Lady Gresham.”
Gresham had written him no such thing, but there were times when society’s wheels needed to be greased.
As if he had greased a lock with a magical key, mention of the recently arrived baby had transformed Lady Heathway’s features. She actually smiled.
“I do not mind telling you, Mr. Vance, that grandniece of mine is extraordinarily alert!”
