“If you could see the way she puts her hands on him, calls himMoreham, as if he were her special possession. And he just sits there, like a great big... oh, what word would you use in English?” Alix glanced back inquiringly at Ginny.
“Lumpkin?” Ginny offered helpfully.
Alix shook her head.
“Dunderhead?” Ginny suggested.
“I think we must have better words for it in French,” Alix concluded.
She was beginning to wonder if her request for two months to become accustomed to the idea of being married had been a mistake. At first she had enjoyed the attention of the men who courted her. She’d had far too little of that when she’d been at Valcour, and even as the fiancée of the Marquis de Beincourt. But she quickly realized that she was comparing all the men she met to Rafe Harcrest, and that they all fell woefully short.
“Why don’t you just tell his lordship how you feel?” Ginny asked.
She might have been willing to admit she’d made a mistake, she reflected, if he hadn’t suddenly started appearing everywhere with Anne Dinsmore. She chewed at her lip. Was he changing his mind? Had he compared her to Anne and decided thatshecame up short?
She shook her head. “He’d be insufferable. I can just imagine the pleasure he’d take in telling me what a fool I’ve been.”
Ginny nodded. “Men do have a way of puffing up like roosters in a yard when they’re in love. Still my mum says there’s no harm in it.”
But she didn’t know whether Rafe was in love with her, Alix thought, and that was the problem. She grasped the chain around her neck, thinking that with all the lessons she’d been given in manners and deportment, someone might have provided some instruction on the ways of the heart.
Ginny placed a final ornament in Alix’s hair and stood back to admire her handiwork. Alix was dressed in a gray gown with bright blue stripes over a blue satin underskirt.
“Well, you can rest assured, mademoiselle, when he sees you tonight at the Beaumont’s, he’ll have eyes for no other. You look lovely, Mademoiselle Alix, truly lovely.”
Rafe’s thoughtsechoed Ginny’s words that evening when he saw Alix enter the Beaumont’s grand salon. He couldn’t resist, however, twitting her on her choice of colors. “Ah, my lady, you look ravishing this evening, and your gown... What do they call that color, dove gray, pearl gray?”
Alix glared at him.
“Perhaps the answer is storm gray?” he offered helpfully.
She inclined her head. “I think your lordship may have struck upon it.”
“Can it be that after a mere two weeks you find yourself desperate for my company?” He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Are you finding the prospect of a month and a half more without me in your bed more than you can bear?”
Alix felt her skin flush and she resisted the urge to swat at him with her fan. If only his words weren’t so close to the truth. “It appears, my lord, that you have a rather high opinion of your charms.”
Rafe shook his head in mock sorrow. “And I could have sworn that after our encounter the evening of the Kensington’s assembly you did, too.” His eyes gleamed with a wicked golden light. “Perhaps we should give it another try.”
“You are an incorrigible rake,” she breathed.
“No,” he said, “I’m merely trying to seduce my wife. Unsuccessfully, it appears. Come now, Alix, what have I done wrong this time? I’ve given you the space you requested.”
“And filled it with that blonde...” Alix paused searching for the correct word.
“Lady Anne,” he finished.
“Not exactly the title I might have chosen, but yes,” she agreed sharply.
“I see the trouble now. Alexandre de La Brou Moreham, are you jealous?” Rafe inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“I am not jealous,” she insisted, “simply astonished that you would insist on holding me to ourcommitmentwhile continuing to pursue your former fiancée.”
“Anne and I were never betrothed,” he said seriously. “And I am not pursuing her. I have merely been courteous to an old friend.” He was about to continue when he was interrupted by the appearance of Lord Minton.
“Mademoiselle de La Brou, may I say that you look as luminous as a rare gray pearl rising from the sea this evening?”
“You flatter me, my lord.”
