Miles’s smile turned near devilish. “She’ll be there,” he pointed out, as though Dominic were incompetent to remember that.
He returned his friend’s smug look with his flat one and replied, “She is invited everywhere.”
“Hm, I do look forward to the evening,” Miles said, with the settled interest of a man who has already decided he will be entertained regardless of what anyone else intends. “It should be veryinstructive.”
“Go away, Miles.”
Miles went, with laughter on his tongue. Dominic did not know whether or not he was looking forward to seeing Annabelle again…
And he was not quite in the mood to think too deeply about why that bothered him so.
“Did you find it changed?” Lord Penmore asked. They were in the third figure of the country dance, the steps familiar enoughto leave room for conversation. “Travelling. When you came back.”
Annabelle was dancing with Lord Penmore for the second time.
The first time was by accident—he was next in the set, and she had not arranged it—and the second time was by choice, which she did not regret.
He was forty and easy in his manner, the kind of man who asked genuine questions and waited for their answers, and he had been to Florence, which meant they had something to talk about beyond the weather, and whose daughter had been presented that week.
“Not in the way people expect,” she said, as the figure brought them together. “People expect you to return transformed. I came back the same, but I knew it more clearly.”
“Knew what?”
“What I wanted.” She moved through the turn. “And how far it was from what was available.”
He considered this. “That sounds rather melancholy, my lady.”
“‘I’d call it practical, my lord.” She smiled. “I’ve made my peace with it.”
He laughed easily, and the music took them apart and back.
When the second dance ended, Lord Penmore returned her to Lady Rosenhall’s side with the pleasant ease of a man who has had a good evening and is not compelled to manufacture further significance from it. He expressed hope of speaking again before the season ended. She said she hoped so too, and meant it.
It was in turning away that she saw Dominic, to the left near the second window, surveying the room.
She had felt his attention twice during the second dance, on the turn, and once during a long figure where the steps required concentration. Each time she had looked toward him, he had been looking elsewhere.
And he appeared at her elbow before she reached the halfway point of the room.
“Penmore,” he said, his eyes tracking the other man as he made his way around the room.
Annabelle found that she was quite interested in his assessment. “Mm. He was in the set.”
“Both sets.” Dominic pointed out, and it made her brows fly high on her forehead before she caught herself.
“He asked.” She kept her expression even as she watched him out of the corner of her eyes. “He is good company.”
Dominic cleared his throat once. “He is a viscount with limited income and a well-established preference for a wealthy bride. I suppose he would do his best to make for good company.”
At those words, Annabelle turned her gaze on him, eyes wider than she’d expected. “You investigated him.”
“I know of him. And even if I were to have investigated him, would that not be me fulfilling my own end of our arrangement?” He looked toward the room.
Annabelle blinked at his reasoning. “That would be you going quite too far, Your Grace.” She replied.
Then, he continued, “On your previous assessments, I would have you know that he asks everyone.” Dominic turned his glass. “Lady Cavendish, before her family concluded a different arrangement last month. Miss Vane the season before that. He moves his attention with considerable efficiency, and it always lands on the same kind of woman.”
She waited, her brow already twitching as she guessed where he could possibly be going with this.
