He tugged her but she dug her heels in. “I’d rather not. Contrary to what you might think, I am a wallflower by choice and rarely have any trouble finding dance partners.” That at least was the truth. There had been several men ogling her all evening who never failed to ask to take a turn with her across the dance floor before they suggested she might want to take a very different sort of turn with them somewhere private afterward. “I certainly do not need one out of pity.”
He glanced heavenward for strength. “If you want that idiot, you aren’t going to get anywhere with him until heseesyou.” Which, irritatingly, she had also worked out for herself. “And that idiot isn’t going toseeyou when you’ve turned yourself into his lapdog, always there and loyally waiting for him to throw you a few scraps—so let’s dance. Let’s give him the opportunity to see you like all the sensible men in this ballroom do—as a beautiful, intelligent, and desirable woman he would be damn lucky to converse with, let alone hold in his arms.”
He yanked her to follow again, and, a little stunned at his unexpected compliment, she did.
At the edge of the floor, he stopped dead and held his palm out flat. “Take off those eyeglasses.”
“If I do that, I won’t be able to see your smug face!” With his handstill outstretched, he rolled his eyes in a manner that made Vee instantly seethe. “Which now that you mention it might not be a bad thing.”
She slapped them into his palm, and he pocketed them, then held it out again for her to take. The second she did, he pulled her into his arms. They were strong arms. The square shoulders beneath her fingers were as unmistakably sturdy as they looked, too. He was broader than Dorchester and taller, overwhelming in his maleness and youthful vigor, and the big hand that engulfed hers wasn’t the slightest bit clammy. Or too smooth to have seen an honest day’s work. The slightly roughened texture told her in no uncertain terms that Galahad’s hands did more than waft in the air while he pontificated. He also, and much to her consternation, smelled and felt divine, and the intensity of his gaze gave hers no option but to lose herself in it.
“I’ll give you fair warning that for the next few minutes I am going to hold you too close, and you are going to act every inch a woman who is enjoying it.” Although against her wishes her wayward body was enjoying it already, so she sincerely doubted much acting would be required.
“Under no circumstances are you to look his way, understand? Even when I twirl you right past him.” She nodded again, and his serious expression softened to one of amusement. “You also might want to have a go at smiling, Miss Venus, rather than glaring like you want to murder me. No matter how much you currently do. Give that fool something to be jealous about and I guarantee he’ll come running to you for a change.”
Begrudgingly, she did, and he chuckled. The silky rumble still had the same devastating impact on her nerve endings, only this time it was amplified because she could also feel it in the most improper and distracting manner against her ribs. Because the wretch was already holding her so scandalously close her bosom lay flush against his chest.
And they liked it there.
“Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
Vee decided not to dignify that with a response.
To vex her further, Galahad proved to be an expert at waltzing who maneuvered her effortlessly and gracefully around the floor. Probably because the waltz was one of the few dances he’d ever deigned to dance on the rare occasions when he attended society affairs, and he usually danced them with whichever attractive lady he happened to be linked to by the gossip columns. He had a penchant for young widows, or the most daring and flirtatious single ladies with the most dubious reputations who liked to have a good time.
Just like him.
“We’re coming up on Marmaduke now.” That murmur, so close to her ear, raised distracting goose bumps on her flesh. “So eyes front and center, missy, and let’s put on a show… talk to me.”
As if hypnotized, she smiled up at his face. It startled her that not all of that smile was a sham. “What do you want to talk about?”
He pulled her closer still, his hand slipping from her waist downward until it rested intimately in the small of her back, scandalously waking all of the nerve endings that resided below her waist. “What do you like about teaching those orphans?”
She forced herself to focus on the question and not the odd effect he was having on her body. “It is good to give something back to those less fortunate.”
“Too predictable and rehearsed an answer.” He rolled his eyes again without malice, forcing her to notice how striking they were. The unusual green irises were ringed by a deeper green and flecked with amber. The lashes that flanked them were a darker brown, which surprised her when the hair on his head didn’t have a single strand of dark brown in it. It ran the gamut between pale gold and burnished bronze instead, with no two strands the same. Exactly like his eyebrows. “I’m interested in all the other less pious reasons you do it, Saint Venus. The real things that have you going back there day after day when you arealready guaranteed a spot in heaven after so many years of charitable benevolence. What’s in it for you?”
“I enjoy the work.” Good gracious, but she was off kilter. Locked in the sublime cage of his arms, she felt as if she were simultaneously floating and falling. “The sense of accomplishment and purpose. I have never been very good doing nothing.”
“That big ol’ brain of yours likes to keep busy.”
“It does…” Had he just complimented her intelligence for a second time? He must have, because like a dolt she was already floating some more. “I enjoy the challenge of finding ways to rob Peter to pay Paul, or of solving the many problems that the orphanage throws up. For example, this week, after the roof sprang another leak and was finally condemned by every tradesman we asked to patch it, I’m in the throes of haggling a decent price to replace it.” They were all still eye-watering, though, so she sincerely hoped Mrs. Leyton-Brown had been as generous as the reverend had claimed… else they would continue to be rained on indoors in perpetuity.
“I also adore the children, so most of the time it honestly doesn’t feel like work. Frankly, it is impossible not to adore them. As you already said, some of them are real characters, and that ensures that I constantly have to think on my feet. Every day throws up a different challenge.” Like this current challenge.Who knew dancing with Galahad would be so… intoxicating?
“And that clever mind of yours must love a challenge.” To her chagrin, alongside all the nods to her intelligence, she realized that she also adored his accent and the sultry timbre of his voice. Certain syllables even gave her goose bumps.
“We have these twins—” She paused, fearing that she was too overwhelmed to realize that he was only being polite and wasn’t really interested in what she had to say, but his expression was every bit as interested as he had claimed to be. She could see that as clear as crystal in his expressive eyes. “—Tommy and Sydney Claypole. Two absolutetearaways who seem to thrive on causing trouble. Not the awful, malicious, and dangerous sort of trouble. More relentless and purposeful mischief, because I suspect they like to make all the other children laugh. Today they decided to torment all the little girls with spiders. Not one or two, because that would be too pedestrian a prank for the Claypoles—but an entire trinket box full. They must have been collecting them for weeks to get quite so many, and they released them in the girls’ dormitory first thing.”
Those emerald eyes twinkled with mirth. “I am sure much screaming ensued.”
“It is a miracle none of our neighbors called the police as it turns out twenty girls can make quite the cacophony.” Vee chuckled herself at the memory. “Although to be fair to the girls, the matron and the reverend did their own share of screaming as neither are fond of spiders, so it was left to me to bring order to the chaos.”
“Which you did with…?”
“A sturdy broom, some vigorous sweeping, and some very stern words to the Claypoles after I managed to clear away their contraband collection of arachnids.” Words the two rapscallions had listened to with bowed heads that did not disguise the proud smiles on their freckled faces at their achievement. “Not that I believe for one second they will change their ways as they so faithfully promised, as they seem to enjoy a good carpeting for their misdemeanors almost as much as they enjoy the pranks they pull.”
“I suppose being told off makes them feel like they have parents. That they aren’t all alone in the world and that they belong somewhere.” Another insightful comment that surprised her. “And going out of their way to do something naughty guarantees them some regular and private time with somebody like you—someone who cares enough about them to remind them of the error of their ways. We all want to be appreciated for something, after all.”
