Page 173 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

He laughed at her dry answer.

“Shelton!”

He turned at the sound of Kathryn’s voice.

“Bloody hell,” he muttered, and then demanded rudely, “What do you want?”

Undaunted, she waved him over. “Come join us.”

He glanced at Kathryn’s partner—Captain Walker—and then down at Stacia. “What say you? Should we trust the vixen enough to form a square with her in it?”

Stacia laughed and the action did lovely things to her snug, uncharacteristically low-cut bodice. “What possible mischief can she get up to in the middle of a crowded ballroom?”

He gave her a look of only partially mock horror. “Lord, Stacia! Do not tempt fate in such a reckless manner. Ah, look—reinforcements,” he said as Chatham, the duchess, Needham, and Lucy joined them. “Needham will keep her in line,” he murmured as their host and his daughter took the head position in the square, Chatham and the duchess opposite them, leaving them across from Kathryn and Walker.

He leaned down and whispered. “You look utterly delicious. Your hair is delightful and suits you perfectly. It pleases me to see you wearing my gloves and you are so lovely you make those brilliants look dull. And that gown…” He growled and his eyes burned into hers. “You are exquisite.”

Predictably, his prickly Miss Martin scowled at him. “I am sure I look even better now that I am as red as a tomato.”

Andrew laughed. “I missed you. Did you miss me?”

She pursed her lips, but her eyes sparkled in a way that said his words pleased her. “Where did you take Terrence?”

“Terrence? Oh you mean, Scrapper? It wasn’t a case of me taking him so much as him deciding that he would not be left behind.” He cocked his head. “Was that your way of asking me where I went?”

“No.” She took the opportunity of the music beginning to ignore him.

Andrew grinned, turned, and bowed to the corner.

The duchess regarded him with a level look and dipped a curtsey so slight as to hardly qualify as one.

He turned back to Stacia, and they joined hands.

“I do not think your vaunted charm works on the Duchess of Chatham, my lord,” Stacia taunted as they passed to the right of the Captain and Kathryn, the latter of whom simpered at Andrew.

The saucy, unrepentant minx.

“You don’t think Hyacinth likes me?” he asked Stacia. “I had not noticed.”

She laughed and moved into the ladies chain.

Kathryn said something to Stacia that made her blush and purse her lips.

“What did you say to her?” Andrew asked Kathryn when he took her hands.

She ignored his question. “Did you enjoy your Christmas gift, Shelton?”

Andrew raised an eyebrow.

“Haven’t you guessed? I am your secret St. Nicholas.”

Andrew shook his head at her. “If your gift is what I think it was, you are incorrigible and deserve to be beaten.” He paused. “But it was also inspired.”

She laughed triumphantly as she moved back to the center.

***

“She is a menace,” Andrew said to Stacia when she returned to his side, and they joined hands.