Page 36 of The Duke’s Matchmaker

“Well, yes, but…”

“What’s the matter?” He was starting to feel a little impatient with her. First all the comments about how the two of them couldn’t possibly be courting one another, and now this… “Don’t you believe you’re up to the challenge? Or maybe you’ve been a wallflower so long that you simply don’t understand what’s involved in flirtation?”

Her chin lifted. “I can manage just fine, thank you very much. It’s you I have doubts about.”

“Well, don’t worry about me,” he told her. “I’ll manage just fine. Now, go on, show me what you think I need to be doing.”

She nodded. “Very well,” she agreed, rising from her seat. “For this to work…I think it’s best that you pretend I’m Lady Isabelle.”

“Lady Isabelle?”

“She was the one who caught your eye, wasn’t she?”

He hadn’t even spared a thought for Lady Isabelle since the dinner party. “I think she caught your eye more than she did mine,” he said. “You were the one who pointed her out to me.”

“But you mean to pursue her, don’t you?” Dorothy pressed him. “I pointed her out, yes, but you found her fitting enough.”

“I don’t even know her.”

Dorothy sighed. “Nathaniel. The thing you do next is get to know her.”

“All right, but how?”

“Well, she’ll probably be at the Earl of Sanford’s ball next weekend,” Dorothy said. “So, you’ll start there. You’ll dance with her. Twice.”

“Twice? That’s very specific.”

“Yes it is,” she agreed. “What you have to understand is that everything means something Nathaniel. When you dance with a lady, you’re telling her that you’re interested in her. Doing so twice indicates a serious interest. And Lady Isabelle will know that. Her family will have told her all her life that if a gentleman dances with her two times, it means something. It’s a way of declaring yourself.”

“What if she isn’t so interested in me, though?” Nathaniel asked. “Will she refuse the dance?”

“You really haven’t done this before.”

“I’ve never attended a ball at which I had an agenda,” he clarified.

Dorothy nodded. “She’s unlikely to refuse you. To do so would be the height of rudeness, and it would reflect very badly on her. On both of you. If she’s not interested, you’ll be able to tell in other ways. More subtle ones.

“Like what?” Nathaniel asked. “I don’t care about how it reflects on us, I’d rather just have clarity. I wish she would just give me a straight answer. That way I would know for certain.”

“Well, that isn’t going to happen,” Dorothy said. “You’ll have to read her body language. Here, ask me to dance.”

One of the chamber maids glanced at them, then quickly looked away. Dorothy ignored her. These were members of her staff, so they would be loyal to her. They wouldn’t report what had happened here to her sisters. At least, Nathaniel hoped they wouldn’t. He wondered what would happen if Lady Honora and Lady Abigail found out the conversation had taken this turn.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” he asked.

“If you can’t dance with me, how are you going to dance with Lady Isabelle?”

“I can dance with you. That wasn’t what I asked you.” Annoyed, he took her by the hand and pulled her into a hold. “There’s no music.”

“Pretend.”

“What dance are we doing? What steps?”

“Oh my goodness, Nathaniel, it doesn’t matter. We don’t really need to dance. I’m trying to show you something. Now, watch. If I’m dancing with a gentleman and I have no interest in him, it might look something like this.”

She went a bit slack in his arms, as if the energy had gone out of her. She focused her gaze at the wall over his shoulder. After a moment, she glanced around as though looking at the other couples dancing at a ball.

Then she returned her gaze to him. “Did you see how I changed?”