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Oh yes, I’m sure it’s very inconvenient to one as mighty as yourself that you can’t just order a woman to marry you. You actually have to spend time with her first! How terrible!
Really, I should be feeling pity for this poor creature who would fall into the trap of marrying this man. A great deal of pity.
So why the bloody hell did I feel so angry instead?
He looked down at me sharply, the first time during the dance he had given me his full, undivided attention.
‘How do you know I will be spending more time at social events?’ His finger twitched again. ‘You cannot have… No, you simply cannot have guessed my plans!’
Oh dear. He was just as self-centred as all other men. He couldn’t hope to rival a woman’s intuition.
&n
bsp; ‘Actually, I think I have,’ I said as sweetly as possible.
He looked up again, staring at Miss Hamilton and Lord Dalgliesh, who were still engaged in conversation.
‘I must say I’m surprised, Miss Linton. I didn’t think you would figure it out so quickly. In fact, I didn’t think anybody could figure it out on their own.’
I had to work hard to conceal a snort.
Please! With your staring at her the entire time? What sort of silly guffin do you take me for?
‘I think it is pretty obvious,’ I retorted, my tone not a bit sarcastic. Honest, maybe, but not a bit sarcastic,
‘Indeed? Well, if I were you, Miss Linton, I’d keep what you know to yourself. If it comes out that you know, you will be in terrible danger. You might end up with a knife between your ribs.’
My eyebrows shot up. ‘That’s going a bit far, don't you think?’ A derisive snort escaped me. ‘She can’t be that jealous.’
‘She?’ Abruptly, he stopped turning. The neighbouring couples almost crashed into us, and only because I stirred him into motion again was a collision avoided. ‘She? What are you talking about, Miss Linton?’
‘Your…’ I swallowed. For some reason it was hard to say out loud. Avoiding his eyes helped, so I looked down. ‘Your romantic interest in Miss Hamilton, of course.’ A frown crept onto my face. ‘What were you talking about?’
He didn’t answer me at first. Looking up, I saw that his beautiful statue’s face was even more emotionless than usual. Whereas normally it just looked stony, now it looked completely vacant. He looked as if he was readjusting the gears of his brain.
‘Well…’ He cleared his throat. ‘I was talking of my interest in Miss Hamilton, of course. You’re right. I am very romantically interested. Indeed you could say, pining with love for her. That would be a very accurate description of the situation.’
‘I see,’ I mumbled, looking down again, so I didn’t have to look at his chiselled face anymore. For some reason my eyes started stinging. ‘What was it that caught your fancy? Her figure? Her eyes?’
‘Her eyes. And her figure, too. And her dress, her manners, and her… well, she does not have anything more to catch fancies with, but all that she does have is very fancy-catching. You could say that I have passionately fallen in love with the entirety of her, not just the individual components.’
‘But you like her eyes.’
‘Yes, indeed.’
‘What is so special about them?’ I demanded to know, still not daring to look up. I had a suspicion why my eyes were stinging, and if it was correct I wanted nothing less than for him to see my face right now. ‘I saw nothing extraordinary about them!’
He cleared his throat again. ‘Well… they look very… very ocular, for one thing.’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘Pardon?’
‘This word, “ocular”. What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It is Latin. It is a word denoting everything that refers to eyes.’
‘So… what you’re in fact saying is that what’s special about her eyes is that they look very much like eyes.’
