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“Likewise.” There were those intense azure eyes again, studying her. Somehow the cool gaze made her feel warm all over.
“Are you enjoying the evening?” He asked.
“Very much so.” She replied with a smile.
“I am also,” he said, at last releasing her hand. Charlotte did not know what to do with her suddenly free fingers. They had been so completely engaged in his and now she felt bereft.
“But moreso now than previously?” he ventured.
Charlotte found herself uncharacteristically nervous, and twirled the ribbons of her dance card.Sir John Ashbrooke was a charmer.No doubt about that, Charlotte thought, but that did not necessarily mean he was false. She detected an air of genuine desperation in his teasing tone, as he ran a hand anxiously through his thick dark hair.
She felt herself soften towards the attractive gentleman. He really did seem nervous. Perhaps he was being genuine after all.
“Will you do me the honor of a dance, Lady Charlotte?”
In answer, she mutely handed him her dance card to sign. The vivacious Lady Charlotte was struck dumb.What hold did this man have over her? Shementally shook herself to banish the thought.
“Dare I presume the waltz?” He asked still holding the card.
“Sir, you presume much. We have only just met.”
“You wound me, my lady,” he proclaimed with a hand over his heart. “I feel as if I have known you for an age, at least.”
Charlotte giggled. “Even if I wished it, I am not approved by the patronesses for a waltz,” she explained to soften the blow of her rejection. “As you said, it is but my first Season, and my first ball at Almack’s. I must not offend Lady Jersey or Lady Cowper with my forwardness.”
Sir John bowed gallantly. “I overstepped myself. I shall believe that if you only could, you would waltz with me.”
Charlotte blushed and felt her face heat with the color, as she imagined a waltz with Sir John. “You shall have a dance,” she said in consolation.
“May I ask for the next set? You have given me a new perspective on life and I should hardly wish to wait.” Sir John held out his hand to escort her to the dancefloor. She caught a whiff of his cologne, and it made her want to draw nearer to him. Truthfully, she wanted to waltz with him. She wanted him to draw her close and to breathe deeply of that spicy masculine scent, but she warned herself to remain cautious.
“Truly?” Charlotte asked, not for a moment believing his outrageous compliments, but she realized she enjoyed his effusive flattery and the easy banter they had so quickly developed between them. She took his hand and when their fingers touched again Charlotte’s heart leapt in her chest. The moment stretched as the other dancers milled about the floor. She stood by Sir John’s side, content in the nearness of him.
“Might I tell you true?” He asked.
“You may,” she said, “But I must tell you that I have found gentleman who preface their words by swearing truth are those who most often lie.”
Sir John paused, still holding her hand captive. There was a pensive look on his face for a moment, and then he smiled, saying “I have spent most of the evening brooding, I am afraid.”
Charlotte felt him express the moment of honesty and listened intently. There was more he wanted to reveal. She was sure of it.
“I found myself unable to take part in the revelry because…I suppose…well, I was not feeling very gay. I was so utterly consumed by the unfamiliar feelings that welled up within me.”
He looked at her, his blue eyes entreating her to believe him, and at this moment, she did. His eyes were entrancing, a darker shade of indigo with bits of storm cloud gray and violet. With his dark hair the sight was quite arresting. Her breath caught for just a moment as he continued. “I must confess, I am not often at Almack’s. I do not have a standing invitation. One of my friends secured the vouchers.”
Charlotte understood now. He was trying to behave as theTonexpected. She wanted him to be himself.How else would she come to know him?
“This is my first time at Almack’s also,” Charlotte confided. “It is all rather grand, is it not?” Thinking back, Charlotte realized that she had noticed him a time or two earlier in the evening, leaning against a wall and frowning as if in some sort of distress. She had assumed, without really paying much mind to him, that he did not care for balls or for dancing, but had been pressured somehow into attendance. After all, one did not ignore a voucher from Almack’s.
“It is grand,” he said. “But the grandness of the event is eclipsed by the grandness of your beauty.”
Charlotte laughed aloud, doing her best not to snort with mirth. “Oh, do stop,” she said.
“I beg your pardon, Lady Charlotte, for my effusiveness. I tend to be rather awkward when I seek to express an excess of emotion. I suppose, I let myself become carried away,” Sir John said smoothly without even an instant of hesitation.
“Well, it can hardly count as a great emotion if it did not render one at least a little tongue-tied,” Charlotte said reasonably. Sir John was anything but awkward. He aimed to flatter, and Charlotte was wary of false flattery, but perhaps because he was unapologetic in his adulation, she was willing to grant him a boon. “The music is about to start,” she said, and they hurried to take their places among the other dancers.
Sir John and Lady Charlotte twirled and bowed and danced their way across the floor coming together briefly and then parting again. Charlotte felt as if her feet barely touched the ground. When the dance was completed, Sir John asked where her chaperone might be, so that he could walk with her those extra few moments.
