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“Look at them,” he pointed out softly. “Do you notice anything about them?”
“Aside from the fact that he seems totally enamored with her and the inane subject of their conversation?”
Daniel wanted to burst in laughter at her piqued tone. Shewasright about that—the Ton were masters of inane conversation, mainly because they were adept atothernonverbal cues.
“No,” he told her. “Watch how Miss Charlton acts around him. See how she bats her eyelashes up at him, gazing up at him as if he is the most astounding creature in the entire universe.”
Emily followed his gaze, his soft, low, authoritative voice putting her under some sort of trance as he guided her. She saw how Miss Charlton giggled, lightly rapping Lord Severin in the arm with her fan on several occasions, fluttering her eyelashes in an almost exaggerated motion.
This…this was the secret to holding a man’s attention?Emily was absolutely stupefied. “You mean to tell me,” she hissed at the Duke, “that to gain a man’s attention, I have to act like a complete and utter simpleton?”
“To gain a man’s attention, you must make himbelievethat he is amazing enough that he has you acting like a complete and utter simpleton,” he corrected her. “It is not how you act, my dear Emily, but how you make themfeelwhen you act in such a manner.”
“Oh.”
He patted her hand as they resumed their walk around the ballroom. “Men are rather simple creatures, my dear,” he told her, “and they like women who make them feel good about themselves. Do you not like it when someone flatters you? It is the same thing with men.”
She shook her head and smiled a little at him. “You sound rather…depreciative of your peers.”
“I simply do not have a high opinion on the art of seduction,” he said simply. “It is merely a means to an end.”
“That sounds rather callous.”
“I call it like it is, my dear,” he smiled at her. “Look there—do you see what she is doing?”
Emily frowned as she followed his gaze to where Miss Jane Everly had turned her back, lightly slapping and pinching at her cheeks, before she turned around and walked gloriously back into the throng with her head high, a cheerful smile on her lips.
“Why would she do that to herself?” she asked.
“Men are visual creatures,” the Duke replied blandly. “A nice flush is quite attractive.”
“I blush at the drop of a hat, and nobody has ever commended me for that.”
“Try blushing and combine it with what you had seen Miss Charlton do. It will work wonders, I assure you.”
Along the course of their walk, Emily spotted a great many other things—she saw how Miss Diana Compton dropped her fan, carefully positioning her bosom so that it was in full view of Lord Haversham as she bent down to retrieve the object. His fascinated gaze made Emily shudder a little.
“Is that not too brazen, Your Grace?” she asked him, turning her wide eyes to him. “She—she just—”
“Done discreetly and quickly, it is but a tantalizing peek into what would await him, should he care to drop by her father’s study tomorrow to ask for her hand in marriage.”
“Oh!”
Realization dawned on Emily as she gazed around the ballroom, her innocent eyes seeing the tactics employed before her for the first time. His Grace was right—the subject of conversation was not the key to attracting and holding a man’s attention.
It was the art of flirtation itself!
Done discreetly so as not to invoke the wrath and censure of the dowagers and matrons of society, unmarried men and women treaded the fine line between what was appropriate andbarelyappropriate.
“Do you see now?”
His smooth baritone cut through the haze of her thoughts, and Emily felt her cheeks warm up as she gazed back up at the Duke, who was looking at her with a small smile. She nodded jerkily.
“Now you know,” he told her, “what it takes to snag a man’s attention, and all that takes for you to lose it is simply another young lady doing itbetter.”
“But I thought it was inappropriate for a young lady to approach a man,” she frowned, shaking her head delicately.
“Then do it in such a manner that he will think it washisidea to approach you,” he suggested. “Give him an invitation, and he shall come running.”
