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She was watching him expectantly, and Derrick was sure that people would be watching, whether they were openly staring or not. Good manners won over, and he held out an arm.
“Come with me, Lady Saxton. But I’ll leave you once we get inside. I have to find Mother.”
“Of course.” She gave him a sly smile as she took his arm. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other… very soon.”
Derrick stiffened. Did she seriously think they were going to carry on their affair? He had avoided her since their last interlude, hoping that would make it clear. Maybe he should have put it into words, especially if Catherine was still looking at him like this.
He didn’t look at her as they went into the house. Once they greeted the hosts, who were hovering just inside the door, Derrick turned to Catherine and gave her a bow.
“If you’ll excuse me, Lady Saxton, I’ll take my leave here.”
“I’ll be sure to seek you out later, Lord Northampton.” Catherine gave him a subtle wink. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Derrick didn’t respond. He just turned and hurried away. Now he had to find a way to put into words that he was not about to enter into another affair with her.
Then he would just have to hope that Catherine would accept it and leave him alone. And Derrick had a feeling that she wouldn’t.
#
Just like the last ball, Ellie stuck as close to the wall as she could without actually being one of the hung paintings and watched her sisters interact with the other guests. They seemed to be getting a lot of attention again. It didn’t take long for Ellie to realise that those who had been in Regina’s company previously were flocking to her again. Evidently, her younger sister had been leaving a lasting effect on the young gentlemen of theton.
Hopefully, this would work out for them.
Although Ellie had a feeling it might be a bit tougher tonight, given Regina’s expression. She was doing her best to hide it, and not doing too bad, but Ellie could see the stress in her sister’s eyes from across the room. She was trying a bit too hard, and it looked like the world was on her shoulders.
Thankfully, nobody seemed to have picked up on this yet, which was showing Regina’s acting prowess—something like that would certainly help her out in the future.
Dorothea, on the other hand, didn’t look as if she was having that problem. She was talking to a small group of people close to her age, and they were doing a lot of laughing. Her youngest sister looked far more relaxed, her eyes sparkling and the smile barely leaving her face. Gentlemen were paying her a lot of attention for that, and Dorothea seemed to be lapping it up.
That was something. Whatever Regina and Dorothea were doing seemed to be working. Ellie wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them had marriage proposals by the end of the Season. Of course, there was going to be a little bit of an issue with her still being unmarried, but they could work around it. Surely they couldn’t stop Regina and Dorothea from marrying if they found the right person willing to make them their wife.
Genuine love wouldn’t care about something like that.
Ellie rolled her eyes to herself. Genuine love? It might exist for other people, but it certainly didn’t exist for her. It was something that just ended up being part of an arrangement that everyone went through. Of course, she would prefer to marry a man for love, but as the days went on, that desire had dwindled away.
Her sisters had a far better chance of finding a husband than Ellie did.
And if they were lucky, their aunt wouldn’t find out what they were doing. If she did, Ellie hoped that she wouldn’t be too upset and let her carry on as before. Preferably without the amount of time to get herself prepared.
She watched as Regina had a gentleman, slightly older but still handsome with silver streaks in his hair, bow to her and say something that made Regina smile and nod. She took his arm and they went onto the dance floor. Ellie was pleased when they started to dance, Regina looking graceful in spite of the tension barely hidden by her pleasant expression. If the older gentleman noticed anything, he didn’t seem to care.
“She’s got herself a good catch there.”
Ellie jumped and spun around, only to remember that she was almost leaning on the wall and hit her shoulder against the solid plaster. Flinching, she managed to fight back a cry. North had appeared out of nowhere, looking at her with that irrepressible smile that should have been annoying. Instead, it left something flaring in Ellie’s belly, and spreading further down. She did her best not to squirm.
Ellie managed to regain her composure and rubbed her shoulder, giving the man a glare.
“You really should not sneak up on women like that, my lord. Can’t you announce your presence or something?”
“You want me to have a fanfare every time I’m approaching?”
“No, that… that’s not what I meant.”
North tilted his head to one side as he regarded her. It felt like his eyes were taking in everything, and Ellie felt a shiver down her spine. God, she really needed to take a deep breath and walk away; he was making her react in a way Ellie wasn’t sure she liked.
But even as she told herself to leave, she couldn’t get her feet to move.
“What do you mean, my sister has a good catch?” Ellie asked as she rubbed her shoulder. It was still smarting. “Who is it?”
