Twenty
“Miss Thorne, your father should have warned the guests in his invitation that you are so beautiful. I find that you quite take my breath away,” the Earl of Mayden said. She looked into his eyes, and in them she saw… nothing. There was nothing inside this man. Claire was certain of it.
“You flatter me, my lord,” Claire said, looking over the earl’s shoulder. Finn stalked the edge of the room and suddenly took a lass’s hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. Claire lined up facing the earl for a reel, and Finn took a place three spaces down the line from Mayden.
The music began, and Claire and the earl circled one another, and then moved apart. Claire was glad when he moved to the next lady, because he made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She gave the next man a wide smile, and he stammered as he went around her. They separated again, and Finn wasn’t any closer to her. Suddenly, the man across from her yelped as Finn grabbed him by the collar and jerked him over to switch places.
“What the devil do you think you’re doing?” Finn hissed as he circled around her.
“Dancing, my lord.” She smiled at him. “Have we met?” she asked with what she knew was an impudent grin.
“Don’t play with that man, Claire,” he warned.
Claire had no intention of playing with the earl. She intended to expose him. To ease some of Finn’s burden, if she could. He deserved a life free of men who wanted to do him harm. She could want to do him harm all day long, but no one else could hurt him, blast it all.
The line moved again and Claire found herself across from the earl again. “You dance divinely, my lord,” she said. “I’m afraid I feel a bit like a bumpkin out here on the dance floor. We don’t have this dance where I’m from.”
“Where might that be?” the earl asked, his tone amiable. But the tone didn’t match his eyes.
“I’m sure you’ve never heard of it.”
“Fortune smiled on your father, that he was able to claim you at last.”
Claire tripped over her foot. She laughed lightly as she righted herself. “I’m sure you’re mistaken, my lord. My father has always claimed me. He just chose to let me rusticate in the country instead of in town. At my own behest, of course.”
The earl’s eyes narrowed. “Your father didn’t know you existed until a few months ago. Then he went away with your mother and came home with three children no one remembers her birthing.” He chuckled, but it wasn’t a mirthful sound. Not at all like Finn’s laugh.
“What do you want, Mayden?” Claire asked. Some-times it was best to take a direct route.
He lifted a brow at Claire. “I want everything the Duke of Robinsworth stole from me.”
“I would have thought you paid him back when you took his wife’s life.”
The hand that held hers tightened painfully. Tears came to Claire’s eyes, but she blinked them back and refused to let him know he’d hurt her. He squeezed harder. Claire stopped dancing and stepped closer to him. “It’s a pity that you haven’t earned back any of the things you lost, isn’t it?” she asked sweetly, like she spoke of the weather.
Mayden’s lips pulled back from his teeth. It was time to change partners again. Mayden stayed in place, however, and didn’t stop dancing. “Tell Finn I want Katherine back,” he grated out. “Or I might just have to take you up to the turrets and see if you can fly.”
Oh, she could fly. And sting. And do all sorts of things he couldn’t even imagine. “Tell him yourself,” Claire bit out. “After you catch your breath.”
“Beg your pardon?” he asked.
“I think you’ll suddenly find yourself unable to breathe, my lord.” She rested one hand on each of his shoulders, stepped up on tiptoe, and whispered in his ear. “Right now,” she said, just as she raised her knee between his legs and hit him directly in the groin.
Mayden doubled over and fell to the floor. The quartet stopped playing. The dancers stopped dancing. Finn rushed forward. Claire stepped on Mayden’s hand as she walked past him, grinding her heel into his fingers as he lay there on the parquet floor. He squealed like a scalded baby.
“Beg your pardon,” Claire said. “I’m so clumsy.” She leaned down next to him and said softly so only he could hear. “Don’t ever threaten me again, or I’ll feed your stones to you on a silver spoon.” She motioned at two of the footmen, who stood in shock at the edge of the room. “The earl needs some help getting off the dance floor. I think he must have eaten some bad prawns. He had a most horrible stomach cramp.”
Claire bustled away from Mayden as the footmen hefted him to his feet.
***
Finn watched the entire tableau and wanted to grin like a fool when Claire kneed Mayden in the groin. But what she did was risky, and he didn’t like her putting herself in a situation like that. She should have cut a wide berth around Mayden. He wouldn’t take kindly to this slight, not now that his pride was wounded. He would retaliate. And he would do so with vicious glee.
Finn took Claire’s hand and laid it upon his arm. She winced as he did so, however, and fear leaped directly to his heart. “What’s wrong with your hand?”
“The good earl has a viselike grip, for one so scrawny,” Claire said. Her hand must hurt like the devil, because she had tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Would you care for a turn in the garden, Miss Thorne?” Finn asked.