“And I see she had no trouble whatsoever gaining a partner.”
He smiled to himself. “I didn’t expect her to do otherwise. She’s going to break a number of gentlemen’s hearts, I daresay.”
“No doubt.”
He looked at her. “Why aren’t you dancing? I was surprised to see you weren’t already on the floor.”
“Perhaps I’m waiting to be asked,” she said coyly, hoping that was a broad enough hint for him.
“I can find you a partner, if that’s what you need,” he said, sweeping the room with his gaze.
She sighed. “I suppose I should find you a partner. Your dinner companion, perhaps?”
“The marchioness? I don’t think so. Besides, I see her there dancing with some nimble chap already.”
“I meant your other dinner companion,” she clipped out, fighting to hide the jealousy in her voice.
“No, indeed. That chit yammered at me long enough at dinner—nothing but inane gossip about people I’d never heard of. Why do I care if some earl got into trouble with his wife over some bet he placed in White’s betting book?”
Thank heavens he had no interest in the duke’s daughter. Diana was relieved, though she wasn’t sure why. She doubted he would marry any woman whose whole existence was tied up in a business so foreign to his own.
“You could always dance with me,” she said, as coolly as she could manage.
“No, I couldn’t,” he said belligerently, then followed his refusal with a large swallow of port.
She tamped down her hurt, but couldn’t resist asking, “Why not?”
“I can’t dance.”
“But why? It seems to me—”
“I can’t dance.” He glared at her. “I don’t know how.”
That caught her completely off guard. “How can that be? Didn’t you ever dance at parties or assemblies in Newcastle?”
He snorted. “When I wasn’t attending my all-male academy, my grandfather was taking me to various engineering projects and showing me how things work at Stockdon and Sons. Once I was old enough to travel with him, I was away from home half the time.” He turned defensive. “I didn’t mind not learning to dance. It wasn’t as if I could guess that one day I’d have a use for the ability.”
“Didn’t your mother care that you were gone so much? How old were you?”
“Twelve. And I was glad to go. At home . . .” He shrugged. “Mother had Rosy and Father. And she knew I was in good hands with Grandfather.”
Just when she thought she was beginning to understand him, she found out something that threw everything else into disarray. “All right, but after your grandfather and father died, why didn’t you take dancing lessons when you got them for your sister?”
“Because I was overseeing the building of a canal. Because I had no idea I was going to be handed a dukedom in a matter of months. And because . . .” He hesitated, his dark brows bent in a scowl. “I don’t think I’d be very good at dancing. I’d feel like an elephant trying to perform a minuet.”
“I once saw an elephant dancing at the Tower Menagerie. Despite its size, it danced quite nimbly. Besides, you’re no elephant. Your size doesn’t prevent you from being light on your feet.” She looked out over the other dancers. “And anyone who can balance atop half-finished bridges and locks, as I assume you do routinely, is perfectly capable of dancing. You might even find you enjoy it.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“Then why don’t we prove it? Let’s slip out to the terrace and I’ll give you your first dancing lesson. We can hear the music easily enough out there, and it has turned cold again, so no one else will want to be out there.”
He stared hard at her, as if trying to determine why she wanted to do this. She wasn’t entirely sure herself. All she knew was that she needed to explore this tenuous connection between them, and she had to do it more privately than in a room full of people.
While she merely waited for his answer, he nodded and gestured for her to precede him out of the drawing room into the hall rather than the terrace. “This way no one will jump to any conclusions,” he explained. “You and I are just going to take care of an emergency somewhere in the house.” He led her through the now-empty boudoir and then out onto the terrace.
She hadn’t been out here much. She’d inspected it as a possible place to set up tables if they had their dinner outside, but the cool, foggy weather had made that unwise. So, once they were out there, Geoffrey took the lead, guiding her down the steps to the outer perimeter of the terrace, where they could still hear the music but could not easily be seen in the darkness.
But the darkness might actually hamper them. It was hard to demonstrate a dance step if your companion couldn’t see you. As if for their benefit, the clouds broke just then, and the full moon shone bright enough for them to make their way. Ahead of them, a low brick wall encircled the terrace. At least it gave them some boundaries to work within.