She studied her reflection in the normal way, face on, her spirits unaccountably depressed. She had begun to think that since Aunt Ledbetter had given her a hint about which styles and colours became her, she could claim to look...
She whirled away from the mirror in annoyance. Not even Richard had been tricked by her London finery. Just because she’d had a fleeting effect on Lord Deben, it did not mean she had suddenly become alluring. She was not a beauty and she never would be.
But at least tonight, at the Lutterworths’ soirée, there would be nobody present she particularly wished to impress. The Lutterworths would not presume to invite Lord Deben into their home, palatial though it was.
And it was ridiculous to attempt to impress a man like Lord Deben anyway. She was honest enough with herself to admit that it had been he she’d been thinking about as she’d preened and posed in front of the mirror. And intelligent enough to know that any attempt she might make to impress him would only make him laugh at her.
Though she shied away from considering why she should care if he did laugh at her.
Instead, she concentrated on feeling grateful that she would have at least one evening free from him. Even if she could not stop thinking about him, at least she would not have to deal with his person—and the effect he had on her.
* * *
But even telling herself quite sternly to put him out of her mind had not quite worked, because the moment she spotted a sofa amongst the furniture gracing the Lutterworths’ palatial dwelling, the entire episode with Lord Deben upon just such a useful article came flooding back with such force that her legs went all languid, her insides turned to mush and her progress across the room slowed to a sensuous drift.
At which point— ‘Well done, Miss Gibson. You have the walk down pat already.’
‘Lord Deben!’ Henrietta could not believe he was standing in front of her just as she’d been remembering the incredible sensations that he’d produced by nibbling all the way down the entire length of her neck.
Nor could she believe that his first words to her should be those of a schoolmaster praising a pupil.
‘Wh-what are you doing here?’
‘Seeking you out, naturally,’ he said, sweeping her a mocking bow.
Her face was burning. She felt as though he’d caught her doing something reprehensible.
‘No. No, I meant—that is, I never imagined when I told you I should be here tonight that the Lutterworths would have sent you an invitation.’
‘Why should they not?’
‘Well, because it just isn’t done to invite a member of the peerage into your home when you’ve made your fortune from pickles.’
‘You shall not slander Mr Lutterworth,’ he replied gravely. ‘He did not commit the social solecism of sending me an invitation.’
‘You mean you just...walked in?’
He laid his hand over his heart. ‘Alas, I fear I care nothing for the conventions. I have shamelessly used my rank as a kind of passport. Upon whichever door an earl knocks, you know, he will nearly always gain admittance.’
She’d managed to flick open her fan by now, with fingers that felt all thumbs, but no matter how diligently she employed it, it seemed only to drive the heat to other parts of her body. Which made her even more embarrassed.
Just then, a man whose face looked vaguely familiar approached them.
‘Excuse me, Miss Gibson, but we are engaged for the first dance.’
He held out his hand expectantly.
When she made as though to go to him, Lord Deben took hold of her hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. She was startled to see that his face, which had looked so relaxed only moments earlier, was now set in a cold harsh mask.
‘I think you will find you are mistaken. Miss Gibson is engaged to me for the duration of the first set.’
Whatever protest the young man might have wanted to make was never uttered. With one last frustrated glance at Henrietta, her dance partner turned and scuttled away.
‘Do you know, I rather think I had agreed to dance with him,’ she said. ‘And anyway, I most definitely had not made any arrangement whatsoever with you for any part of tonight. I had not expected to see you for days.’
‘Whenever I am at any event you attend,’ he returned coldly, ‘you will make yourself available to me whenever I say so.’