Page 34 of To Catch an Earl

He wastrès sortable.Any woman would preen to have him on her arm.

Now that she’d started, Emmy couldn’t seem to stop. “The Scots have a good one:tartle. It’s that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you cannot quite remember.”

“Thatisa good word,” he said. “I have definitely been tartled, on occasion.” He tilted his head, still not looking at her. “I’ve travelled extensively on the continent—Bonaparte’s unofficial Grand Tour. I must have picked up a few words to add to your collection. Let me think.”

He gazed out across the dance floor, apparently deep in thought, and Emmy stole a glance at the clean line of his jaw and firm lips. Her skin tingled.

“I have one,” he said finally. “See that annoying fellow over there? In mustard-yellow pantaloons.”

“Lord Eversleigh?”

“Indeed. The Germans have a word for him.”

She raised her brows in silent question.

“Backpeifengesicht,” he supplied.

“Bless you,” she said, straight-faced.

He shot her a chiding sideways glance. “It means ‘a face badly in need of a fist.’”

Emmy quelled a snicker of amusement. “Interesting.”

“The Russian soldiers I met had plenty of entertaining phrases too. Most of them were related to drinking. They have a whole host of words to convey various levels of intoxication.Soosh-nyak, for example, is that dry feeling you get in your throat when you wake up after a night of heavy drinking.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Emmy said virtuously. “But no doubt you’re intimately acquainted with the sensation.”

He ignored that little jibe. “They have another word that describes the disappointment of seeing a woman who appears pretty from behind but not from the front. I can’t remember what it is, though.”

“That’s very helpful,” she said with faint irony.

The realization of how much she was enjoying herself crushed her chest. This easy, teasing banter was a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been, had circumstances been different. But any friendship between the two of them was an impossibility. These brief, forbidden moments were all she could ever have.

The dance ended, and another set began to form. Harland stepped past her and caught her hand. “We should dance.”

She didn’t have time to voice an objection. He led her onto the dance floor and turned her neatly in his arms. The heat of his palm warmed through her glove where their hands were joined. His left hand settled easily at the small of her back.

She braced herself to look him in the eye, and the predictable flash of lightning sparked between them.What an unreasonable attraction.

His gaze rested for an instant on her mouth, then flitted away. Emmy was aware of curious glances being sent their way, a flurry of speculative whispers. Any woman with Alex Harland would be an object of envy. With his height and sinfully dark good looks, he was utterlycompelling, and her heart fluttered at being the center of attention. The cattiest amongst them were probably wondering how a freckled little thing like her was dancing with a demigod like him.

“Wait, you don’t dance!” she recalled belatedly. “You haven’t danced since you returned from the Peninsular.”

His eyebrows rose, and she could have bitten off her tongue for betraying how much she knew about him. His lips quirked. “It’s true I haven’t danced, but that doesn’t mean I cannot do so. I’ve just chosen not to. Until now. I never found a suitable partner.”

Her pulse fluttered. What didthatmean?

“You’ll have to help me, Miss Danvers,” he murmured. “I cannot see our joined hands, nor the couples in our periphery. If it looks as if we are about to cause a collision, do let me know.”

She glanced round in alarm. “Really, there’s no need. We should—”

“Afraid?” he taunted softly.

That did it. She lifted her chin. “Of course not.”

His chuckled exhale sluiced against her temple. He pulled her tighter into his embrace and squeezed her hand. “In that case, try to keep up.”

The music started, another Viennese waltz, and Emmy’s breath lodged in her throat. Her first steps faltered, but Harland spun her out and back into his embrace with consummate skill.

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