Page 40 of Enticed By an Earl
“I heartily agree,” the other, Lord Wedmore, said. “We could not help but be drawn to you, like moths to a flame.”
Both gentlemen smiled flirtatiously at Kitty, Georgiana, and Alice.
Kitty’s heart hammered against her ribs. She had met both Salisbury and Wedmore at an event not two months before and had conversed with Wedmore at length, as the Earl of Castleton, about whether Lord Melbourne might retain his position as Prime Minister, should there beanother election. Surely, Wedmore would look at her and see Lord Castleton instead of Miss Dryden.
But all that Kitty received from the man was a banal smile with absolutely no light of recognition.
“You are flatterers, the both of you,” Lady Everly said, enjoying the attention as much as Georgiana and Alice were. “If I did not know better, I would think you were after something from me.”
“Only after the pleasure of your charges’ company,” Salisbury said. “Miss Dryden, I believe?” He turned to Kitty, offering his hand as the opening strains of the next dance sounded.
Kitty caught her breath in panic and glanced to Lady Everly. Lady Everly looked back at her with a look full of confidence. Kitty imagined that she was telling her she had no choice but to dance with Lord Salisbury and that a refusal would be as suspicious as pulling her wig off.
She swallowed and turned back to her old schoolmate. “Thank you, my lord,” she said, dipping into a deep curtsy, mostly so she could hide her face.
There was nothing for it then but to take Salisbury’s hand when it was offered and to walk out to the forming lines of the dance. At least it was one of the dances that would see her changing partners now and then, although that brought with it a different set of problems.
“Your chaperone guards you most closely,” Salisbury began what was bound to be a stilted conversation as they started in on the steps of the dance. “Several of us have been speculating about you since you appeared at Lady Russell’s ball more than a fortnight ago.”
Kitty tried not to tense so badly that she might trip over her own feet. She’d been practicing her dancing for some time now, thanks to Lady Everly’s tutelage, but she still found it necessary to pay close attention to the steps.Dancing with someone who knew her as Lord Castleton did not enhance her powers of concentration at all.
“I cannot imagine that I am worthy of so much speculation,” she said, working to keep her voice as light and feminine as possible and to avoid Salisbury’s eyes.
“But of course you are,” Salisbury said, clearly trying to be charming. “You are a fresh face that has appeared at the end of a long season. And you are rumored to have caught the eye of Lord Deveraux Ogilvy. Nothing captures a man’s attention more than a new face who has already been spoken for.”
“Oh,” Kitty said, growing more anxious by the second.
She did not have a chance to say more. The steps of the dance separated them, and Kitty found herself palm to palm with a middle-aged gentleman who seemed to have already imbibed quite a bit of the punch Lady Bradshaw had provided for her guests. In a way, that made Kitty feel safer. The inebriated man merely smiled at her without attempting to converse, likely seeing two of her instead of one.
A few turns and steps later, however, she was back with Salisbury.
“Were you in London earlier in the season, Miss Dryden?” Salisbury asked. “I could have sworn I saw you somewhere closer to Easter.”
Kitty swallowed, panic welling up within her. Was this how her beautiful fantasy ended? Would the life that felt so much within her reach now suddenly vanish because an old schoolmate recognized her in a gown and wig?
“I was not, I am afraid,” she said, lowering her eyes as an excuse to turn her face away…and count her dancing steps to keep up.
“More’s the pity,” Salisbury said. “It is a shame that Lord Deveraux had the chance to step in before any of the rest of us could.”
“You are too kind,” Kitty said, managing a tight, airy laugh.
Salisbury looked as though he wanted to say something more, but the dance moved on and the steps parted the two of them once more.
Only this time, when Kitty swung around for a brief moment palm-to-palm with a different partner, she found himself touching hands and staring straight into the face of her brother, George.
The shock was enough to cause her to lose her footing entirely. Instead of just making the wrong steps in the fast-moving dance, her feet seemed to tangle together, pitching her to the side. Arms cartwheeling, she fell heavily, right into the stout form of a grey-haired matron who had been dancing nearby.
A small gasp rose from the crowd, and in an instant, Kitty found herself in the very last place she wanted to be, at the center of everyone’s attention. With George standing mere feet away from her.
“My dear, are you quite well?” the matron asked, supporting part of Kitty’s weight as she helped her to stand. Her face pinched a bit as she discovered how heavy Kitty was.
“I did nothing,” George protested in his usual, antagonistic voice. “The chit tripped over her own feet. Clumsy thing.”
They were some of the mildest insults George had ever thrown at her, but they struck Kitty like the blows of a cane.
“Miss Dryden, are you quite well?” Salisbury said, coming forward to try to help. “Stand back, sir,” he told George, though Kitty could not see whether George had moved any closer or not.
She could not see because she was busy doing everything she could to keep her face turned away from her brother. Itwas not just her face that mattered, however. Kitty could feel the pinch and poke of wig pins that had shifted and now stabbed her. She straightened, still half hiding against the matronly woman, and lifted a hand to her head to make certain her wig had not come loose and revealed all.
