Page 36 of If I Loved You
Emma bit her lip, smiling. “Have you been spying on me, sir? Or, is itmy lord?”
“Call mesirormisteror theright honorable, or perhapsmy beloved. Whatever pleases you.”
“Very fanciful.”
“Ihavebeen spying on you. But only most of the evening. Couldn’t believe my good fortune when Lady M dared to leave you unattended, even as it is common knowledge that she never met a buffet she did not like. And Lindsey seems to have quit scowling at you from across the room, that I deemed it a fine time to make myself known.”
“You are very observant, I should say, Sir Mr. Right Honorable Tristan Noel.”
“You left off themy beloved.” He winked at her. “Shall you dance with me?”
“I shall not.”
He thumped his hand over his heart, as if mortally wounded.
“Lady M, as you say, would not take kindly to that,” Emma explained. “But I might walk with you.”
“That will do. For now. Even as I don’t suppose you will allow me to direct you away from this crush, somewhere private.”
“I would not.”
They began walking, Emma hoping that the Gray Lady did not call out that she was to remain in her presence. They stayed to the perimeter of the room, the man’s hand at her elbow when it was required that they move around other persons.
“Miss Ainsley must come complete with some wondrous name between those two very impersonal words.”
“It does.”
“And shall you tell me what that word might be?”
“That word would be my given name,” she answered evasively, unable to keep the smile from her face. “I believe yours is Tristan. I have one as well. Everyone does, usually bestowed at birth.”
“You are teasing me horrifically, Miss Ainsley.”
“Actually, I am thinking what a clever man you are, to have made so simple a question resound with such whimsy.”
“And yet this very clever man has yet to learn your name, indicating that my dreams will now be so damnably anonymous, with only a Miss Ainsley dancing through them. So now we are walking, but I beg that you not let us be waylaid by others, who may have also noted Lady M’s absence and would be tempted to make use of this time.”
“I shall not. Tell me, Sir Mr. Right Honorable Tristan Noel, is this how you find yourself in the company of many young women? Pouncing on them when no chaperone is near?”
“I should think, Miss Ainsley, that my methods might be applauded, for their creativity and for the vast amount of patience I have displayed.”
“Poor Sir Mr. Right Honorable Tristan Noel —”
“Your beloved.”
“—whose schemes are so vastly under-appreciated.”
“Miss Ainsley of the secret given name, what brings you to London? And how long might the city be charmed by your presence?”
“I’ve come on a mission, actually.”
“Of the mysterious sort?”
“Naturally. Is there any other kind worth the mention?”
“There is not.”
Oh, but she liked Tristan Noel very much. What good company!
