Page 99 of Duke of Wickedness
“Although,” he went on, “I admit, I am a bit weary of dancing. Would you forgive me if Idon’task you to dance?”
Her lips twitched into a smile at that, one that wasn’t forced.
“An unconventional approach,” she said. “But I will forgive you, certainly—particularly as you give me an excuse to rest, as well. May I live to see the day when someone invents comfortable slippers that are still acceptable in the ballroom.”
It really wasn’t much, as far as quips went, but Lord Ledbetter smiled.
“My sister has similar complaints,” he said. “But hers aren’t restricted to shoes. She also has issues with stays, most of her dresses, and hairpins.”
“All very reasonable,” Ariadne said, relaxing into the conversation. She could barely feel David’s eyes on her. “Nothing worse than thinking you’ve undone your coiffure,laying your head down for the night, and getting jabbed directly in the skull.”
He winced sympathetically. “I don’t know that particular pain, but I cannot say that I envy you.”
“You’ll want to rethink your decision with that one, my lord.”
The drawling voice interrupted them, full of anger and condescension. Ariadne and Lord Ledbetter frowned, both of them, and turned to see Lord Hershire, a snarl twisting his features.
He didn’t look like the man who had initially approached Ariadne, all those months ago. That man had been all politeness, all surface. But the cracks were showing now. No—he was nothingbutcracks now.
Lord Ledbetter shot a cautious glance at Ariadne before giving the viscount a distinctly chilly smile.
“I’m certain that I don’t know what you mean,” he said standoffishly. “Now, if you will excuse me, we were having a conversation?—”
“You’ll think she’s the kind of lady you want,” Hershire forged ahead, acting as though he hadn’t even heard Lord Ledbetter at all. “But she’s playing games with you. Frigid, she is. She’ll let you think that you mean something to her, and then laugh in your face when you show it.”
Oddly enough, Ariadne’s first instinct was to laugh in his face now. She’d felt bad about misleading him when he had first proposed, but his mischaracterization of that event nowdidmake her want to mock him. The insult felt secondary to all of that absurdity.
“Apologize.”
Ariadne apparently was alone in her assessment of the situation—though it wasn’t, to her surprise, Lord Ledbetter who spoke.
It was David.
She gaped at him—as did Lord Ledbetter and Lord Hershire, the three of them united for a fleeting moment. Then Hershire sneered again, Ariadne felt her traitorous heart flutter, and Lord Ledbetter hastily extracted himself from the situation, not that Ariadne could blame him.
She would have liked to have been elsewhere, too.
“Oh, well, this makes perfect sense,” Hershire said in a nasty, snide sort of way. “No wonder she’s been so?—”
“I caution you, in the strongest terms possible, against finishing that sentence,” David said with a deadly sort of politeness. “Instead, you are going to apologize to the lady, and then you are going to walk away.”
Hershire, who evidently lacked a strong sense of self-preservation, scoffed.
“I don’t see any ladies here,” he snapped.
David smiled. It was about a thousand times more terrifying than if he had started swinging fists.
“I see,” he said, very, very calmly. “Well. I encourage you to remember this moment. When you find yourself turned away from every club in the city. When your invitations dry up. When you find yourself without allies, without partners in business, and without friends. When those things transpire, remember this moment.”
It was, as far as threats went, impressive. Even Ariadne was impressed, and she wasn’t the one being threatened.
“She isn’t worth any of that,” the viscount said.
“That,” David retorted with the same unshakeable calm, “is where you are wrong.”
Ariadne could tell, when the viscount walked away, that he thought he had won. She was almost sorry that she wouldn’t get to see that certainty fade away.
Any regret on that front paled, however, in comparison to the absolutefuryshe felt when she turned to look at David.
