Page 16 of Enslaved
Diana couldn’t believe her ears.What maggot is eating your brain, Prudence?“But surely our plans preclude any such thing. I’ve been invited to the opera, and I’m quite certain you won’t want to miss the Devonshire Ball, not with Prinny as its centrepiece? No, no—we will go another time.”
Prudence, momentarily speechless, saw the carriage had arrived. She would have to postpone her efforts until later.
Although Diana didn’t admit it to herself, she looked forward to seeing Peter Hardwick. He arrived late and walked a direct path to her. He took her dance card and said, “We can throw this away.”
“Since when did you start making my decisions?” she asked archly.
“Tonight,” he murmured intimately, for her ears alone. His glance caught and held hers—his brown eyes had a predatory gaze. “Diana, I want you to come to Bath.”
Had she heard him right? Within hours she had been pressed to go to Bath twice. What an amazing coincidence —except Diana did not believe in coincidence.
She opened her fan. “You jest,” she said lightly.
Peter shook his head. “For once I’m being serious. I must return to Somerset, but I don’t want to leave you behind—not when I’ve just found you.”
“Impossible,” she murmured.
He swung her into the dance, and when they came together, he said, “Don’t say no; please think about it.” The figures of the dance caused them to separate again, but his eyes never left her.
Diana felt most flattered to receive Peter Hardwick’s undivided attention. Female to her fingertips, she relished the game of pursuit, but she was determined the flirtation would go no further.
When the next dance began, he whisked her away from William Lamb. “I’ll show you a fabulous time in Bath. The social mores aren’t at all stuffy and regimented as they are here in London.”
She could feel his warm breath playing about her ear. “You have no trouble overstepping the rules.”
“Too much red blood in my veins for that.”
“I thought you were a blue blood.”
“Then youdothink about me.”
“Never.”
“Liar!”
Diana eluded him until the last dance was called. It began on a light note, but the tension built between them as his arms became possessive and his gaze intense. Diana realized he was becoming too serious and decided she must put a stop to it. In a firm but friendly tone she said, “I’m most flattered for your invitation, Peter, but I shan’t be coming to Bath.”
The music stilled, but Hardwick held her fast. He had a wild, predatory look that both compelled and repelled her. His voice was low, determined, almost threatening. “You shall, youshall!”
When the dance ended, Diana returned to the side of her guardian, who had never taken her eyes off the couple. She saw a look of pure satisfaction cross her aunt’s face when she said, “Peter Hardwick invited me to Bath.”
“What an amazing coincidence.”
“Rather, I suspect collusion,” Diana said quietly.
“I swear you are the cruelest girl on earth! How you can suggest such a thing is beyond me. Of course you accepted?”
“Of course I declined. If he is that interested, he will soon come galloping back to London.”
“Playing hard-to-get may be unwise. There are prettier girls with greater titles on the marriage market this season.”
“But none with a larger inheritance,” Diana said quietly.
“Let me tell you, missy, cynicism in one so young is repugnant! I swear you are so perverse that you are rejecting Peter Hardwick simply because I approve of him!”
There’s more than a grain of truth there,Diana thought.
“Well, let me inform you that you are cutting off your nose to spite your face! It is common gossip that the earl is disinclined to marry. Peter is his heir and whomever Peter marries will not only be the mother of the future Earl of Bath, she will inherit the Elizabethan hall, the quarries, the lot!”
