Page 10 of Lusting for the Duke's Kiss
But before she could open her mouth to say that she would not seehim, there was a noise at the doorway.
They all turned around, shocked. A man was standing there. A tall man with dark hair and flashing green eyes.
“Please excuse me,” he said slowly. “I hope that I have not startled you.”
Chapter 5
Louis Montague, the Duke of Warwick, hovered uncertainly in the doorway. He wasn’t sure at all if he should have intruded in this manner. Mr Arnold had asked him to stay in the study so that he and his wife could talk to their daughter about his proposal prior to him seeing her. But he had grown restless, and the temptation of seeing her again had become too much, in the end.
He wasn’t disappointed. She was still one of the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on. Her thick, chestnut coloured hair hung in a long plait over one shoulder. She was dressed simply, in a pale primrose yellow day gown, suitable for home. Her complexion was luminous, flawless, so pale that it resembled porcelain. And she turned shocked blue eyes on him, now.
He saw those eyes widen in sudden recognition. So, she did remember him. They had only met once, many years ago, and then only briefly. But the image of her had stayed with him ever since, almost burnt upon his retinas.
Suddenly, he was back there, in that ballroom. A grand ball at a country estate, miles from here. He had not even been sure that he was going to attend it until the last minute. But he had been eternally grateful that he had decided to travel to that house. The memory of her had been one of the few things that had got him through the last, troubled years.
***
Louis had not been flush with wealth in that year. His father had only died six months prior, leaving the duchy of Warwick in vast debt. While the title was old and revered, he knew that things were dire. If he could not turn it around, very soon, then he would be forced to sell off his ancestral estate, piece by piece.
The thought of it almost killed him.
On that November night, that year, he had been staying at a friend’s house, in Wiltshire, feeling about as low as he had ever felt in his life. It had been Gatwick’s idea, to attend the ball, springing it on him at the last minute. He had resisted, for a long time, knowing that he wasn’t in the mood for dancing and socialising. But his friend had insisted, and eventually, he had relented.
The house they had gone to had been crowded, heaving with the local community, all done up in their finest. He had sighed, heavily. He knew what these provincial balls were like. Soon, he would be swamped by people, all eager to fawn over him, as soon as they realised that a duke was in their midst.
That was when the idea suddenly occurred to him to introduce himself as someone else entirely.
In a flash, he had informed Gatwick. It would be a lark to pretend to be a commoner. No one in this district knew who he truly was, and he would probably never see any of them again, anyway. He wasn’t in the mood to be the centre of attention. Gatwick had smiled, playing along. They had come up with a nom de plume – Mr VincentCassidy, from Hampshire – and so the game had begun.
They had woven through the crowd towards the ballroom. And that was when he had seen her.
She was standing slightly away from the crowd, staring at the dance floor, with an abstracted expression on her face. He could still recall in minute detail what she had been wearing. A lavender silk gown, with a high bodice. Her chestnut hair was curled over one shoulder, scattered with tiny white flowers. At that moment, she had turned around, staring straight at him.
His heart had dropped to the ground.
Her face. It was heart-shaped, with high cheekbones, and full, rosy red lips. But it was her eyes, which arrested him the most. They were large, cornflower blue, with long, curling dark lashes. Those eyes seemed to reach into his very most soul.
He hadn’t waited a second longer. His legs had taken him towards her before his mind even registered it.
She watched him as he walked across the floor towards her. She didn’t blink, and she didn’t smile. She simply gazed at him curiously.
He was right in front of her, bowing slightly. “I am sorry for the intrusion,” he said in a low voice. “I do realise that I should wait for a formal introduction. But the sight of you has compelled me to dispense with the usual formalities.”
She kept gazing at him, her head tilted to one side as if she could not quite make out who or what he was.
“My name is Mr Vincent Cassidy,” he said slowly, voicing the lie for the first time. “From Hampshire. And you are?”
She blinked those long, curling lashes. “Miss Henrietta Arnold, sir. I reside in this district. My family home is only miles away from here.”
“Miss Arnold,” he said, bowing again, his heart thumping uncomfortably in his chest. “Might I have the pleasure of this dance?”
She hesitated, gazing at him steadily. For one heart-stopping moment, he thought that she might refuse him. But then, she inclined her head slightly. He held out his arm, and after another moment’s hesitation, she took it.
The dance was a quadrille. They barely touched, as they moved through the familiar steps of the dance, but he felt like they were in some kind of bubble, where everyone else melted away, and only the two of them existed. He could not keep his eyes off her the wholetime. Other things about her were coming into sharp focus, now: the tilt of her chin, her long neck, her hands with delicate, slender fingers, as they rested upon his arm.
The dance ended, as it always did, and they clapped politely. He only took his eyes away from her for a second, as Gatwick descended upon him, dragging an acquaintance over to meet him. In the time it took to be introduced to the gentleman, she slipped away. When he turned back to speak to her, she was gone.
His heart had plummeted with sour disappointment. And even though he searched for her throughout the rest of the evening, everywhere, he could not find her. She must have left almost immediately after their dance. It was the only explanation for why he could not see her anywhere.
