Page 2 of Tempting Harriet
“He is kind,” Harriet said. Mr. Hammond had made an effort to converse and set her at her ease both in Sir Clive’sdrawing room and in the carriage. “I feel like a gauche girl,Amanda.”
“I will not argue with the one word,” Lady Forbes said, “but I can assure you that you do not look gauche, Harriet.You will be well received, mark my words.”
She was to be proved quite correct. Amanda Forbes was only a baronet’s wife and as such was low on the socialscale as far as thetonwas concerned, but her father hadbeen a viscount, a title that her brother now held, and shehad been careful to cultivate influential connections. Sheand Sir Clive had visited Bath regularly each year and hadbeen friends of Lord Wingham. Lady Forbes had grownfond of the baron’s young and lovely wife and had now setherself to make his widow fashionable and to find her a husband of some position. She could not expect to attractanyone above the rank of baron as a husband, of course,since despite her wealth and her title she was not herself ofnoble birth. But there must be scores of unattached and perfectly eligible gentlemen who were not out of her reach andwould be only too happy to attach themselves to suchwealth and beauty and charm—even though there was achild who would come along with her.
And so Lady Forbes had been busy ensuring that there would be gentlemen ready to be presented to Harriet and todance with her. And of course she must arrive with an escort since she was not an unmarried young girl but awoman and a widow. Lady Forbes, looking now with an almost envious approval at her young friend and protegée asthey turned to leave the withdrawing room to join the receiving line with their men, was quite sure that Harrietwould do very well indeed.
Before she danced the opening set of country dances with Mr. Hammond, Harriet was feeling flushed and happy.No fewer than four gentlemen had asked Amanda to present them, and three of them had engaged her to dance laterin the evening. Even if no one else asked her, she had fourdances to look forward to, with four different gentlemen.The fear she supposed all women experienced at their firstball that they would be wallflowers had been put to resteven before the dancing began.
Harriet smiled at Mr. Hammond as he led her onto the floor, and hoped that she would not forget the steps of thedance in her nervousness. But she would not think of such athing. It was not as if she had never danced at all. Godfreyhad often taken her to the assemblies in Bath and had always encouraged her to dance, though his weak heart hadprevented him from ever dancing with her himself.
She was going to enjoy herself, she thought determinedly. From now until the end of the Season, when she would return home with Susan, she was going to give herself up to pleasure—even though several glances about theballroom had revealed to her thathewas not there. She hadnot expected him anyway. And it was as well he was absent. She could expect nothing but misery from seeing himagain. Six years had passed. Doubtless he was married bynow. The thought caused pain. Foolishly, after six years,she could still feel pain. Heavens, she had been marriedherself during that time and was now a mother. She wouldnot think of him. She had trained herself over the years toremember him, if at all, only as a rather bittersweet memory. It would be as well to keep it that way.
The music began, and Harriet found that her feet moved gracefully and easily to the steps. She returned Mr. Hammond’s smile. It was really a very pleasant smile, one thatset her at her ease. Amanda had made a very good choiceof escort.
“I cannot,” the Duke of Tenby said with a sigh to his companion when the latter asked him if he would gostraight to the card room. They were on their way up thestairs of Lord Avingleigh’s mansion. Their path was clearsince they had arrived deliberately late in order to avoid thecrush. “I have decided to go shopping in earnest.”
Lord Bruce Ingram looked at him with some interest and laughed. “You have been threatening to do so these four orfive years, Archie,” he said. “Has the time really come?”
“It has,” the duke said. “At Christmas my grandmother made a point of informing the whole family that it couldvery well be her last Christmas, since she will turn eightyduring August. She made a particular point of ensuring thatI was present every time she broached the subject. Privatelyshe reminded me of the vow she made on the death of mygrandfather six years ago not to die herself until I was married and my wife safely delivered of our first boy.”
Lord Bruce grimaced in sympathy.
“The only way I could have helped her keep her vow before next Christmas,” the duke said, “was to have rushed some sweet thing to the altar with the aid of a special license and to have immediately set to work on her.” Heyawned behind one lace-edged hand.
“The idea has its appeal, one must admit,” Lord Bruce said, turning with his friend at the top of the stairs in the direction of the ballroom. “There is less interesting work tobe done in this world.”
His grace frowned at him, not amused by his tone of levity. “It is not easy to rush a sweet young thing to the altar,” he said, “since just any sweet young thing will not do,Bruce. It has been instilled in me since childhood that onlyfemales of suitably elevated rank will do as my duchess.Nothing below an earl’s daughter, in other words. Why is itthat daughters of viscounts and lower are often appealinglypretty while daughters of earls and upward are invariablyantidotes?”
Lord Bruce laughed “Ah,” he said, “we have missed the receiving line. That, at least, is a blessing.”
“And doubtless we have missed the first two or three sets too,” the duke said with a sigh. “I made my grandmother apromise. I promised that I would be married before September and have my wife swelling with child before nextChristmas. Under such circumstances, the old girl undertook to remain alive that long and probably until the birthto make sure I do not commit the unpardonable faux pas ofbegetting a daughter first.”
“The Season swung to life a week or so ago,” Lord Bruce said. “A trifle slow, are you not Archie?”
“As you say.” The duke spoke with haughty gloom. “I have procrastinated too long. But behold me tonight a serious shopper, Bruce. How long will it be before the fact becomes general knowledge, do you suppose?”
“Ten minutes?” his friend suggested with a grin. “It is not often you are seen in a ballroom, Archie. The cat willcertainly be out of the bag as soon as you single someoneout to dance with. All the mamas will turn ecstatic.”
The duke frowned as the two of them stood in the doorway of the ballroom and glanced about them. Already he had been noticed. He could feel eyes on him, and met manyof them as he looked around with a forced air of languidness. He fingered the ribbon of his quizzing glass, thoughhe did not raise it to his eye. Of course, Bruce was doubtless receiving his share of looks too, as he was no smallmatrimonial prize and was an equally unfamiliar sight onthe marriage mart. But his grace of Tenby did not for a moment believe that he himself was not the prime object of interest. His lip curled with distaste.
He had no wish to be married. Before succeeding to his title, he had persuaded himself that there was no need tothink of marriage yet since he was still only the heir to adukedom. And then when his grandfather died, he had persuaded himself that six-and-twenty was too young to marryand that he would wait until he was thirty. He had turnedthirty two years ago and had stopped making excuses. Hehad tried not to think of marriage. Or of that nasty duty ofbegetting heirs.
He had considered marriage only once in his life. Quite madly, the only reason having been that the girl wasadamantly unwilling to be bedded as a mistress and he hadvery badly wanted to bed her. At the time he had describedhis feelings to himself as being in love. He had since realized that he had been merely in lust. But he had come perilously close. If his grandfather had not died when he had,it would have been too late. He had been preparing to goafter the girl to offer her marriage when he had been summoned to what had turned out to be his grandfather’sdeathbed. By the time that was over and the funeral and allthe business of mourning and getting himself acquaintedwith his new position as Duke of Tenby and head of thefamily, he had recovered from his madness. A good thingtoo. His grandmother and his mother and all his uncles andaunts and cousins would have had a collective heart seizureif he had married so far beneath him. And if he had doneanything as plebeian as marry for love.
“There is Kingsley’s daughter,” Lord Bruce said. “Fresh from the schoolroom and a marquess’s filly, Archie. Whatmore could you ask for? It is hard to decide, though, whichend of a horse she most resembles.”
The duke allowed his eyes to rest for a moment on the young girl in question. “Unkind, Bruce,” he said. “Butfrankly the mere thought of deflowering an infant makesme shudder. She must surely have left the schoolroomearly.”
“Barthorpe’s girl, then,” Lord Bruce said a short while later. “An earl’s daughter. As low as you dare go, Archie.She is in her third Season, of course. One does wonder what is wrong with the girl.”
“Perhaps no more than the fact that she is discriminating,” the duke said, turning his glance on Lady Phyllis Reeder, daughter of the Earl of Barthorpe. “Or perhaps shelikes attention. She was apparently the toast of the last twoSeasons.”
“She had better marry this year, then, before she gets long in the tooth,” Lord Bruce said. “She cannot expect tobe the toast forever. She is not a bad looker, Archie.”
“Hm,” the duke said. “Good-natured too. I have been incompany with her once or twice. I could do worse, I suppose. Grandmama would be ecstatic. Lady Phyllis is one ofa list of ten females that have her unqualified approval.”
“Well, then.” His friend laughed heartily. “What are youwaiting for, Arch? There is a distinct air of anticipationabout us. Everyone is waiting to see if you will advanceinto the ballroom and perhaps even dance, or if you aremerely teasing and will turn and disappear into the cardroom for the rest of the evening.”
