“I know that,” she complained. “I am quite annoyed that Bernard Morton’s rushing over to me for the first dance alerted the others that he’d found me out. How the bloody hell he did, he wouldn’t admit. If he bribed my maid to find out the color of my gown tonight, I’m going to fire her as soon as I get home.”
“No, you won’t, when he could have likely bribed your seamstress or posted a man near your house to race the particulars to him. But it hardly matters, Cousin. Certainly not worth firing a loyal—”
“Disloyal.”
“—servant.”
“I suppose, though it has quite ruined the masquerade for me, when the delightful point of it was not to be recognized. It’s just any old ball, now.”
He chuckled. “I thought you loved balls?”
“I do, that’s why I’m only grumbling, not snarling.”
“Good point,” he said drily.
She grinned up at him. She was glad he’d come to the ball. With his mask, no one was going to guess that he was only seventeen or find out that the Duke of Wrighton was in attendance.
“As for my father,” she said, “while he most certainly does hate to dance, he loves pleasing my mother more, and she enjoys dancing. What about you? Well, you must. You’ve had six partners in a row before I could get you on the floor m’self, and I had to almost run to grab you before you were asking someone else!”
“I do indeed like it, but it’s not so much the dancing as the—touching.”
She chuckled. “A light touch on the waist excites you, does it?”
She knew she’d just made him blush under his half mask, which covered his cheeks but not his mouth. Sometimes she spoke without thinking first—well, most times she did that—but she hadn’t meant to embarrass her cousin, who had probably never had a chance to interact with a young woman his age other than relatives because his parents kept him so cloistered. A seventeen-year-old might well be quite touchy, too, about his relations with the opposite sex, and she should have known better than to tease about his sexual prowess or his lack thereof.
So she jumped back in with “Don’t answer! I put my foot in my mouth quite often, as you well know. Instead, tell me what you think of your first foray into the world of debutantes? Is it what you expected? Or perhaps it’s difficult to form an opinion when everyone is hiding their faces?”
“Personalities aren’t hidden, nor are their delightful—gowns.”
Jack burst out laughing. What an amusing way to refer to shapely feminine bodies! She knew he wasn’t embarrassed anymore because he’d said it in an exaggeratedly prudish tone.
“Has anyone piqued your interest yet?”
“Indeed. I’m already in love, with her, and her, oh, and her, too.”
He’d just pointed to three different debutantes, one dancing, the other two giggling as they gazed in his direction. Jack rolled her eyes. She might even have thought he was teasing if it were anyone other than Brandon.
So all she said was “You sound like our cousin Jaime. She fancies herself in love with a different man every few months. Please tell me you know the difference between infatuation and love, the abiding sort, the knock-you-on-your-arse sort.”
“D’you? Or are you so determined not to find it this year that it could smack you on the head and you’d ignore it?”
“Well, since that wasn’t a serious question, I can say I know bloody well that attraction ain’t it, because I was utterly attracted to Bastard while I hated every bone in his damned body.”
“Then rest assured that I also know the difference, Jack, so I’ll let you have your leg back now.”
She laughed. “You’re usually so serious. When did you start pulling legs?”
“Since I discovered how gullible my sister is. She’s still carrying on about Judy’s marrying a ghost!”
Chapter Five
WHEN THE DANCE ENDED, Brandon quickly returned Jacqueline to her parents before he hurried off to find another partner. Jacqueline didn’t mind since she’d intended to join them herself. Her father, for the first time standing with his wife instead of on the sidelines, made an exceptional shield, and Jack wanted that shield for a moment, so she inserted herself between them.
Since her decision to join her parents so deviated from her request that her father not frighten off her beaus before she got to know them, James immediately asked, “Who has annoyed you?”
“They appear to know exactly who I am tonight,” Jack complained, then grinned. “And now they know exactly who you are, despite your mask, because they saw me enter with Mother, and now you’re standing with her when you haven’t done that at any of the other parties we attended. They always ask if you’re present, you know. And I always lie and assure them that you aren’t. Shall we see how brave they are now?”
“If you want a respite, m’dear, we can adjourn to the terrace,” Georgina suggested.
“No, I really do want to see how brave they are.”
James said nothing to that. Georgina just tsked. That her father’s notoriety was still as powerful as ever had never been in question. Because he refused to socialize with anyone outside the family, the ton still didn’t know him and rumors about him still abounded. That he and his brother Anthony still occasionally visited Knighton’s Hall for brutal exercise in the boxing ring didn’t help put to rest those rumors of how deadly James could be. Young rakehells relished those matches, which gave them something unpredictable to wager on, but less daring young lords didn’t want to get anywhere near James Malory, even if they were in love with his daughter.
The music started again, but the level of chatter got louder for a different reason. Word of James’s possible presence was spreading through the ballroom and causing quite a stir. And Jacqueline knew it was her fault for joining them while he was still with her mother, drawing every eye to him, just because she was annoyed with her suitors for knowing who she was and telling her who they were. Utterly childish bit of pique that she now regretted.
“Bloody hell,” James hissed. “Is that our hostess bearing down on us?”
“Yes, that’s Lady Spencer indeed,” Georgina replied. “We attended her first ball of the Season soon after we returned from Bridgeport. You avoided being announced at it, if you recall, so you didn’t get to meet her.”
“If she’s going to ask me to leave, I may have to pummel her husband,” James promised.
“She’s a widow,” Georgina said with a grin.
“I’ll ferret out a male relative.”
“No, you won’t, and she wouldn’t dare,” Georgina said staunchly. “Your name was on the invitation. Even if none of these hostesses actually expect you to make an appearance, it would be a coup for them if you did.”
Lady Spencer confirmed that when she gushed, “Lord Malory! I am so delighted to make your acquaintance. I never dreamed you would accept my invitation, but now you have single-handedly assured my success!”