Chapter 83

Now calmness lay on his shoulders like a blanket, Kendall briefly jerked his head toward the poker-stiff matron in the gray dress at the entrance to the ballroom.
"Lady Halloran ... "
One thing he'd noted about Marietta's friends was that they'd been young and old. The cultivation was one he'd never understood, as if she'd had to take everything into her clasp, including him. Lady Halloran was one such. A damnable toad of a woman who still blamed him for everything.
Satisfaction rippled that her eyes popped out to see him turning up in civilized company with a pretty woman on his ...He let his gaze drift sideways. Not on his arm exactly, but hang it all, five feet behind him.
By God, he'd felt obliged to put her there. As he'd entered the house, he'd thought, who is that woman at the foot of the staircase, and then she'd turned, and that gaucheness about her, that awkwardness, had become something else. Her slender damned waist, those hips, that dress-nicely understated-her hair, a softly coiled mass of strawberry-blonde curls that shimmered in the light, had held him. He'd blinked-he was blinking now. Of course, the ballroom was dazzling, and he wasn't much one for living in the light.
"Kendall ... You came. Why, how devilish of you. And to bring a partner? Who is this perfectly charming creature?"
Violetta, dazzling in a bronzed sheath, held out her hand. As he started to say some bloody great cart horse I don't know from Adam, nor wish to, some blasted male impersonator who cheated me out of the chess tournament and all but shot off my boot, who I'm now in hock to, he swallowed.
"She..." He fought to keep his face set in its darkest lines, managing-just-not to look over his shoulder. He would not be bamboozled by a woman yet again. Her subtle scent. The pulse and rhythm of her body swaying behind his on the staircase. The infinite tread of her soft feet across his heart. This was about one thing and one thing only. That one thing wasn't her. "She is my partner for the evening."
Violetta's eyes sparkled as brightly as the emeralds lacing her neck. "Well, although it will be a disappointment to the single ladies, I'm so glad, Kendall. It is nice for you to find so enchanting a creature. You've been alone for far too long."
"But perhaps that is something he has no desire to rectify?" The soft, seductive voice ebbed him back to his senses. "Perhaps he's perfectly happy being all alone? Some men just are, even if it's quite sad of them."
He raised his head slowly. This was what tonight was really about, standing not three steps away from him in sweeping indigo silk, ambergris pleasantly wafting from the dark curls that were inches from his nose. Such an exotic thing to do because of the memories it stirred, memories of evenings when that scent was all Babs wore. He bowed stiffly. It would be churlish to refrain. Not that being churlish troubled him. In fact, he had made a career of it.
"Lady Langley."
"So you did decide to come after all? I really didn't think you would. But here you are. Just in time to give me the next dance too."
"You mean you're sitting this one out from my son, Barbara? Is that a good idea?" Violetta's eyes bulged out of their sockets.
"I'm sure he won't mind me dancing one dance with an old friend, especially now I am engaged. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Kendall, for old time's sake? And I'm sure your lovely partner for the evening won't mind, will you, Lady-"
"It's Splendor," he muttered, glancing over his shoulder. Babs wanted to get him alone so she could ask him to leave. Although it was his chance to make her squirm, he was ashamed to say that wasn't his first thought now she stood so close. He turned back,
"And I think I can speak for her in saying she won't mind. She's much more interested in the chandelier and the pot plant, as you can see."
Babs gave one of these soft laughs that always made his heart beat faster. This would be on the scandal sheets tomorrow morning. Interesting to see how that would play with Baxby. "She can't dance, is that it, the poor dear? Well, I'm sure some of us aren't so incapable. Now then."
"Oh, I'm sure you're not incapable, Lady Langley, isn't it?"
He froze. Ever since he'd clapped eyes on this Splendor, he'd known she was trouble. Calamitously he'd ignored that fact. Christ on a two-ton fire-faggot flaming on the Thames, a pity he couldn't ignore the gloved hand she now placed on his wrist. Still, so long as he got this dance with Babs, it was fine.
"I'm sorry?" Babs smirked. "Did you just say something? Of interest?"
"I think I did, and I do mind, yes. I may like to look at the pot plants, but that doesn't mean I want to spend the evening standing among them. I could have brought my own fianc?for that."
"Fianc? My dear, you're engaged?"
At Violetta's befuddled look she widened her smile.
"All the time. I'm sure Lady Langley knows how it is. One day to this man, the next to that one. But this dance, this dance is nothing I wasn't promised on my way up the stairs with Kendall."
"It is?" he heard himself say.
"I am glad to hear you say so, my dearest, and that we are going to take to the floor together. After all, you did beg me here tonight on bended knees, away from my fianc? with a certain promise, did you not?"
"Not that I can remember." He did his best to look cool, suave, confident, although he sweated beneath his cravat.
"You? Kendall?" Babs hung her jaw.
"Yes. Even when I can't dance a single, solitary step to save my life, Kendall- such a divine name and one you seem wholly familiar with-Kendall has asked me for every dance. Yes. There is some reason why he wouldn't, Lady Langley?"
"Well, I ..."
Know that you are joking, now, hear this peal of laughter from my lips, was on the tip of Babs' tongue, he just knew it. Thank God too.
"Fine." To his utter astonishment, Babs' face clouded. "Then please, don't let me stand in your way."
"You're not," he growled. "I mean ..."
"It's fine, Kendall, really. She wants to dance, let her. Besides, I am engaged. We don't want trouble now, do we? Certainly not over someone like her."