Part 54 (1/2)

”My dear Mrs Babbacombe.” Alfred was the first to gain her side.

”Dare I hope you've found the evening to your taste?”

”You've proved a most welcome addition to our ranks, ma'am.” Ormesby was close behind.

”I do hope we can entice you to spend more time with us--I, for one, can think of little I'd like better.”

Lucinda blinked; before she could answer, Lord Dewhurst joined them.

He took her hand and bowed low.

”Enchanted, my dear. Dare I hope for some time to further our acquaintance?”

Lucinda met his lords.h.i.+p's calm but distinctly warm gaze--and wished herself elsewhere. Heat tinged her cheeks--then, from the corner of her eye, she saw Harry. Watching.

Drawing in a steadying breath, Lucinda smiled at her three would-be cicisbei.

With what she hoped they understood as a pointed disregard for all they had hinted at, if not said, she calmly stated,

”If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I believe I will retire early.” With a benedictory smile, she swept them a curtsy; they immediately bowed low.

Rising, Lucinda headed straight for the door. Confident she had avoided a potential quagmire, head high, she glided from the room.

Harry stared after her.

Then uttered a single, pungent expletive and spun on his heel. He exited the room by the windows to the terrace. At speed.

Millie simply stared--then lifted her shoulders in a baffled shrug-and glided after Mr Harding.

Lucinda climbed the stairs and traversed the corridors, engrossed, not with the details of her imminent departure nor yet imaginings of what she had escaped.

Lady Coleby's revelations of Harry's long-ago disappointment filled her mind.

She could imagine, very clearly, how it must have been, how, with the impetuosity of youth, he had laid his love at his chosen one's feet, only to see it spurned. It must have hurt. A great deal. The fact explained many things--why he was now so cynical of eve, not marriage itself, but the love needed to support it, the intensity he now harnessed, that certain something which made so many women view him as dangerous--excitingly but definitely so- and his emotionally cautious nature. Reaching her roQm, Lucinda shut the door firmly behind her. She looked for a key, grimacing regignedly when she discovered there wasn't one.

Thanks to Lady Coleby, and her lack of what Lucinda felt was any proper feeling, she could now understand why Harry was as he was. That, however, did not excuse his behaviour in engineering her present predicament.

Eyes narrowing as she considered his perfidy, Lucinda glided across the room, lit by a single candelabra on the dressing table, and gave the bell pull a definite tug. The door opened. Her hand still clutching the embroidered pull, Lucinda turned.

To see Harry slip around the door.

He scanned the room and found her.

”There's no point ringing for your maid--the house rules forbid servants the upper corridors after ten.”

”What?” Lucinda stared.

”But what are you doing here?”

Harry closed the door and looked around again. Lucinda had had enough. Eyes narrowing, she sailed across the room to confront him.