A Christmas Dance Read Free Page A

man could
look
dependable, she couldn’t quite say. She might have said it was his self-assured aristocratic bearing, but his features weren’t refined quite enough for that. His jaw was too broad, his cheekbones too sharp, and his eyes and hair too dark. Perhaps it was the military carriage of his tall, muscled frame, or his deep commanding voice, or. . .Well, she had no idea, he simply exuded a sense of dependability she found most attractive. Her heart always leapt at the sight of him. When he’d asked her to dance, it had nearly burst from her chest.
    Likely it was best that it was now settled uncomfortably at her feet. It wouldn’t do to build hopes around such an unlikely prospect. She pushed away her disenchantment and tried to recall what excuse Caroline had given for their latest disappearance.
    “Caroline’s hem required mending,” she said,
relatively
certain that had been the one.
    The corner of his mouth hooked up. “Miss Meldrin’s gowns require a great deal of mending, it seems to me. One would think she’d have switched modistes by now.”
    “Yes. . .Well. . .” She fixed her eyes on the wall behind him. “She’s quite loyal.”
    “You must be as well.” He caught and held her gaze. “To lie for her.”
    She narrowed her eyes a fraction. “Are you teasing me, Lord Casslebury?”
    “I am, yes.”
    “I see.” She gave that some consideration. “Are you in the habit of teasing ladies you barely know?”
    “No.” He looked mildly baffled. “I believe you may be the first woman other than my sister that I have ever teased.”
    “Oh, well.” She felt a flutter in her chest and wondered how on earth one responded to such an admission. “I. . .Thank you?”
    He opened his mouth, closed it, then burst into laughter.
    Apparently, that was not how one was supposed to respond to such an admission.
    “You surprise me, Miss Byerly,” he finally managed to say.
    “I imagine I do,” she muttered. She wondered how great a surprise she would have been to him a year ago, before she’d had the opportunity to acquire at least a handful of social graces.
    “You give a very different impression than the person you seem to truly be,” he said.
    “There are a great many in the
ton
who do the same,” she pointed out.
    “Yes, but not quite so much by accident, I think.”
    Not every false impression she gave was an accident, but she wasn’t about to admit to that after less than an hour of the man’s acquaintance, even if it was preceded by a much longer fascination on her part. “You make me sound like an ingénue.”
    “I don’t know I’d call you that, specifically, but there is--”
    He broke off when the elderly man in front of the fire suddenly launched to his feet, his substantial weight sending the heavy chair scratching against the floor. “
Ah ha
! I have it! I have it!
Around
the magnet!” The man bounded toward them, clothes askew, white hair standing on end, and blue eyes wide and wild. “It goes round the magnet!” He came to a stop in front of Patience, jabbed a finger toward the ceiling, and spun the index finger of his other hand around the first. “Do you see?
Around
! Ha!”
    Patience felt the stirrings of panic. “Yes, I see.” She said soothingly, rising slowly from her seat. “Why don’t we sit down and you can tell--”
    “Around!” He jabbed his finger up again and bolted from the room.
    “Oh, dear.”
Oh, damn it all to hell
. “I. . .” She gave Lord Casslebury an apologetic smile and edged quickly toward the door. “I have to go.”
    Apparently under the impression that she was no longer comfortable standing in the library with him now that their chaperone—if the sleeping gentleman could be considered such-had left them, he smiled and followed.
    “Of course. Perhaps I can convince the musicians to play that waltz a bit early and. . .”
    His voice trailed off as the elderly man, now half way down the hall, stopped in his tracks to inform