Page 13 of Bewitching Benedict (The Lovelorn Lads #1)

Both: Hewitt's blue eyes darkened, but a light, jovial smile played across his mouth, and if his voice was forced, even Charles, listening for it, couldn't tell.

"As well you should, man. As well you should!

" Accepting the coin Charles slipped him, he hurried away, unaware that Dalton watched him until he was lost to the crowd.

"May I confess something to you, Miss Dalton?

" Jack Graham accompanied Claire to a table no longer groaning with delicacies; it had been too-well picked over in the course of the evening for that.

But enough remained to stave off the worst of hunger, and Claire was determined to eat before having any more champagne.

She already felt dizzy and light from the evening's activities, and did not wish to embarrass herself in any way.

Graham had graciously departed after their second dance, leaving her to meet both Ackerman and Vincent for their promised sets.

She had been so dazzled by Ackerman that she had barely been able to look at him, incapable of speech.

Nor did he seem to expect it, relinquishing her, with a barely visible smile, to Vincent, who had seemed very large and sturdy and plain in comparison.

He was shockingly graceful, though, for a man of his size, particularly for one who was missing an arm and couldn't be expected to complete certain aspects of the dance.

Claire fancied she enjoyed her dance with the huge Scotsman more than the one with the beautiful English boy.

But after that was her single empty slot of the evening and, perishing of hunger, she sought the dining tables where Graham had tentatively approached her again.

With food to fortify herself, she felt generous and happy. "You may confess anything you like, Mr Graham," she had said, “particularly if you can locate us some seating."

"I believe I can do that." He roused two young men well into their cups from a sofa and gestured grandly for Claire to take a seat. Groaning with pleasure, she sat and wiggled her aching feet. Then, with a sigh around a small bite of bread pudding, she nodded her permission for Graham's confession.

"Miss Dalton, I have enjoyed my evening far more than might have been expected.

I would like to ask you to go driving on the morrow, but—no," he insisted as Claire straightened with what she knew to be far too much eagerness to accept.

"No, please, let me finish, Miss Dalton.

We none of us pretend that these great social gatherings are either more or less than what they are: a chance to make and renew acquaintances, of course, and to perhaps begin to build friendships, but their thrust, especially as the Season approaches, is toward marriage. "

A cough clogged Claire's throat. She, too, had enjoyed the evening immensely, but could simply not imagine that Graham intended on proposing after two dances and a glass of champagne.

He brought that champagne to hand, giving her the sip she dearly needed to clear her throat, and looked apologetic as she brushed eyes glittering with cough-induced tears.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I approached that badly.

What I meant to say, Miss Dalton, is that I enjoy your company tremendously, and I feel you should know from the start that I am not the man your family would wish you to marry. "

Cold water dashed over her could not have been more surprising. Claire took another, rather larger, swallow of champagne before daring to say, "Are you not, Mr Graham? Are you a dangerous man? A boundless rake? Do you break hearts and leave women bereft?"

If he was a rake, his smile, wide and open, accounted for it: Claire could see any woman falling in love with that smile.

But he shook his head even as he smiled.

"Not at all. I believe I'm very bad at making women fall in love with me, in fact.

But neither am I wealthy, Miss Dalton. I have seen already the company you keep.

I can in no way put myself forth with the likes of Mr Cringlewood or even Benedict Fairburn. "

"Oh," Claire began, flustered, but Graham interrupted her again with a wry smile.

"It is my aim to make, in time, a modest and sensible marriage to a woman of some means.

I suspect you may be a woman of such means, Miss Dalton, but I could not in conscience permit myself to imagine that such an arrangement would be suitable for you.

The best I can hope for, I fear, is a deep and abiding friendship with a woman of your status.

So I wonder if you might consider a drive with me with no other pretensions than friendship at stake. "

Claire decided in that instant that there could certainly be no other gentleman as frank and disarmingly honest as Jack Graham.

In absolute sincerity, she placed her hand on his arm.

"You do yourself too little credit, Mr Graham, but neither—of course!

—am I prepared at this moment to consider marriage to anyone!

I have, after all, only been in London for a few days, and the Season is yet hardly begun.

And it would be my most genuine pleasure to go for a drive with you tomorrow with, as you say, nothing other than what I am sure will be a beautiful friendship at stake.

At two o'clock, shall we say, or would another hour suit you? "

Graham's long lashes shuttered over brown eyes before he opened them again to full and charming effect. "Two o'clock is perfect, Miss Dalton. I look forward to seeing you then."

Miss Dalton had danced every set of the evening save one, and in that one she sat with a strikingly handsome young man who was in every way Benedict's opposite.

Where he was dark, the youth was fair; where he was slim, the man was sturdy; where he was tall, the other man was of middling height.

He was impeccably dressed in fashionable green and fawn that made Benedict feel drab, and Miss Dalton had gazed upon him with adoration visible even across a crowded ballroom.

All of this, while Benedict had spied on her from a distance in hopes of finding her looking his way even once.

And not once had she glanced at him. Not on the dance floor with any of the Lads, suggesting that nary a one of them had bothered to tell her a friendly story about him.

There was no reason for this to be of consequence to him, and he could hardly allow even to himself that it somehow rankled.

The thing to do was clearly to press his suit with Miss Hurst, and so he had: not to an indelicate degree, but certainly with as much attention as the sandy-haired gentleman paid to Miss Dalton.

The hour was now late, with the last set about to be played, and though Miss Dalton had danced twice with the blond man, Benedict had danced only once with Miss Hurst. He approached her and received a wary look for his troubles, a look he dispelled at once with a smile.

"Fear not, Miss Hurst, I am not here to ruddy your complexion.

I wondered if I might sit with you for the last set, though, as I find myself suddenly tired and in need of such excellent company as you have offered this evening. "

Miss Hurst smiled, though her smile touched only the corners of her lips. "Of course, Mr Fairburn. I would be pleased to have you join me."

"May I be forthright with a question for you, Miss Hurst?" he asked as he sat.

"I hope that you are. It is less tedious that way."

"I shall endeavor not to be tedious, then. Is that—a lack of tedium—why you approached me earlier, under the guise of having at some previous point been introduced?"

"You must admit it worked." Miss Hurst's eyes warmed, blue increasing in depth.

"I have been quite properly brought up, Mr Fairburn, despite what you may think thanks to my unorthodox introduction.

But there are times, I admit, when I think of my grandfather, whom I knew only a little, for he died when I was a child.

Memory tells me he was a bold, brash man, unconcerned with convention if he saw no gain in it.

I like to imagine myself a little like him, and on the rare occasion where it seems possible to bypass expectation without doing myself or my acquaintances a disservice, I like to try.

So, yes, it was to break up the usual tedium of proper form, in a moment when doing so seemed to your advantage.

Did you dance with her, the bosomy young lady? "

Benedict, who thought of the girl the same way, still blushed with surprise to hear Miss Hurst describe her so. "I did. She is not as fine a dancer as you, Miss Hurst, though she is passable."

"Her legs are shorter," Miss Hurst said with unexpected charity from a woman of her cool mien. "It's easier to make some of the longer steps at my height."

"I suppose there is that," Benedict said in surprise, and thought briefly of Miss Dalton's diminutive size and the enjoyment she seemed to have on the dance floor despite what must be short legs.

Then he thought of her pressing her hand to that unknown gentleman's arm, and quite swiftly said, "Miss Hurst, would you perhaps do me the honor of a drive in the park tomorrow afternoon?

I believe I should like to extend my acquaintance with you. "

Her considering silence gave him time to reflect and to realize he was not displeased with himself for asking. Moreover, he was delighted when her silence ended with, "Yes, Mr Fairburn, I would do you that honor. It sounds like a very pleasant excursion. Shall we say two o'clock?"

"Two it shall be," Benedict replied, and retired feeling the evening was a triumph.