Page 7 of Her Heartless Duke
“And he courted a young lady last Season, but that did not go over very well either! One can only wonder why,” Olivia insisted. “Rumor has it that he still has not gotten over her. In fact, everyone is of the opinion that he intends to win her hand this Season!”
“Olivia,” Fiona told her gently. “I am just going to dance with him. I am not going to marry him. Yet,” she added with a mischievous grin.
Olivia felt another headache coming on from hearing what her cousin had in mind.
Perhaps I should have taken another cup of rosemary tea before we left, she thought to herself.
“Alright, I shall introduce you both,” she conceded glumly.
“Thank you so much!” Fiona hugged her, but Olivia was not too sure if she was actually doing her beloved cousin a favor or leading her to the edge of a dreadful precipice.
She craned her neck and saw the Duke with her brother and another of their friends, Miles Westerly, the Earl of Westmore.
“Come with me,” she said softly, tugging on Fiona’s hand. She caught Miles’ eye and subtly nodded at him as she and Fiona made their way towards them. Fortunately, he seemed to understand what she meant because he started to steer Daniel away from Isaac and she heaved a sigh of relief. Things would have been much more difficult if her brother had been around.
“Your Grace,” she greeted him, hating the way her voice sounded a little breathless. “It has been quite a while since I saw you last.”
She peered up at him and found that Isaac seemed taken aback by her approach. She was surprised to find herself rather relieved when she saw that his eyes were clear. He even looked like he recognized her tonight, which was a far cry from the last time she had seen him a few months back.
“Indeed,” he smiled at them. “I have not visited Lancashire Park in ages. I reckoned your brother would not be so pleased to have me in his residence after I ruined his painting of a bowl of fruit.”
Olivia managed a smile. “You know how Daniel is.”
“Unfortunately.”
He smiled easily at her and much to her surprise, he appeared to be nothing like the man she had heard rumors about. For a brief moment, he seemed just as he always was—the same charming young man who used to come over to their townhouse with her brother.
“I would like to introduce my cousin, Fiona.” Olivia continued to smile pleasantly as she pulled Fiona gently before Isaac. “You may remember her when she visited Lancashire Park a few summers back.”
“Good evening, Miss Fiona,” the Duke inclined his head towards her, that charming smile never leaving his lips. “How are you finding the Season thus far?”
“Overwhelming, Your Grace,” Fiona replied demurely, blushing a pretty shade of pink. “And this is just the first ball.”
“You will get used to it in time,” he said with a rather roguish grin. “I felt very much the same way when I first returned to London.”
Olivia thought she saw a haunted look flicker in his dark eyes for a moment, and then it was gone by the time the musicians played the first few strains of music. He bowed gallantly before Fiona and held out his hand. “Shall we dance, Miss Fiona? I believe that there is no greater diversion from overwhelm than a bit of physical exertion.”
“Y-yes,” Fiona replied, sliding her gloved hand into his, allowing him to lead her out onto the dance floor. She cast a glance back at Olivia, a giddy smile on her face, before she was drawn to the dance.
“Upon my word, is Fiona dancing with the Duke of Langley?”
Olivia smiled at her aunt, who had come up beside her with a look of wonderment on her face. “Yes, Aunt Joana. I introduced them just a little while earlier and he asked her—”
“But it is a quadrille!” her aunt fretted, looking over at the couple on the dance floor in concern. “The quadrille is Fiona’s greatest weakness. How could she dance it with the Duke? What is she thinking?”
Olivia patted her aunt’s hand. “I am sure that she will do wonderfully. You taught her well.”
She looked over to the dance floor and true enough, her cousin looked like she could have chosen another dance if she wished to impress a Duke into becoming a potential suitor. However, none of it seemed to matter as Isaac expertly led Fiona through a series of intricate steps that she would normally stumble over.
Lady Joana sighed in relief beside her. She heard the older woman mutter under her breath, “At least she did not stumble over that one.”
Olivia and her aunt were not the only ones who had taken notice that the Duke of Langley was dancing with a young lady on the dance floor. Most of the other guests in the ballroom had also ceased talking the moment they became aware of it. Hushed whispers raced across the ballroom and Olivia became aware of a great number of eyes now fixed on her cousin and Isaac.
The music continued and Olivia found that she herself could not take her eyes off of the pair, of Isaac in particular. He moved with the sort of masculine grace that she had never before seen in all her other dance partners. At that moment, it was as if he and Fiona owned the dance floor and all the other dancers were mere accessories to their performance.
“Goodness,” her aunt remarked. “He makes me think that Fiona had a talent for the quadrille all along! Perhaps,” she turned and confided to Olivia in a whisper. “Perhaps I was mistaken after all—it was not that my daughter had no talent for dance, but that she did not have good enough dance partners!”
Olivia nearly laughed aloud at that. Dancing was a source of contention between both mother and daughter, for her Aunt Joana was of the mind that a lady must learn to dance well if she wished to secure a good match for herself. Fiona, however, was convinced that she was hopeless at the quadrille.