Chapter Four

Louisa watched Alistair move among his guests, thinking they were like mere shadows in his orbit. Handsome and distinguished, he seemed to dominate the company, and the ladies around him gazed at him provocatively from under fluttering eyelashes and pouted their crimson lips, every one of them alluringly seductive. But his manner towards them was curiously cold, despite his smile, which puzzled Louisa. When dinner was announced he came back to them, and with a courtly gesture offered her his arm, the pull she exerted on his gaze so strong it was as if she had called his name.

“You don’t mind if I escort Miss Divine into dinner, do you, Fraser?”

“No—no,” spluttered James, unable to object even if he wanted to, experiencing the first stirrings of unease at the attentions their illustrious host was paying towards his sister. “Of course not.”

The moment Louisa placed her hand on Alistair’s arm he was surprised by the leaping, wolf-like passion of his response. Eyebrows went up and lips twisted, and sly, secret smiles were exchanged behind fluttering fans as they passed by on their way to the dining room.

“I am pleased to see you have lowered your sword, Miss Divine, and honoured Dunstan House with your presence this evening,” Alistair said, bestowing smiles to right and left as they moved towards the dining room, while keeping his voice low so as not to be overheard.

“Thank you for inviting me,” she answered, smiling softly. “However,” she said, looking obliquely up at him from beneath her thick fringe of dark eyelashes, “my rapier may be sheathed, Lord Dunstan, but I will have you know that it is every bit as sharp and lethal as it was the other day.”

With slightly raised eyebrows he glanced down at her, his gaze and his crooked smile drenching Louisa in its sexuality and bringing an attractive flush to her cheeks.

“I do not doubt that for one moment. It will make the play between us all the more exciting. I would like to apologise for my rudeness when we met in Mr Brewster’s bookshop. Clearly you are a stranger to Lady Bricknell’s parties and may not have known the type of ladies who attend them.”

“It very soon became evident to me, and you were quick to assume I was one of them. But I must tell you that you have the wrong opinion of me, Lord Dunstan,” she said with a slight haughtiness. “I may have been at Lady Bricknell’s party, but I am no harlot.”

Alistair’s blue eyes seemed to burn down into hers. “You say that and yet you flaunt yourself in public in the company of the most notorious rake in London—a man who boasts his conquests and who is not ashamed to tell the world that no woman has ever denied him.”

“And how was I to know that?” she said, springing quickly to her own defence. “I told you that we had not met before the evening at Bricknell House. Before that night I had never heard of Sir Charles Meredith, let alone of his dubious reputation. And when you saw us together in the park it was not as it seemed. We met quite by chance—and he can be extremely persistent. If you had taken the trouble to look before so rudely walking away, you would have seen I was with Mr Fraser.”

“I have my reasons for not acknowledging Charles Meredith, Miss Divine. It was unfortunate that you were with him at the time and bore some of the brunt of my rudeness. Had you been alone it would have given me great pleasure to introduce you to my sisters, but my older sister’s abhorrence is almost as great as my own where that gentleman is concerned.”

“I see,” said Louisa, feeling curiously relieved on being told that the woman was not romantically involved with him but was his older sister, and absently surmised that the little boy she had seen belonged to her.

“But how was I to know you are cast in a different mould to the rest of the women who were at Bricknell House that night?” Lord Dunstan went on. “I went too fast in my conclusions and I apologise, but knowing nothing about you I had no reason to think otherwise, and you cannot blame me for making you an offer—even if you are apparently attached to someone else. You are an extremely attractive and desirable young woman.”

“Come, now, Lord Dunstan,” Louisa said, her voice under control—almost thoughtfully calm as she slipped into the part she had set herself. “Isn’t that what every gentleman says to a lady he’s propositioned?”

He gave a lift of one eyebrow and smiled down at her. “Wit as well as beauty,” he said softly. “I like that. Fraser’s a lucky man. No wonder he wants to keep you all to himself. My offer was turned down, as I remember—unless—you’ve reconsidered it?”

“Yes, I have,” she replied as he held her intent gaze, his own as uncompromising as she could have wished for.

“It still stands, you know,” he said, “You will want for nothing. I can be generous—as you will discover.”

“I see. Then, knowing that, I shall think about it a little more over dinner,” she said, her dimples appearing as she tilted her head to one side, smiling demurely, with eyes as warm and bright as a brightly plumaged bird, astonished at how easy it was to play the coquette.

There was no time to say more as they walked towards the table. The large dining room was lavishly decorated and adorned with huge baskets and vases of flowers. The long table, which was a delight to the eye, sparkled and shone and was laid out like a fabulous work of art. Spread with lace, it almost bowed beneath the weight of china and crystal and ornate silver. A myriad of candles flattered the complexions of the ladies—especially the older ones who were finding it increasingly difficult to camouflage the tell-tale lines of age with powder and paint. But the warm light made Louisa’s creamy skin glow, emphasising her youthful skin and giving an added warmth to her amber eyes.

The soft music of fiddles drifted in from a room beyond. Halfway down the table, Louisa was seated next to James and across from Timothy, whose attention was occupied throughout the meal by two pretty young women on either side who flirted with him outrageously, one of whom he found fascinating, with ravishing blue eyes and a mass of raven-black hair. The food was exquisite and there seemed to be gallons of wine and champagne, of which the guests imbibed far too freely, Louisa observed with distaste, their behaviour becoming louder and more uninhibited as the meal progressed.

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