Falling for the Marquess - Julianne MacLean Page 0,66
In fact, I would take it as a compliment.” He sipped his champagne.
Clara watched the woman on the opposite side of the room. “She didn’t intend it to be a compliment. Not if she considers herself to be your type.”
“She doesn’t. She’s just a friend.”
“A friend? I hardly think so.”
Seger downed the rest of his champagne. “So, you are going to be a jealous wife. That might be a problem, Clara. How will I ever live up to my scandalous reputation after next week?”
Her eyes widened in horror until she realized that Seger was joking. He was gazing down at her with a teasing smile.
“Why don’t we dance?” he said, setting his champagne glass on a tray. “Are you free for the next one?”
“I am.”
She followed him onto the floor and worked hard to bury her insecurities. She wanted to be close to Seger and making accusations like these would not foster a sense of confidence between them.
She shook her head at herself. “I apologize. I didn’t like how she was flirting with you, that’s all. It was her fault not yours.”
He drew her into his arms to begin a waltz. “Let’s not talk anymore about Lady Cleveland. Let’s talk about you. Your mother is delightful,” he said. “She is everything I imagined she would be. Cheerful, high-spirited and thoroughly American.”
Clara tried to push Lady Cleveland from her mind. “My mother adores you. It was obvious the second she laid eyes on you.”
“But does she know you refused a duke before you accepted my proposal?”
Clara chuckled at the reminder. “I told her everything on the day she arrived. Don’t worry, she is not like Mrs. Gunther. My mother covets British titles, certainly, but to her, one is as good as any other. Precedence is merely incidental.”
They moved to the center of the ballroom, and Seger held Clara with confidence as he led her through the dance.
“When will your father and sister arrive?” he asked. “You’ll be pleased to see them, no doubt.”
Despite the pleasant subject matter of their conversation, Clara began to feel a distance between them that had not existed before. She knew it stemmed from what happened the other night, when she’d made demands on him. Her displeasure over Lady Cleveland didn’t help matters.
But perhaps this change was a good thing, she tried to tell herself. Perhaps they were moving beyond the surface flirtations and she was getting to know the real man beneath it all. Perhaps it was time to be serious.
“They’ll be here for the wedding,” she replied, “but with not an hour to spare. My father is a very busy man. He works hard.”
“I don’t doubt it. To have built such a fortune from nothing, he must be ambitious.”
Was she being foolish, or did this feel like polite small talk between strangers?
“Speaking of fortunes,” Clara said carefully, “I read, in one of the New York newspapers Mother brought, that you turned down what my father offered as a marriage settlement. It was the biggest headline on the society page.”
Seger gazed into her eyes. “We live in strange times indeed if you learn of those details in the newspaper. How in the world did something like that get out?”
Clara shrugged as she let him lead her through another turn. “What I want to know is why you turned it down. The newspaper called it a love match and we both know that’s not true.”
His brow furrowed at her comment and the tone with which it was delivered. “I beg to differ. Why so cynical, Clara?”
“I don’t mean to be. It’s just that I came here expecting my engagement to be a financial transaction, and you’ve insisted that’s not why you want me. Maybe I’m just finding it hard to believe, that it could be so perfect. I’d hate to think that you only wanted me in your bed, and now that you’ve had me, you might regret proposing so impulsively.”
She stopped on the dance floor.
Seger stopped, too, and he looked tired all of a sudden. His shoulders rose and fell with a sigh. He glanced around the room. “That is not the case.”
“But why did you turn down the settlement?”
He took his time answering. “Because I didn’t want there to be any speculation that I married you for your money. I didn’t want you to have to worry about that.”
“Why would you think I would worry? And I thought you didn’t care what other people thought.”
He was quiet for a few seconds. “Come, we’re missing the