How to Fool a Duke (The Husband Dilemma #1) - Lancaster, Mary Page 0,53

was Leonard, unmoving, his gaze fixed on her, over the head of Lady Loxley who sat on the chair in front of him. At last, their eyes met, and a funny little smile curved his lips. Oh yes, there was tenderness there, and some rueful apology, something he was willing her to understand…

As the applause broke out, she stood, smiling and curtseying. But their clamor drove her back to the pianoforte and another song. She sang to the music she had found here at the castle the day Leonard had dropped her in the lake. This time, she noticed with pleasure the smile on her mother’s face and recognized it as relief. Lady Drimmen had been genuinely afraid Sarah would make a fool of herself.

Only as she stood once more and walked away from the piano did she realize that Leonard had left the room. And Lady Loxley’s chair was empty.

For the first time that evening, as she made her way through the admiring throngs, she deliberately avoided her parents. She forced herself to exchange civil words with everyone she spoke to, but the need to see Leonard would no longer be denied.

She swept through the display room, where lurked only a couple of serious, academic looking gentlemen, and out into the passage. Still there was no sign of him.

But as she turned her reluctant feet back toward the salons, the cloakroom door opened, and Lady Loxley emerged in her elegant silk-lined cloak.

“Oh, are you leaving so early?” Sarah asked, instead of what she really wanted to know: Where is Leonard?

“Oh, we may be back,” Lady Loxley said. “It depends how late Lady Whitmore closes her doors.”

We? She would not ask. She wouldn’t.

But Maria Loxley told her anyone, coming close enough to pat her hand with the sort of false, patronising sympathy that made Sarah itch to slap her.

“Leonard and I. An assignation for grown-ups. You have learned a difficult lesson, my dear, but at least your Mama is here to comfort you.”

Sarah stared after her, unseeing. No. No, she would not believe it. She could not. Leonard would not.

And yet she had to admit she was naïve. That she could be wrong about Leo, about everything. He could have been wrong about her understanding. After all, she had, in the end, invited him to her bed. Did he despise her for that? Did it put her in the same category as Maria Loxley and the countless other women of his past?

Blood sang in her ears. She felt numb, helpless, abandoned. And yet so hemmed in she could not breathe.

“Miss Sarah?” Lord Trenton touched her elbow. “Is something wrong?”

“Everything,” she whispered. “Everything is wrong. My lord…would you grant me a favor?”

“Anything,” he replied instantly.

“Would you please lend me your carriage?”

***

Mr. James did not care for people like Lady Loxley. Worldly, ambitious, totally selfish, and prepared to trample everyone in pursuit of their trivial goals.

He had, however, grown to care a great deal for his employer, and although he had made it a rule never to interfere in His Grace’s personal life, he deemed it time to suspend that rule.

As a result, while Sarah melted everyone’s heart with song and Leonard’s expression told him all he needed to know, he bent and murmured in Lady Loxley’s ear. He felt rather than saw her smile, but it was enough to know he had hooked her.

He slipped out of the castle with Sarah’s angelic voice still ringing in his ears. Collecting one of the lanterns from the front door, he walked quickly to the edge of the lake, and sat down to await events.

She did not keep him long. She came eagerly, though less gracefully than usual, trying to hold her skirts away from mud and foliage and still keep the lantern steady.

She must have seen his light, for she paused. “Leonard?”

“Here,” James called, rising to his feet.

He saw the precise moment she recognized him by the ferocious frown tugging at her elegant brows.

“Where is His Grace?” she demanded without greeting.

“In the castle, I imagine.”

“But you told me he would be here. Now.”

“No, I said you should be. If you misunderstood the nature of the assignation, I can only apologize.”

Her mouth fell open. “Do you seriously imagine I would consider you as a—”

“As an eligible lover?” he interrupted calmly. “No, of course I do not. I know my limitations, and yours. And the truth is, His Grace is not yours. He belongs heart and soul to another. You must know you cannot win