Last Dance in London (Rakes on the Run #1) - Sydney Jane Baily Page 0,42
asleep, and every time, she’d ended up touching herself, thinking of him.
While a ride in Hyde Park wasn’t exactly on the same level of excitement as what had occurred in that wicked garden, any time they spent together might provide the opportunity for some sort of close interaction, although she couldn’t imagine how.
She wished she could simply invite him to her home again. However, Sarah no longer went to Lord Denbigh’s, nor spoke of him, and only went out in the evenings when it was to accompany her if Mrs. Zebodar was unavailable.
Regardless of the weather, Julia needed to focus her efforts once more upon her goal of giving money charitably at least once a week. If she could attend balls and go riding, she could make herself useful and manage to feed the hungry.
She simply needed to attend some dinner or dance without her sister and, just as importantly, without Lord Marshfield being there. His eyes were too watchful and his presence was too distracting.
To that end, on her sister’s behalf, Julia accepted an invitation from Lady Daphne Rancur to an intimate gathering of twenty, didn’t tell Sarah, and went in her place.
“My sister is suffering from a megrim this evening, but she didn’t want to leave you with an odd number. I hope I will be a suitable spare.”
It worked. And Julia didn’t even need a chaperone since she would be partnered with a guest while there but had arrived and would leave alone.
Everything went smoothly, until, directly before they went into the dining room, the last guest appeared — the Earl of Marshfield.
Blast!
Since he was a friend of the hostess’s, he was seated near the head of the table to Lady Daphne’s left. Since Julia was a nobody, she was pleased to be seated at the other end with her partner for the evening, the youngest son of a viscount, so in some regards, also a nobody.
Jasper didn’t appear surprised to see her, and she couldn’t help wondering if he’d known she would be there. When she excused herself toward the end of the meal to use the facilities, a trick that had worked well before as no one would question her, when she came out of the water closet, the earl was standing in the hallway.
“What are you doing?” she asked bluntly, having intended to dash upstairs to the hostess’s chamber and snag something glittering.
“I thought to escort you back to the dining room.”
She couldn’t help frowning at him. If he was hoping to get her alone, this was not the time nor place.
“That was unnecessary. Besides if any man should escort me, my dining partner should. Didn’t our hostess think it rude of you to leave the table after me?”
Jasper offered a shrug she was becoming used to. It told her nothing and was beyond infuriating.
“Shall we?” he asked, offering her his arm.
Feeling annoyed as a wet hen, Julia took it and let him take her back to the dining room. Somehow, he was on to her, or he thought he knew something. She would have to become a little smarter.
After dinner, there would be dancing, rather in the reverse of usual things, but their hostess said she found it easier to dance on a full stomach than a rumbling one, and no one had gainsaid her.
In the meanwhile, Julia had only to bide her time. When Jasper was about to begin a waltz, when it would be utterly beyond the pale for him to beg off, she did exactly that to her own partner.
“I’m so terribly sorry. My hem has come down. I shall return as quickly as possible.”
While across the floor Jasper’s back was turned, she dashed from the small ballroom.
JASPER TURNED IN TIME to watch Miss Sudbury disappear from the room. Claiming a sudden cramp in his leg, he escorted his partner to the side of the room and swiftly followed the brazen baggage.
He was in time to see the skirt of her gown disappear up the staircase. Odd!
While he was always up for a lark where a female was concerned, he couldn’t fathom her strange actions at balls and parties, so at odds with her normal behavior. Moving fast, his footstep was on the first stair when she reached the top. For a few steps, Jasper had a view of her shapely bottom outlined by the silken fall of her gown and a glimpse of her slender ankle as she stepped onto the landing above him.