me moments ago. If it wasn’t for the ample evidence, I might have thought I’d imagined the whole thing. Not that I had ever imagined kissing Major Ramsey.
“I apologize again for that,” he said.
“There’s no need,” I replied briskly, forcing myself to meet his gaze. “There couldn’t have been a better reason for us to be alone in that room together.”
“You thought rather quickly yourself,” he said, no doubt remembering how I had wantonly pulled him down atop me on the sofa.
I managed an embarrassed smile. “Yes, well, I thought we’d better do a thorough job of it if we were to be convincing.”
I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, the hint of that smile that he so seldom let have free rein.
“Sir Nigel is a smart man, but I like to think we were convincing.”
“Yes.” I tried not to think about his lips on mine and that warm hand on my leg. “You’re a good actor, among other things.”
His eyes met mine, and I felt a fresh wave of embarrassment realizing that he probably thought I meant the kiss. Well, he had been good at that, too. There was no sense in denying it.
“I think we both acquitted ourselves admirably,” he said. “Now I suppose we’d better get back before our absence draws any more notice.”
We slipped back into the crowd of mingling guests without drawing much attention to ourselves, and, after a moment, I excused myself to the powder room. Though I was sure the major had done a credible job tucking my hair back into place, I needed to powder my nose and reapply my lipstick.
It was clear that Sir Nigel was accustomed to entertaining society ladies, for the powder room was as elegantly decorated as any I had seen in London nightclubs. On one wall an enormous gold-framed mirror hung atop pink brocade wallpaper. Before the mirror there was a long marble-topped table with several satin-covered stools lined in front of it. As luck would have it, Jocelyn Abbot sat at one of the stools and the one beside her was unoccupied.
Her eyes in the mirror moved my way as I entered, and then she looked away, intending to ignore me, I supposed.
I’m fairly sure she flinched when I brazenly dropped into the seat next to her. “It was a wonderful lecture, wasn’t it?” I said, pulling out my tube of lipstick. “It was all so interesting.”
Her reflection fastened me in its cool gaze. “Did you think so? You missed most of it.”
So she’d noticed that, had she? She had been sitting near the front of the room, so I wondered how she knew. I supposed she had seen Major Ramsey and I leaving the corridor after the lecture had ended, a bit disheveled despite our best efforts to tidy each other up.
I gave her a vaguely embarrassed smile. “I slipped out for a few moments toward the end.”
“How long have you been seeing Gabriel Ramsey?” she asked. Well, now it was all out in the open. I admired a woman who got right to the point.
“Only a few weeks,” I said, as I applied my lipstick. “I’m very fond of him already.”
I watched her reflection as she said this, and there was a flicker of some emotion in her expression that she couldn’t quite hide.
“Gabriel Ramsey is a very fine gentleman,” she said at last.
“Do you know him well?”
“Yes. I know him very well.” She turned to look at me directly, not in the mirror, as she said this, and I knew that she meant me to take the hint.
“Oh,” I said, and I fancy I was even able to work up a bit of a blush. “I see.”
She gave a careless shrug, a bit more gracious now that I had been put in my place. “I haven’t seen him in some time, however.”
“I … suppose his being away in North Africa put a strain on things.” I intended, with talk of our men at war, to work the conversation around to Barnaby Ellhurst, but I was honest enough with myself to realize there was also a bit of curiosity involved.
“It wasn’t the distance. There were … other things…” Her words faded off and she offered me a strained smile. “Well, it doesn’t really matter.”
But it clearly did. I recognized that conflicted look in her expression because it was one I had felt myself. It was, I realized, a reflection of my feelings for Felix, a sort of unresolved longing. It was obvious she