her. Or, rather, he was gazing lazily, as though he had been doing it for some time. His whole posture was lazy, in fact, or perhaps relaxed was the more appropriate word. And informal. One did not lean one’s shoulder against pillars at ton events. Jessica raised her chin and looked haughtily back at him, just as another gentleman approached him and he looked away and straightened up to give the other man his attention.
Strangely, bizarrely, it was only at that moment that Jessica recognized him—the man who had been staring at her, that was. He was the man from the inn. The one she had taken for a cit, a member of the middle classes, with his overlong hair and unfashionable, ill-fitting clothes and inelegance of manner. He had looked at her boldly then too, from her head to her feet, with an expression that had bordered upon the contemptuous. And he had been ungracious about vacating the private parlor for her use. He had spoken openly in her hearing about the money he had paid for it. He had made her a mocking half bow.
She must have been mistaken on that occasion. No mere cit would have received an invitation to a ton ball. Not even if he was a wealthy man. But how very rude of him to have stared at her as he had just now, even if he had been as surprised to see her here as she was to see him. Who on earth was he?
“Jessica?” Her mother was approaching, and Jessica turned her attention back to the scene immediately before her. Mama was bringing someone to introduce to her.
The man from the inn was forgotten. For standing before her, dazzling in a dull gold evening coat with sparkling gold waistcoat, lace foaming at his neck and over the backs of his hands in this age of far more sober evening attire and darker colors, was the man of Jessica’s long-dead dreams. He was handsome beyond belief—of slightly more than average height and perfectly proportioned build, with handsome facial features that included slumberous eyes of a decided blue and very white, even teeth, which were fully on display now in a wide smile. Even his thick hair was perfect, though red-haired men had never figured in the romantic dreams of her girlhood. They ought to have.
“Jessica,” her mother said. “Mr. Rochford has applied to me for an introduction to you. My daughter, Lady Jessica Archer, sir.”
“Charmed, Lady Jessica,” the gentleman said, making her an elegant bow while not removing his eyes from hers.
Oh, and so was she. Charmed, that was. Fortunately, she did not say so aloud. “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Rochford,” she said, inclining her head to him. She did not curtsy to any man below the age of fifty or below the rank of earl.
Her court had fallen silent about her. She was hardly aware of it.
“Mr. Rochford is heir to the earldom of Lyndale,” her mother informed her. “Or soon will be, after his father succeeds to the title later this summer.”
Jessica raised her eyebrows in inquiry.
“My cousin, the present earl, has not taken up his title in the almost seven years since the demise of the late earl and his son,” Mr. Rochford explained. “He disappeared before that unfortunate event and has not been heard from since despite an exhaustive search. It has been very distressing to my father, who was dearly fond of him. Alas, the present earl is about to be declared officially dead. Both my father and I will be brokenhearted, but . . . Well, as the saying goes, life must go on.”
Ah. It was one consequence of being later than usual to London, Jessica supposed, that she had missed this tidbit of news—and really quite a sensational one. It was rather a romantic story too—for Mr. Rochford and his father, anyway. Not so much for the dead earl, she supposed. So this veritable Adonis standing before her and still smiling was about to be an earl’s heir, was he? And he was looking at her as though she were the fulfillment of all his dreams. She hoped her own interest in him was not so apparent. She fanned her cheeks slowly.
“I am sorry for your loss, sir,” she said.
“Thank you.” He bowed to her again. “Her Grace, the dowager duchess, your mother, has informed me that you have already granted the first two sets of dances to other gentlemen, who I