In Need of a Duke (The Heart of a Duke 0.5)(8)

Valera directed her eyes to the ceiling with a grin. “Blushing. It’s called blushing, Alison, and can we please discuss something other than the color of dear Aldora’s cheeks?”

“Well, we could discuss the reason why your cheeks have been pinker than usual since you met Lord Ravenswood,” Alison said with a giggle.

“Oh, do hush, Alison.” Valera gave Alison a wink.

Aldora chuckled. She looked around the room, searching for St. James.

Valera gave her arm a squeeze. “You must share his identity.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Alison snorted. “Of course you do.”

Aldora felt her flush deepen. Even if these were her truest friends, they didn’t know the direness of Aldora’s circumstances, and they most certainly didn’t know the only thread keeping her family from tumbling into financial ruin was the prospect of a wealthy, titled lord. And yet, she knew she was lying to herself when she said her only interest in the Marquess of St. James was his wealth and power. The truth of it was that since their encounter in Hyde Park two days earlier, she’d not been able to rid herself of thoughts of him. His roguish grin, his willingness to climb from his horse and search on hands and knees for the locket of a stranger all remained with her. She gave a discreet shake of her head.

“It’s no—”A thrill of awareness coursed through her veins, and she stiffened, knowing intuitively when he was near. The couple between her and the Marquess of St. James miraculously shifted and Aldora had an unobstructed view.

By God, he was even more breathtaking than she’d imagined. With the benefit of her spectacles, she could now marvel at his thick, unfashionably long black hair with the faintest curl. His gaze that scanned the ballroom was flinty like rock. Hard. Gleaming with intensity. This man was so…so virile, and so very different than described in the scandal sheets.

Valera gave her arm a tug, jerking Aldora back to the moment. When she glanced back out at the crowd, her heart dropped in crestfallen disappointment as she found the marquess had once again disappeared.

“My goodness, you’re smitten.” Valera whispered the words as though she’d discovered there was in fact a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end.

“Hush.” Aldora frantically glanced around, praying no one had heard Valera’s revelation.

Mother remained in deep conversation with Lady Aldridge. Aldora sighed. This had been the tedium of the night; Mother gossiping away while Aldora’s dance card remained obscenely blank. Alas, she wanted Aldora at her side so she could introduce her to the gentlemen she’d deemed suitably marriageable for her eldest daughter.

Except, her mother would never question her absence as long as she believed Aldora had gone off with Valera and Alison. Aldora leaned close to her friends. “Will you walk with me?”

Alison’s face fell. “Mother is motioning for me to return. Probably wants to introduce me to some dandy,” she muttered before shuffling off with as much as enthusiasm as a man making his way onto the gallows.

Valera looped her arm through Aldora’s and politely interrupted her mother’s exchange. “Would you mind terribly if I took some air with Lady Aldora?”

Bless Valera’s soul. She’d at last managed to wrestle Aldora free of Mother’s grip.

Her mother paused mid-conversation, eyes alight with pleasure. “Not at all, Lady Ravenswood!” She gave a small wave before returning her attention to the generously rounded Lady Aldridge.

Aldora wasted no time. She all but dragged Valera from the spot. Valera had provided Aldora a freedom to escape her Mother and other members of the ton without fearing recriminations. “I am so very glad you’ve married,” she muttered.

Valera chuckled. “Why, thank you. Whatever is this about? Never tell me we are searching for your ‘someone’.”

“He is not my someone,” Aldora said, her answer automatic and at the victorious light in her friend’s pretty eyes, she wanted to call back the telling admission. It was too late. The proverbial cat had been released from his sack.

“So there is someone!” Valera whispered excitedly.

Knowing it was futile to withhold the truth from her friend, Aldora sighed. “There is.”

And the dratted man hadn’t bothered to search her out. Why, the least he could have done following her great fall at Hyde Park was inquire after her...but then, she supposed if he were to do that, they’d both have a good deal of explaining to do.

She pushed the thin-wired spectacles back on her nose. After her chaotic outing at Hyde Park, Aldora had decided to set vanity aside. She found she far preferred seeing the people around her more than she cared about how the people around her felt about her eyewear.

Valera expertly maneuvered Aldora through the ballroom, steering her toward the doors to the terrace.

“Your husband will be looking for you.” Aldora’s protest sounded half-hearted to her own ears.

A brilliant sparkle lit her friend’s gaze and just then, Aldora would trade her right hand to feel such a thing for a man and to have that man return her love. A sigh of envy escaped her lips.

“He will not mind if I’m gone for a short while,” Valera said.

Aldora snorted. She rather doubted that. She’d seen how Lord Ravenswood looked at his wife and knew he’d mind—very much, indeed.