For a sweet interval, they embraced like lovers.
“Start singing,” he growled. “Or take the consequences.”
She lifted her head and for one sizzling second, he thought all his dreams might come true. That she’d say she wanted him and not Paul Garside. And that she didn’t give a rat’s arse if the whole world knew it.
Her eyes flickered down, and she picked up the inane little tune again. Hesitant, but true. And he went back to circling her around the room.
“So this is where you are,” Lady Talbot said from near the door.
Serena gasped and tugged free of Giles. She looked so guilty, one might think she’d been committing murder instead of dancing with an old friend. “Mamma…”
Giles pretended a nonchalance he didn’t feel. Over the years, he’d learned a little about dalliance. The appearance of innocence counted for much when caught in a compromising position. “Lady Talbot, Serena was showing me how she waltzes.”
Serena’s mother, blond and slender like her daughter, leveled an unreadable gaze upon him. “So I see.”
Serena had gathered her poise. “Giles was being unsociable, so I came looking for him.”
That was true, as far as it went. A girl’s mother didn’t need to know about kissing lessons and dawn rendezvous.
“It’s time you both rejoined the party. We missed you.”
Giles heard no hint of criticism, just the acceptance he always received at Torver House. Or, a less welcome theory, perhaps like everyone else, Lady Talbot was so used to her daughter pining after Paul that she saw no harm in Serena dancing with Giles.
Much less welcome.
“Of course, Lady Talbot.” He presented his arm to Serena, but she gave a minuscule shake of her head. He glanced between mother and daughter and made his exit with a bow.
He paused outside, worried that Serena’s mother intended to scold. If she did, he’d step in to defend his beloved.
“Mamma, I’m sorry for deserting the party,” Serena said.
“No matter, darling girl. It’s Christmas, and nobody’s standing on ceremony. If you hadn’t come to fetch Giles, I would have. He doesn’t understand that he’s one of the family.”
“I really like him, Mamma. Frederick is lucky to have such a friend.”
He winced at the word “like.” But pique couldn’t dampen his gratitude and affection for this remarkable family.
“I’ve always thought so. Paul arrives sure of a welcome, whereas Giles hangs back because he doesn’t want to impose.”
“Paul’s a good man, too,” Serena said sharply.
The warmth in Giles’s heart cooled. Although she was right. Paul was a good man, damn it. And he’d make her a fine husband.
“Indeed he is, sweetheart. And he’s desperate to dance with you again, so don’t keep him waiting.”
Giles had heard enough. He turned and trudged toward the great hall and an evening that promised to be pure torture.
Chapter 6
As soon as Serena returned to the great hall, her sisters commandeered her to play the piano. Belinda and Mary had both taken their turns, and now they joined the dancing as if they were carefree girls, instead of wives and mothers.
Luckily Serena’s fingers were so familiar with the quadrilles and cotillions and reels that they didn’t betray her distraction. After those disturbing moments in Giles’s arms, she welcomed a chance to restore her composure. Moments as disturbing in their way as this afternoon’s passionate kisses.
During recent days, she’d felt like a stranger in her own skin. Dancing with Giles, she’d felt as if at last she was in the right place.
Then her mother had interrupted them, and Giles had left her, and she was back to feeling lost and unhappy.
After far too long, she felt enough herself to glance up from her music. Under the boughs of Christmas greenery that decorated the hall, her parents were dancing together, looking like April and May despite over thirty years of marriage. Frederick and the bailiff’s pretty daughter made eyes at each other over the punchbowl. Belinda and Mary and their husbands had paused for breath near the refreshments table.