CHAPTER 25
When Hallie caught her breath, she said, “Your father must be right. I haven’t wanted to call you a moron once since our feet started moving. Oh dear, I do believe the ladies are surrounding James as well. Will the two of you never be safe?”
“James said he truly appreciated being married to Corrie. He said she protected him, like grandmother told you.”
“I wonder if Corrie ever fears being shot? Oh dear, I don’t believe Lord Renfrew is glad you’re here, Jason. He wanted to dance with me, you know. He’s giving you a remarkably nasty look. Ah, good, he’s asked that black- haired girl to waltz. That’s a relief.”
“She’s fluttering her eyelashes at him,” Jason said. “She’s not doing it well, but she’s young yet. She’ll learn.”
“I think she’s doing very nicely. Ah, you’re very graceful. That would make sense if a gentleman wanted to be successful with the ladies. However, you could dance like a clod and it wouldn’t make any difference.”
“I was thinking the same about you, Miss Carrick.” He gave her a white-toothed smile and whirled her about until she would swear under oath that she was flying two inches off the floor.
When they slowed a bit again, he said, “I can’t imagine why Lord Grimsby-he’s the elderly gentleman standing next to the lady with the huge ostrich feather-would give a ball especially for Lord Renfrew.”
“It makes no sense to me. I did meet Lord and Lady Grimsby; you simply weren’t aware of it. They told me how Lord Renfrew could speak only of my grace and loveliness. Nausea nearly flooded me. You, unfortunately, weren’t available to deter them. You were surrounded by too many well-wishers. It appears everyone missed you, Jason.”
“It’s good to see old friends.”
“You know, Lord Grimsby was giving me the eye-not a flirtatious eye, mind you, but an assessing eye-perhaps to evaluate if I’d do or not.”
Jason said slowly, “I wonder if your Lord Renfrew has some sort of hold on Lord Grimsby. I shall have to ask my father. He knows everything, which is odd, since he refuses to listen to gossip, but still, information finds its way into his ear.”
Hallie could only marvel at him. “I will tell you, Jason, I am used to being drowned in compliments, but not to the extent the ladies try to corner you. It is, naturally, the same with my father. Perhaps more so.”
“You haven’t noticed all the gentlemen salivating, Hallie. That’s why I tried to keep you close, to protect you.”
She laughed, couldn’t help herself. He whirled her around and around. When the waltz finally came to an end, once she could suck in enough air, she said, “Another dance, please, sir. You do it very well.”
“All right, but not a third waltz until much later, Hallie. I don’t want your reputation to suffer.”
She didn’t care, but acquiesced. After the second waltz, Jason left her at Angela’s side. He turned to his grandmother, bowed formally. “My lady, would you condescend to waltz with a grandson who, upon three different occasions, stole your nutty buns?”
The old lady rapped his arm with her fan, gave him a huge grin. “Ah, I knew, I always knew. Take me to the floor, my boy.”
Alex Sherbrooke couldn’t believe her eyes. She clutched at her husband’s sleeve. “ Douglas, goodness, I didn’t think the old bat could move so spryly.”
“A potted palm would move spryly if dancing with one of my sons,” Douglas said. Actually, Lady Lydia was swaying in place, Jason smiling down at her, holding her as gently as he would one of his nephews, telling her that particular shade of pale yellow was perfect with her complexion. The old lady preened.
“She always loved Jason best.” Alex sighed. “As many times as I still want to kick her, she looks lovely, and so very happy. Why can’t she be happy all the time? Why can’t she ever smile at me like that?”
“Give it up, my dear,” Douglas said, and drew her to the dance floor. “I doubt not that when she finally croaks in the next century, she will still insult you to your toes, be it Heaven or Hell. All six remaining teeth on full view. Do you think we’ll still have some teeth when we’re her age?”
“Oh dear, Douglas, I don’t wish to visit that thought at this moment. My lord, you dance as gracefully as ever.”
“More than three decades of inspiration keep the spring in my step,” Douglas said.
An hour later, the entire Sherbrooke family sat at three tables in the lovely dining room off the ballroom, eating shrimp patties, drinking champagne, and delighting in the Grimsby ’s cook’s incredible olive bread, a recipe she claimed had come from Sicily itself, from her grandmother the ancient Maria Teresa. Lady Grimsby was heard to say that every olive in a twenty-mile radius would be residing in her guests’ bellies before the night was over.
“Father,” Jason said, “tell me why Lord Grimsby is giving a ball in Lord Renfrew’s honor.”
“Hmm. Lord Renfrew seems a pleasant enough man, despite his need to be shot,” Douglas said, nearly sighing over another bite of the olive bread. “Fact is though, Lord Grimsby and Elgin ’s uncle-Bartholomew Sloane- were first cousins on the mother’s side. Grew up together. One of Barty’s sons died in Greece some ten years ago. Grim told me the boy traveled with Lord Byron.”
Hallie said, “My lord, perhaps a large dinner party with whist afterward would be more appropriate than a ball. Why would Lord Grimsby go to this sort of expense for his cousin’s son?”
“Ah, that’s an excellent question,” Douglas said. “Didn’t I hear that after you gave Lord Renfrew the boot, Hallie, he married a girl up north? Her father was a wealthy merchant or such? And she died?”
“How did you know that, sir? I swear I never told a soul.”
Douglas shrugged as he snaffled the last slice of olive bread off his wife’s plate. “And now he has no money. It all makes very clear sense, don’t you think?”
“But I’m living with Jason!”
There was only a bare moment of appalled silence.
“You’re his partner, Hallie,” Corrie said. “You’re not his mistress.”
“Of course I’m not his mistress,” Hallie said. “I am too rich to be any man’s mistress.”
“Be that as it may,” Douglas said, “it would appear that Elgin Sloane wishes to see if he can’t reattach you, my dear.”
“But I found out he was marrying me for my money, my lord. Do you know what else he was doing? He was sleeping with another woman.”
“Not quite so loud, Hallie,” Alex said, patting her hand.
Corrie said, “That doesn’t make much sense, does it? He was doing both? Doesn’t he have a functioning brain?”
Hallie said, “He must have believed he could get away with it.”
“All girls except Corrie are stupid at eighteen,” Corrie’s mother-in-law said. “Did you know that she saved James’s life?”
“She’s got more guts than brains,” James said.
Hallie said, “Well, no, and I should like to hear all about it. Didn’t Lord Renfrew get a good look at Jason, sir? Is the man blind?”
Jason waved away her words. “He thinks I’m poor, jealous of my brother, and something of a buffoon.” Jason grinned. “It was quite an enjoyable visit with him, as a matter of fact.”
“You’re wicked, my boy,” Lady Lydia said, staring at the shrimp patty that lay in the center of her daughter- in-law’s plate. She wanted that shrimp patty. Alex knew it. She speared the entire patty on her fork and raised it to her mouth. Then, cursing herself, she cut it in half and set one half on her mother-in-law’s plate.
Lady Lydia eyed the half shrimp patty. “I’ll wager you licked it, didn’t you? You did it very fast so I could see only the shadow of movement of it, so I’d know what you did, but not be able to prove it. And that’s why you gave it to me. You want Douglas to believe you are selfless, but you licked it.”
“Yes,” Alex said. “I licked it.” She stared the old woman down until she ate the shrimp patty. “It tasted strange,” Lady Lydia said as she set down her fork. “I don’t know your particular taste as my poor son does, but-”
“Mother,” Douglas said, his voice icy enough to freeze the champagne, “If Alex licked the shrimp patty, it will
