Read Online Duchess in Love by Eloisa James - Free Book Online Page B

her elbow from his hand.
    â€œThat’s enough! That’s enough! Three couples only, if you please,” an elderly-looking man said fussily. “All right, everyone! We’re set for Jenny Pluck Pears—do watch your slide, if you please!”
    Cam looked down at Gina with laughing eyes. “What the devil is he talking about?” he whispered.
    â€œDancing, you fool!” she whispered back. “Eight slides, then set left and turn single.”
    â€œWhat?”
    The music started.
    â€œFollow me!” she said, taking his hand. That Cam liked. He picked up the hand of the portly matron to his right.
    â€œAll right, slide left,” Gina hissed.
    Grinning broadly, Cam slid left. But since Gina hadn’t given him a termination point, he slid until he bumped into her hip. He liked that too. Gina had lovely curves for such aslender woman. She gave him a flustered look and pulled him to face her.
    â€œPartners face,” she whispered. “No! No, follow me!”
    Cam chuckled. “Now what?”
    â€œWe skip around the outside next.”
    â€œSkip? I don’t skip!”
    She pulled at him sharply, and he found himself obeying her just for the pleasure of holding hands.
    He was looking around laughing, when Gina hissed at him again. “We’re supposed to flirt, Cam!”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI know, it’s a ridiculous notion, isn’t it? But we should speak to each other at this point in the dance.”
    Flirting with Gina didn’t seem ridiculous to Cam, but by then they were back in place and he bowed for what seemed like the tenth time.
    â€œWell, that was amusing,” he said as they walked off the dance floor. “English society skipping in a circle.”
    â€œDidn’t you have a dancing master as a boy?” she asked with some curiosity.
    â€œSporadically. Father had trouble retaining servants, if you recall.”
    â€œAnd I don’t suppose there’s much dancing in Greece.”
    â€œOh, but there is! The whole village dances.”
    â€œYou dance with them?” Gina looked up at her husband in some bewilderment. He was so different from the boy she remembered. She remembered very little of their wedding, so she had always thought of her husband as a bigger version of the lanky, twiglike boy who used to whittle dolls out of wood.
    Now here he was, grown broad in the shoulders and big—big all over. He’d grown into his father’s frame, she thought. He looked muscled all over, perhaps from the sculpting. She hadn’t thought of sculpting as physical labor. He stood outin the elegant ballroom like a sore thumb, with his wild, beguiling smile.
    â€œYou used to be quite normal,” she said wonderingly.
    â€œBut now—”
    He waited, eyebrow raised.
    â€œYou don’t fit in here,” she said, hoping that wouldn’t offend him.
    â€œWouldn’t want to,” he said promptly. “I do remember all the folderol of the ballroom though, Gina. Would you like me to claw my way to the drinks table?”
    â€œActually, I would,” Gina said, enjoying the notion of sending this barbarian on an errand. “I should like a glass of champagne, please. The pink kind.”
    He looked about and poked one of the footmen standing next to the door. “You! Fetch me two glasses of pink champagne, if you please.”
    The footman looked around, startled, but leaped to obey.
    â€œYou’re not supposed to do that,” Gina said, laughing despite herself. “The butler has positioned those two men at the doors in case they are needed.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œWhat if someone faints?”
    He looked her over from head to foot. “You look hearty. Are you feeling like fainting?”
    â€œNo, of course not.” Something about his leisurely gaze send hot blood to her cheeks and made her a bit dizzy.
    To her relief Sebastian appeared. He bowed punctiliously.