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appease the harridan, took every opportunity to express these views. He would not be averse to a diplomatic post, and this was a good way to start. Consequently, he devoted all his energy this night to business — and therefore, the most powerful men in the group.
    The disquiet of the nation must, after all, take precedence over the disquiet of one woman, Lilith well knew. Her problem was not with Thomas.
    The source of her uneasiness sat the length of the dinner table away. Amid the buzz of dinner conversation, one low, drawling murmur — inevitably followed by peals of femi-nine laughter — pierced her concentration as loudly as if there had been no other sound.
    In the same way, she saw Lord Brandon without looking directly at him, because he was always there, in the periphery of her vision when she turned to respond to her dining companion. The black coat moulded to broad shoulders… the immaculately arranged neck-cloth in whose snowy depths an emerald winked from time to time, a counterpoint to the flickering green glance which lit here and there with equal lack of interest. Once, Lilith had felt that glance settle hard upon her, but she would not raise her eyes to acknowledge it, and the sensation soon vanished.
    Her discomfort did not. He had done no more than greet her and Thomas politely at the start of the evening. At least, the words had been unexceptionable. But as they were moving past him, Lord Brandon had shifted his balance slightly, and his coat sleeve had brushed her gloved forearm. She had felt a tiny shock, and ever since, she had been unable to shake off her awareness of him, even when he stood a crowded room's length away.
    Lilith ate dinner with her customary marblelike composure and could not have said later what she had put into her mouth. When she withdrew with the other ladies, she conversed in her usual coolly courteous manner and could not remember after a single word. When the gentlemen rejoined them, she talked and drank her tea and might have been talking Hindoo and drinking ditch-water for all she knew of it.
    Once more the marquess spoke only a few unexceptionable words to her. Then he drifted away to a group of gentlemen in a corner, where he remained the rest of the evening. Yet he might have been breathing down her neck the whole time, so relentlessly did his presence grip her.
    Thomas was among those with whom the marquess conversed. The night wore on, and Thomas showed no signs of wearing out. Instead, the conversation seemed to grow into an intense debate with Sidmouth and their host. So engrossed were the three men that they never noted the other guests taking their leave.
    Rachel approached her future sister-in-law.
    "Enders says they are like to keep on all night and into the morning," she said, nodding towards her brother. "Can I persuade you to leave with us? Thomas will find his own way home. Heaven knows he has done this a hundred times if he has done it once, and we shall be asleep on our feet waiting for him."
    Lilith was only too willing to leave, even if it meant abandoning her betrothed.

    "It is about time," said Rachel when the carriage finally arrived. "Nathan has been prodigious slow in coming."
    "They are all behindhand, it seems," said Lord Brandon from somewhere behind Lilith's shoulder. "My own carriage was ordered at the same time, and even Ezra — usually a miracle of celerity — has dawdled. Perhaps they too have been debating affairs of state. Mrs. Davenant, you are losing your shawl. May I assist you?"
    "No, th — "
    He scooped up the end dragging on the carpet and draped it artistically upon her shoulder without touching her.
    Lilith murmured polite thanks and quickly moved away, but she found him at her shoulder again as she stepped out onto the walkway.
    "Perhaps you didn't require your wrap, after all," he said. "The night is unseasonably warm. You must beware growing overwarm yourself. That is an excellent way to take a chill. Shall I — Well, that