Read Online Mistress of My Fate by Hallie Rubenhold - Free Book Online

could not tell you which sensation had more command of my senses: the horror of embarrassment or the ecstasy of being so near to him. My face was as hot as a smelting furnace. You would think I had never before stood beside a man.
    I could scarcely look at him. What little I had learned of his divine features from a distance was magnified at closer range. His eyes were truly like nothing I had seen: they were so full of blue! Like buckets of clear well water—no, like the well itself, rimmed with deep green moss and shade. I shall always recall their effect on me, how I shivered when his gaze encompassed me. Lady Jersey once described him as an Adonis. Although it is a word much overused, I do believe it fitted Lord Allenham perfectly in his youth.
    “I had a letter from Mr. Fox today, claiming you to be with him at St. Ann’s Hill,” commented Lord Stavourley.
    “Alas, I was, but am no longer,” he responded with a wry smile and a courtly bow. “My visit to our friend was regrettably short, though long enough to settle some matters concerning the candidacy.”
    “My lord,” interrupted my aunt, wishing to avoid a political conversation and eager to make use of the situation, “I believe you have not yet been introduced to my daughter, Lady Catherine, or to her cousin, Miss Ingerton.”
    We both bowed our heads. “… Or indeed to my cousin, Mrs. Villiers.”
    “And what a misfortune that has been, to have been so long an acquaintance of Lord Stavourley and not to have had an opportunity for an introduction.” He regarded both of us with a warm look. “If I may beg leave of your lord and ladyship, as the next dance is beginning, I shall have to make amends immediately.” Then, entirely unexpectedly,he turned to me. “Madam, would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the ballroom?”
    I am not certain who among us was the most aghast. He hardly waited for an answer before offering me his arm. Before any of my party could utter a protestation, Lord Allenham, the most handsome man I had ever beheld, the subject of my transfixed stares just moments before, led me away. As he did, I noticed Lady Catherine’s lips part in disbelief.
    Dear reader, I was a trembling wreck! My head whirled with the most terrible confusion. I had done nothing to invite this. Surely Lord Allenham meant to dance with my cousin, not with me. I could not decide if there had been some mistake or indeed whether this had been calculated. My heart thumped inside my chest. What fired it more, my terror that I should upset Lady Catherine or the sensation of Allenham’s sturdy arm beneath my fingertips, I could not say.
    As we passed through the entrance to the ballroom, I felt as if I had been turned upside down. Everything spun; the light from the chandeliers intensified; the crowd swelled wider; the odour of the rooms grew more cloying and nauseating. It seemed that the gaze of the entire assembly followed me. I could hardly breathe and my fingers tightened around his forearm like the claws of a hawk.
    We stood amid the other couples poised to begin a cotillion. I knew I would have to concentrate with all my might on the steps, counting them out just as our dancing master had warned us not to. I held my focus, avoiding his gaze where possible, though this was of little use. It was his nearness that distracted me. As we circled round one another, first left and then right, I sensed a great blush begin to spread from my throat on to my cheeks. His lordship could not help but notice the throbbing pinkness of my face, and attempted to put me at ease by making polite conversation.
    “Have you been long at Bath?”
    “No, my lord, less than a fortnight,” I stuttered.
    “And how have you been diverting yourself in that time?” he asked.
    “I fear that Lady Stavourley’s health has kept us confined, my lord, but she has improved greatly since our arrival here.”
    “I do not doubt that to be the case, for she has you to amuse her.” He