though, the wild soirées and fireworks displays were legendary. If it hadn’t been for Lady Georgina’s presence, her father would never haveallowed her to attend. She was halfway to wishing he hadn’t permitted it, anyway.
“Lilith, do quit scowling. It’ll ruin your complexion.”
Lilith looked away from the sight of Lord Greeley and Mr. Aames wading through the Gardens’ central fountain, singing a ballad about some Scottish maiden with whom they were apparently quite intimately acquainted. “I’m not scowling, Georgina. I simply don’t understand how some people can behave so foolishly.”
Her companion leaned over the side of their rented box to get a better look at the gentleman. “My papa says everyone is foolish.” She giggled as the two men waved at her. “Some are just less skilled at hiding it.”
Behind Georgina’s back. Pen wrinkled her nose. Lilith stifled a smile. Georgina was a bit feather-brained, in addition to being nearsighted, but as her dowry was purported to be ten thousand pounds, her intelligence and her eyesight probably didn’t matter. Lilith sighed and looked toward the gazebo, where the orchestra played a beautifully rendered piece by Haydn. She was aware that she was considered to be a beauty, which meant she was viewed as superficially as Georgina. No one cared if she could wield a wicked metaphor.
A confectioner’s cart rounded the hedge, and she straightened. “I’m going to get a strawberry ice,” she declared, needing a rest from giggling nonsense for a moment “Does anyone else wish one?”
“No, thank you.” Pen shivered. “It’s too cold already.”
When Georgina, the marchioness, and Lady Sanford declined as well, Lilith stepped down from their box and strolled over to purchase her ice. As she paid her shilling, the Duke of Wenford’s gravel-bucket voice sounded from somewhere behind her. Lilith flinched.
With a stifled curse, not stopping to question her wisdom, she hurried toward the protection of the gazebo. She couldn’t face Wenford without Pen or William there to help extricate her from any difficulties. The duke’s voice came again, closer still, and she looked over her shoulder as she ducked behind the structure—and immediately crashed into someone.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to steady herself and finding her elbow gripped. “How clumsy of—”
“Not at all. Miss Benton,” the Marquis of Dansbury returned, looking down at her with dancing eyes. “How rude of me to be standing to one side of the path like that.”
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
At her jerk, he relinquished his grip on her arm. “Actually, I was listening to the orchestra.”
“There are benches around front for that purpose.” Belatedly, she stepped backward to put distance between them.
A male voice said something from around the turn of the hedge, and the Duke of Wenford answered. Lilith jumped again. She had thought to escape His Grace, and now she would be plunged into the middle of another confrontation between him and Dansbury!
“I didn’t wish to risk my reputation by being seen sitting on a bench without a companion.” Dansbury tilted his head, dark hunter’s eyes studying her. “Perhaps you’d care to join me.”
“You must be joking.” She glanced over her shoulder.
He raised an eyebrow, following Lilith’s gaze before he returned his attention to her. “Are you in some difficulty?”
“No.”
“Not avoiding anyone, are you?”
Blast him, he was every bit as quick as Williambragged. “If I were, it would be you,” she countered.
The marquis nodded agreeably as his eyes focused on something past her shoulder. “Just as a point of information, though, you might wish to know that your fifth suitor is coming around—”
Lilith whipped around, frantically trying to think of some way to escape Wenford’s presence. Before she could react, Dansbury yanked her backward through a cluster of bushes.
“Don’t
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