Wagered to the Duke (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (26 page)

As for her eyes, they were supposed to be green, or so her mother had always said. Kate had always been hard-pressed to see the green.

Until this evening.

But perhaps that was because of the gown Susannah had lent to her. It was a deep-emerald silk with an exquisite lace underskirt, puffed sleeves that looked as if they were ready to fall off her shoulders, and a daring décolletage that pushed up her breasts, making them look even more substantial than they really were.

Kate widened her now decidedly green eyes as she beheld something she’d never seen on herself before.

Cleavage.

As for her hair, Susannah’s maid had taken a curling iron to it, and now dozens of curls dripped all around her face, providing a soft frame for her previously harsh features. Wispy, stray tendrils curled around her ears and down the nape of her neck, while the rest of her hair had been twisted up into a knot adorned with a fillet of green leaves and purple flowers. Susannah had also lent her a pearl choker for her exposed white throat.

Kate didn’t feel like herself. Yet wasn’t this who she’d always longed to be? A beautiful diamond of the first water, clad in the first stare of fashion, the potential belle of the ball?

That, of course, would depend on how many other young ladies—ladies younger than Kate—would be at the ball.

She wondered if Nathan would recognize her and what he might think of how she looked. And then she asked herself for the umpteenth time why that even mattered.

She finally ventured downstairs to the ballroom and spotted Nathan immediately, because he was the tallest man here.

He was also talking to a woman who looked even younger than Kate. She was certainly prettier.

Her heart sank as she sought their hostess, who assured her that she looked lovely.

As she swept her gaze around the ballroom, a sudden wave of terror washed over her. “Susannah, everyone is looking at me!”

Everyone but Nathan.

“That’s because you look so beautiful,” Susannah replied. “And you must remember, Kate, that our other guests are all locals and they’ve never seen you before.”

Flustered, Kate said, “Just show me to the nearest, darkest corner, and I’ll—”

“Oh dear,” Susannah suddenly said, her face clouding.

“Oh, please don’t look like that. It’s really for the best. Unless you weren’t able to hire a traveling troupe for this evening’s entertainment, I daresay you’ll thank me to stay off the dance floor where I’ll only—”

“No, no, that’s not it at all.” Susannah now looked very distressed as she fixed her gaze on the wide doorway at the end of the ballroom. “It’s just that my stepfather has decided to attend, after all.”

Kate followed Susannah’s agitated gaze to a gentleman who appeared to be about forty, with blond hair arranged in the Brutus style. He was dressed identically to all the other men, with the same black coat and breeches and a cream-colored waistcoat. He wasn’t as tall as Nathan, but he was handsome and broad shouldered, standing erect as his blue-eyed gaze flicked all around the room before finally landing on Kate.

As it did, his face broke into a smile.

Kate found herself smiling back, and she quickly averted her eyes, not wishing to be caught gawping at a gentleman, especially if he happened to be Susannah’s stepfather. “I say, he looks rather young to be your stepfather. You never told me your late mother married a much younger man.”

“That’s because she didn’t. You’re obviously looking at the gentleman next to my stepfather. Since they appeared at the same moment and are standing so close to each other, I daresay he must be a friend of Sir Niles.” Susannah sighed. “I suppose I should be thankful he didn’t come with some lightskirt on his arm. Trevor told me he’s acquired at least one since my mother passed.”

Kate glanced back at the doorway, finally noting a much older man next to the younger, handsomer one who was still peering back at her with the hint of a smile, almost as if he recognized her. Only she’d never seen the man before. She’d certainly remember any man who looked at her the way this one did, and no man had ever looked at her that way before. Well, maybe Nathan had that night at the inn when he’d watched her braid her hair. But this evening he hadn’t even recognized her yet, whereas this gentleman had noticed her at once.

The stranger’s gaze was so intense that she had to look away, as if it might blind her. A moment later she stole another look. “Susannah, why do you think that man with your stepfather keeps looking at me—and smiling at me?”

“Clearly, he finds you attractive—and don’t scoff, Kate, because you are. But if he’s here with my stepfather, then I wouldn’t pay him too much mind if I were you.”

Kate knit her brow. “Do you mean that just because he’s friends with your stepfather, he must be a reprobate?”

Susannah patted her on the arm. “Birds of a feather, Kate. If he is indeed interested in you, then I daresay his interest will evaporate the minute he learns you have no dowry. You do look like an heiress.”

Kate smiled. “At long last, I look like something other than a governess.”

“Pardon me, dear, but I do believe I shall have to go and receive them, since Trevor seems to be engaged elsewhere.”

Kate wasn’t sure she agreed with Susannah’s assessment that if the newcomer was friends with her stepfather, then that automatically made him a rogue. After all, Kate’s own stepfather, for all his flaws, had kept some perfectly respectable friends over the years—not least of which had been Kate’s own father. And while he might have been unfaithful to her mother, he’d still been a good father to Kate and Anthony and enjoyed a brilliant career in the army. No man was perfect—not even Nathan. Why, the only reason Kate was standing here was because Nathan had been engaged in the same sort of scandalous activity that hopelessly attracted her stepfather.

And Kate certainly did not think Nathan was an irredeemable villain. No, Susannah was clearly falling into the trap of tarring two birds with the same brush, something Kate was selectively guilty of herself, and that wasn’t fair.

Speaking of Nathan, she glanced around the ornately gilded ballroom again and spotted him on the far side of the room chatting now with not one but two young women, both of whom looked as if they’d fallen in love with him already.

With a moue of disgust she turned away, just in time to see—was it possible? That strange gentleman was headed her way, accompanied by Susannah and her stepfather. Needless to say, Susannah did not look especially happy about this.

“Kate, I don’t believe you’ve met my stepfather, Sir Niles Barnett.” In addition to not looking especially happy, Susannah didn’t sound very excited, either. “Sir Niles, may I present Miss Katherine Baxter.”

The words were barely out of her mouth when Sir Niles stepped forward. “I’ve known your stepfather, Lord Bellingham, for many years, Miss Baxter.”

Susannah grimaced and rolled her eyes at Kate, as if to signify that Sir Niles had just made her earlier point.

He went on, “I have with me another old friend who is most anxious to make your acquaintance. May I present Lord Waldrop?”

As Lord Waldrop fell into a gallant bow, Kate curtsied not so much because of etiquette, but because her knees were suddenly wobbly in a way they’d never been since—since—

Well, since she met Nathan. At that very same moment she heard his laughter from across the vast ballroom and caught a glimpse of him talking to a third young lady.

No doubt he’d forgotten her by now.

Lord Waldrop favored her with a dazzling smile. “I’m so very pleased and honored to meet you, Miss Baxter.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Honored?”

“You are clearly the most beautiful lady in this room. To meet the most beautiful lady present is an honor for any gentleman.”

She was still trying to absorb this ridiculous declaration when Sir Niles addressed his stepdaughter. “Come, they don’t need a chaperone. You have more guests to receive, and I need a drink.”

Sir Niles and Susannah went off in two different directions, leaving Kate to bask in the rays beaming from Lord Waldrop’s brilliant smile.

“Now, you’ve only just arrived, my lord, so I don’t believe you’ve had the chance to really see any of the other ladies yet. I do believe your assessment of my—” She was about to say
charms
,
only she didn’t believe she had any, so she amended, “that is,
me
—might be premature.”

“If that’s so, then it can only be because my eyes were instantly drawn to you.” He cocked his head to one side, still smiling. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t. I think you’re only saying it to be polite. I mean, you surely wouldn’t tell me to my face that I’m hideous?”

“No, because you’re not hideous. Whatever gives you that idea?”

“Well, my spectacles…”

“But you need them to see, don’t you? I should think you would be more hideous if you were forced to stumble through life, tripping over anything you don’t knock over, if you weren’t able to see.”

Kate couldn’t help laughing, thinking of how she’d stumbled around Nathan on the dance floor this week. “I tend to do that anyway, even with the spectacles. Truly, why are you so keen to know me?”

“For that matter, why are you so incredulous that any gentleman would wish to give you the time of day?”

“Because no other gentleman ever has.” She couldn’t help it. She had to glance around the ballroom again, searching for Nathan. To her annoyance, she spotted him chatting up
four
more chits.

He might well find a duchess before he left Derbyshire, in which case his Aunt Verity’s plans would be all for naught.

“I should like very much to dance with you later on,” said Lord Waldrop, flipping up a hand at the same time Kate opened her mouth. “And don’t tell me you’re not a very good dancer, or that you don’t even know how to dance. I daresay most of the people in this room have never been within ten miles of a dancing master, yet they’re here to dance.” He paused to smile, lowering his hand. “I most certainly am.”

Kate opened her mouth again, and again his hand flipped up. “Please, Miss Baxter. Please don’t tell me that you simply don’t dance. Why would you deny yourself the same amusements everyone else enjoys?”

She kept her mouth clamped shut.

“Now you may answer,” he said. “I’ll keep my hand down this time.”

“I’ve never danced, because I don’t know how,” she said. Her disastrous lessons earlier this week didn’t count. “But if I’m to believe I’m in no better a position than anyone else here…”

“Then may I have the first dance?”

“Well, maybe not the first dance,” she said. “I may need to sit out a dance or two before I can summon the nerve.”

“That’s quite all right. It will give us time to become better acquainted. I take it you’re visiting Lord and Lady Ellington?”

Kate nodded, explaining to him how she’d stayed here with her mother and stepfather on their way from London to Yorkshire last year. She thought the better of telling him how she came to be here now. Let him assume Susannah had simply invited her to stay for a few weeks.

“I suppose when she saw me in the doorway with Sir Niles, she immediately warned you about me?” he asked as the two of them watched couples now sorting themselves out and lining up in two rows on either side of the parquet dance floor. “I can scarcely blame her. She never got along with her stepfather, so naturally she thinks that anyone who would associate with him must be as reprehensible as he is.”

Kate didn’t respond but instead pursed her lips as if to preclude saying something she was certain to regret later on. Yet why should she not respond? After all, he was absolutely right—and he didn’t seem at all—

“Let me assure you I’m not at all offended by her disapproval of me, however unfounded,” he went on. “I’m also acquainted with your own stepfather and just as aware that you don’t get along with him.”

Dismay stabbed her. “Did he tell you?”

Lord Waldrop sighed wistfully. “I seem to recall he once mentioned he wished there wasn’t so much tension between him and his stepchildren, but he also understands—as does Sir Niles with young Lady Ellington—that it’s only natural for you and your brother to view him as a sort of interloper or usurper of your father’s place.”

That, Kate thought glumly, was only too true.

“Believe me, Miss Baxter, I do know. I have a stepmother myself. And not only did I once deeply resent her, but I resented all of her friends—simply because they were
her
friends. Ludicrous, is it not?”

“Amazing,” was all she could say.

He quirked a tawny brow. “What’s amazing?”

“What you just said. How simple is the explanation! And to think it makes perfect sense. If my father had been a gambler always in dun territory, like my stepfather, I still would have loved him.” She refrained from adding that her father
had
been an adulterer—which, to her way of thinking, was even worse than gambling and subsequent penury. Yet more than a decade after his death, Kate still loved her father and continued to resent her stepfather—and yea, just about everyone with whom he associated.

How silly of her. How irrational.

How childish.

Lord Waldrop flashed her another blinding smile. “It might interest you to know that, since my father’s death, my stepmother and I have become very good friends, and now I love her as a true mother. I think she would like you, Miss Baxter. I wish you could meet her.”

Kate glanced around the ballroom, feeling another stab of dismay as she spotted Nathan dancing with one of young chits he’d been chatting up earlier.

“Is anything wrong, Miss Baxter?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said lamely. “I was just wondering if your stepmother was here tonight, so I started glancing about, and then I realized, silly me. Having never met her, how could I possibly know what she looks like?”

He chuckled. “It just so happens she
is
with me—we’re both guests of Sir Niles—but she was unable to come tonight as she has a megrim.”