Chapter Two

Confound it all. A veritable army of people greeted him off the floor with frowns and accusatory stares. His mother’s lip trembled. It seemed the goodwill of the Christmas season beginning tomorrow was no match for whatever caused this discontent.

He made his way to Lady Fenningway. Her eyes still red-rimmed and swollen, she stared at her slippers. “I do apologize for neglecting our dance. Perhaps we could finish it out . . .”

The small voice that responded lacked life, vibrancy. Perhaps it was unfair to compare her to the bright and interesting Lady Catherine. Who could appear favorably when next to her? But he hoped Lady Fenningway would prove to be an interesting conversationalist.

Alas, he had never had a more tedious dance, even a waltz. “And what are your other interests?”

“Needlepoint.” Her small voice wavered. She spouted off the typical list. Nothing uniquely intriguing caught his attention. He sought Lady Catherine’s rather remarkable tresses. She had disappeared from the room. Staring at the top of Lady Fenningway’s dull and lifeless hair, listening to her silence, he found himself dreading any future moment with the woman. But to make up for his mistake and to please his mother, he secured the supper set.

In between sets, his mother pulled him aside. “How could you?”

“Mother, I’m fixing the problem. Lady Fenningway will be fine. I cannot understand everyone’s deep shock at such a thing.”

“Can you not? You can’t understand why I would be hurt, torn apart even, by your dancing with an Aster?”

His mouth dropped open. “An Aster?”

She eyed him and nodded. “Of course you would not know.” With a pat on his arm, she led him farther back into a corner. “Though we have worked to avoid such a thing all these years, you have just been introduced to the eldest Aster daughter.”

Of all the most wretched circumstances in which to find himself. The one woman with any spark of interest to her would turn out to be an Aster. “How could I know, then, if I had not been introduced?” He saw no reason for his mother to be so accusatory. Naturally, now he knew who she was, there would be no repeat sets. Though he sorely wished that were not the case.

“You’ve been away. She walks with a different set. I should have known you would not know her, as distracted as you always are at any social function.” Her exasperated face made him smile.

“I am not so very distracted.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh no? And could you name even five of the ladies in this room?”

His eyes flicked with disinterest to the people milling about the room. “No, why would I need to be able to do that?” He had never been intrigued by a single one—until today.

She laughed. “I do wish you would pay better attention. You created quite a stir.”

“People need to concern themselves with their own lives and leave mine well alone.”

His mother shook her head. “And that they will never do. It’s quite all right. We shall weather the curious and biting tongues.”

Regret shuddered through him as he saw his mother lift her stoic chin. Of course she would bear the brunt of the wagging of even sympathetic tongues, as surely the talk would force her to relive her own husband’s death multiple times throughout the night.

“I apologize, Mother. If you wish, you could find your way upstairs with a headache.”

“And give them more reason to cackle behind our backs? No. I will stand with strength until the last of them leaves these doors.”

“You are an angel, most undoubtedly sent from heaven.” He placed her hand on his arm and led them in a walk around the room. “Now come, Mother, the decorations. I have been admiring them all evening in an effort to avoid human interaction.”

She laughed, and his heart was comforted at the sound.

“Lovely. I don’t know how you acquired the greenery here in London, but it does you credit.”

“Thank you, son. We have our ways, you know.”

“Ah yes, women and their ways.”

Three approached, and his mother greeted them. He made his bows.

The first, a woman slightly older than the dowager, said, “Oh my dear, how are you holding up? People are sure to talk, the shock of it all.” Her eyes flicked to him, standing at her side. “Forgive me, your grace. But that dance was nothing if not the most shocking thing we are likely to see this season. The books are going to be filled at Whites with all the wagers.”

The lady at her side added, “A Salsbury and an Aster on the dance floor. I never thought I’d see the day.” She whipped out her fan and began furiously puffing the ringlets under her cap out around her face.

He kept his face impassive, but inwardly his irritation brewed. Could they not let the old rivalry go? Not just his ridiculous family, but the rest of the ton as well. There is nothing they loved more than scandal. If he could just talk to the new Aster duke, young as he was, surely they could come to an agreement and move on from the decades-long ill feelings.

The concern in his mother’s eyes told him it wasn’t likely, but he refused to think that he and future generations would be controlled by this deeply held prejudice.