Page 74 of Appointment in Bath

“His gout is t-troubling him, m-my lord,” Meg replied, her stutter intensifying. “He’s b-been abed all day.”

Dropping Heywood’s arm, Kate stepped forward. “Miss Burton-Smythe. It’s been an age.”

“Lady K-Katherine.” Meg inclined her head.

“Kate, please. And may I call you Meg? Miss Burton-Smythe is so dreadfully formal.”

Meg’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. “Oh yes,” she said. “If you p-please.”

In that moment, Ivo could have hugged his impetuous little sister.

He drew Meg closer. “Allow me to introduce Lieutenant Charles Heywood, grandson of the Earl of Gordon. And this is Lieutenant Heywood’s sister, Miss Hannah Heywood. They’re staying with us until tomorrow.”

Heywood and his sister greeted Meg, neither of them seeming to understand why the temperature of the room had dropped by several degrees since her arrival.

Ivo had no intention of explaining it. The best course was to keep moving forward. The others would warm to Meg soon enough. Until then, dancing was what he’d promised her and dancing was what he intended to provide.

“Now that our numbers have evened up,” he said to his mother once the introductions were dispensed with, “James can take over your duties at the pianoforte while the rest of us dance. You won’t mind, will you, James? We can’t spare any of the ladies.”

James glared at Ivo as though he’d like to remove his liver and feed it to one of the family’s spaniels.

“An excellent idea,” Lady Allendale said. She took Lord Allendale’s hand, giving it a meaningful squeeze. “Shall we, my love?”

Lord Allendale glared at Ivo for a long moment before allowing Lady Allendale to draw him away.

Ivo didn’t waver. He was in the right. “Play something jolly, won’t you?” he said to James.

James’s hand flexed at his side. For a moment, Ivo anticipated that his brother’s control would break. But no. Despite the ample provocation, James didn’t take the bait.

He strode to the pianoforte and sat down. Unlike the others, James didn’t require music. He had a prodigious memory and could play most pieces entirely by ear.

It wasn’t a waltz, but Ivo wouldn’t quibble.

“Shall we?” he asked Meg.

Meg gazed up at him. Her blushes were still in evidence, but there was something else. A strange solemnity to her expression that gave Ivo pause. He wished he knew what she was thinking. “If you like,” she said.

He led her out into the center of the drawing room as the other couples lined up across from each other. There was a decided tension in the air. It was impossible to ignore. Ivo could only hope that, once the dancing started, the exercise would dissipate it.

It was a jolly dance. One that necessitated the eight of them joining and separating again, both with their partners and with the other dancers, in a lively pattern.

His mother’s smile was brittle, his father’s face absent expression, and Jack betrayed an offended dignity in his posture. Even Miss Heywood seemed to be rattled by the arrival of Ivo’s unexpected guest. She repeatedly looked to her brother for reassurance.

Only Kate was behaving with relative normalcy, too busy fretting over Heywood to be too much put out by Meg’s arrival. At least, Ivo thought so. However, when his sister linked hands with him in turn, she met his smile with a reproving scowl.

“Are you satisfied?” she asked under her breath.

“Immensely,” he replied. “I’ve often found that the best way of enacting change is to force it upon the resisting parties.”

“You may have ruined my plans,” she informed him.

Ivo doubted it. Unless he was mistaken, Heywood was as thunderstruck by Kate as James was by Heywood’s sister. “Really?” Ivo inquired, still smiling. “My own are going swimmingly.”

* * *

There were no more waltzes. For the next five dances, whoever it was taking a turn at the pianoforte—first Lord St. Clare, then Lady Allendale, then Lady Kate—only played music that was bright, merry, and decidedly unromantic.

Meg couldn’t regret it. This was no place for romance. Not tonight. Not now she was here.