Page 95 of Appointment in Bath

She bent her head. “Please d-don’t tease me.”

“I’m not teasing.”

“You are.” Her fingers gripped his shoulder as he swirled her around again. “Gentlemen d-don’t duel any longer.”

“If you say so.”

“Why did you—”

“I came for you,” he said. “I’d have been here sooner, but I thought—” A regretful frown creased his brow. “Forgive me, I thought I was acting for the best. Giving you time or some such gallant thing. But I should have gone to Letchford Hall the very next morning, shouldn’t I have? It wasn’t time you wanted. You wanted me.”

She blushed furiously.

His fingers tightened at her waist. He drew her close, far closer than a gentleman should be holding a lady in the waltz. “You do want me, don’t you?” A flicker of uncertainty lent a huskiness to his question. “Because I want you, Meg.”

Her bosom rose and fell on a sharply indrawn breath. “Ivo—”

“But if you say that you’d prefer I leave you alone—that you don’t wish me to—”

“I do,” she said. “Oh, but I do. I’m sorry I said those things. That I got so angry with you that n-night. I never—”

“It’s me who should be apologizing. I used you abominably. You were right. I was impatient. I was trying to force the change. Instead, I hurt you and I made everyone else furious besides. It’s a thorough muddle.”

She went quiet a moment as they danced. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

“They should,” Ivo said. “They’re not unintelligent.”

“You haven’t told them?”

He hadn’t done. Not explicitly. But when he’d left the library the night of the dance at Beasley, when he’d parted from his parents to retire to bed, he’d had the sense that both of them had known exactly how it would be. They may not approve of his choice, but they wouldn’t forbid it outright. Not if it was a matter of love.

Which it was.

“They’re fully aware you have my heart,” he said. “And once a Beresford man loses his heart, he’s lost it forever. There’s no going back.”

“But if they don’t approve of our friendship—”

“This is between you and me, Meg. Not my parents. Not my brother. Not even your father. Just you and me.”

“We don’t exist in isolation.”

He smiled down at her. “In this moment, we do,” he said. “I can’t see anyone else but you.”

She sighed, melting a little in his arms. “I-I feel the same. It’s wretched.”

He was surprised into a short laugh. “Only wretched? I think it’s rather wonderful.”

Her hand slid up his shoulder. “Yes. Wonderful, too. I said wretched because…I’m afraid there won’t be a happy ending.”

“Oh but there will be,” Ivo promised. “Just you wait and see.”

* * *

Prior Park was a grand neo-Palladian mansion that had been built sometime in the early eighteenth century. Composed of pale stone, it resided on a hill overlooking all of Bath. The house itself, which was presently in use as a school, was only rivaled by its famous landscape gardens. It was these Meg had come to see, along with Lord Beaumont and several of his fashionable friends.

She’d hardly slept a wink the night before knowing that Ivo would be joining their party. What if it should rain? What if she was ill? What if he should change his mind about her?

All her worrying had been for naught.