TemptingJuliana (6 page)

While Amanda was off dancing with her fourth or fifth potential suitor, and Juliana was inviting—well, perhaps begging—Rachael’s two sisters to attend her little sewing party tomorrow, Griffin brought a strange man to meet her.

Not that he was actually
strange
, mind you. But he was definitely a stranger. Which Juliana found intriguing, because, honestly, she’d thought she had met every eligible man who’d bothered to come to town this Season.

“My sister,” Griffin said by way of introduction. “Lady Juliana.”

The man was handsome, fair-haired, and not too tall. Juliana smiled and curtsied.

“Juliana, I would be pleased for you to meet David Harcourt, the Duke of Castleton.”

A duke! Handsome, fair-haired, not too tall,
and
wealthy and well connected. Juliana’s heart fluttered with excitement as the duke bowed over her hand. “Would you honor me with a dance, Lady Juliana?”

“It would be my pleasure,” she said and let him lead her onto the floor.

The duke’s dress and bearing were both impeccable, and he proved to be a fine dancer. “Where have you been all Season?” she asked.

“Abroad, seeing to some of my interests now that the war with France has come to an end.”

“Ah.” Though he wasn’t holding her very closely, she could smell his costly eau de cologne. “All your many interests keep you busy, then?”

“Not usually.” He had calm, pale blue eyes. “It’s been years since I’ve been overseas. I much prefer to stay here in town and fill my life with amusements.”

No profession, nothing to keep him from spending lots of time with her. His blond hair was neatly groomed—unlike tousled Lord Stafford, he obviously had time to tend to it. He was sounding better and better. Perfect, as a matter of fact.

“I adore being amused,” she told him and gave him
the look
.

Unfortunately, he did not fall at her feet. In fact, he appeared rather discomfited. “It was cold on the Continent,” he said, as though she hadn’t just tried to attract him.

So he was proper and reserved. She supposed she could deal with that. “As cold as it’s been here?”

“Not quite. And certainly not as rainy.”

“It
snowed
this month. In June!”

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, amazing.”

Not exactly scintillating conversation, but then, they didn’t know each other yet. There would be plenty of time later to speak of deeper things, Juliana told herself.

When the dance ended, the duke quite properly delivered her back to her brother.

“Well?” Griffin asked after the man had bowed and walked away. “I suppose you want me to keep looking?”

“To the contrary,” she said. “I expect it’s very likely that no more introductions will be necessary. How old is the duke? Do you know?” He didn’t
look
terribly ancient, but most of the dukes she knew were in their dotage.

“You’re not dismissing him out of hand?” Griffin looked vastly surprised—and pleased, not to mention relieved. “I believe he is thirty-two.”

While she’d prefer a man in his twenties—she was searching for love, not early widowhood—thirty-two was
not so very old. The man appeared more ideal by the moment.

A deep voice interrupted her musings. “Good evening, Lady Juliana.”

She glanced over to see Lord Stafford. “Good evening,” she returned.

“Cainewood,” he said, addressing Griffin, “you wouldn’t happen to know any aging widowers, would you?”

“Looking for more patients, Stafford? Old ones, with many ailments?”

“No.” He gestured toward three mature women standing in a tight cluster. “I’m looking for dance partners for my mother and her sisters, Lady Avonleigh and Lady Balmforth.”

“Dance partners?” Juliana asked, her interest piqued. “Or possible suitors?”

“My sister fancies herself a matchmaker,” Griffin explained.

“I do not,” she retorted. “I simply try to help people, make them happy.”

“A noble endeavor,” Lord Stafford assured her. “However, I am not looking for husbands for my mother and aunts. Dance partners will do.”

Lord Malmsey came to mind, but although he was too old for Amanda, he was too young for Lord Stafford’s mother. And besides, she’d already decided he belonged with Aunt Frances.

“May I borrow your quizzing glass?” she asked.

Instead of taking it off, Lord Stafford handed it to her with the long chain still around his neck. She leaned closer to raise it to her left eye. He smelled not of costly eau de cologne but something closer to soap.

Very male soap.

A quick scan of the room through the quizzing glass revealed a few likely dance partners for his relations, and she wasted no time corralling them and introducing them to the three women. Not five minutes later, she stood hip to hip with Lord Stafford, the two of them watching his mother and aunts perform a quadrille.

Or at least they would have been hip to hip had he not been so overly tall.

“That,” Lord Stafford said, looking a little stunned, “was impressive.”

Juliana shrugged, much the same as he had when she’d remarked that he’d saved Lord Neville’s life. “I am good at what I do.”

“You certainly are.” The musicians finished the quadrille and struck up a lilting waltz. “May I have this dance?” he suddenly asked.

Although she would rather have danced again with the duke, it wouldn’t be seemly to refuse. “It would be my pleasure.”

When he took her hand, a peculiar flutter erupted in her middle. That had nothing to do with him, of course. It was just because everything was going so well. She’d found the duke, and Amanda had her pick of young suitors, and Lord Malmsey was going to fall head over heels for Aunt Frances. She might even be able to match Lord Stafford’s mother and aunts with eligible widowers this Season, no matter that he only wanted them to dance. All of her projects were beginning to work.

No, that flutter had nothing to do with Lord Stafford. She had no interest in him whatsoever. In fact, he might well be the ideal man for Amanda. He was a doctor, after all, and Amanda wasn’t sickened by blood. She would make him a good wife. And Amanda was tall, so the two of them would look excellent together.

And perhaps she, Juliana, would be a duchess! She could already picture herself walking down the aisle with the duke.

She glanced up to find Lord Stafford staring at her again, like he had last week when they’d danced. And again she found that unnerving. He seemed a very intense sort of man.

She racked her brain for something to say that would get him talking instead of staring. “I missed you at Almack’s last Wednesday.”

His chocolate eyes widened. “You missed me?”

She hadn’t meant it like that. “You weren’t there. Do you not like Almack’s?”

James abhorred the very idea of the place—it was a veritable marriage mart, the men in attendance little more than targets for young girls and their scheming
mamas—but he wouldn’t say that to Juliana. “My mother obtained a voucher for me,” he said instead, which was nothing less than the truth, “but there was trouble at the Institute that night, so I was unable to attend.”

That was nothing less than the truth as well, although another truth was that he’d have found a different excuse to back out had that one not presented itself.

“How unfortunate,” she said. “I hope the trouble wasn’t too dreadful.”

“A shortage of staff. I had to fill in myself, as well as interview new candidates.”

“What sort of staff were you looking for? Did you find anyone?”

Given her inclination toward helping people, he wouldn’t be surprised should she offer to find someone for him. “A young woman to act as an assistant. To keep the physicians well supplied and make sure the patients are seen as quickly and efficiently as possible. And yes, I found someone. I wouldn’t be here tonight if I hadn’t.”

Her blue-green eyes narrowed. “You would work on a Saturday evening?”

“Smallpox doesn’t know the day of the week; we must immunize as many as possible. And working people cannot visit during normal working hours. When I’m in town, New Hope is open from ten o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night, every day except Sunday.”

Most shops kept the same hours, so he wondered why she looked so disapproving. And he wished she didn’t. Because, truthfully, the more he saw of her, the more he liked her. She was so full of good intentions and the liveliness that had been missing from his life.

He realized, quite suddenly, that Anne’s face wasn’t shimmering before his eyes. In fact, he hadn’t thought about Anne at all while dancing with Juliana. Not for the barest moment. Although Juliana couldn’t be more different from Anne—his wife had been a very serious young lady—he could almost imagine marrying her.

Almost. But not quite. Because he’d have to fall in love with her first, and that wasn’t going to happen.

Even should he someday feel ready to fall in love—
even should he someday manage to get over the notion that it would be too much of a betrayal—love would never happen with Juliana. She wasn’t right for him, no matter how appealing he found her. Although she might be “good at what she did,” what she did was entirely too frivolous for a man of his demeanor.

But she felt rather good in his arms. In the light from the chandeliers overhead, her hair gleamed, an intriguing mix of pale gold and light brown and every shade in between. And those blue-green-hazel eyes—he couldn’t stop himself from staring at them, trying to figure out what color they were.

When the dance came to an end, he wasn’t sure whether he was sorry or relieved.

“I have someone I’d like you to meet,” she said.

He didn’t want to meet anyone. He wanted to go home to Stafford House. Without his mother. Maybe she’d sleep at her sisters’ town house tonight, the three of them giggling like young girls discussing their latest conquests. A man could hope.

No, she’d come home as always, probably vexed with him for making her dance with a man not her husband. That had been the whole idea, hadn’t it? To make her realize grieving spouses didn’t belong on the marriage mart?

“You don’t mind, do you?” Juliana’s enthusiastic voice snapped him back to attention. “Lady Amanda is really quite lovely.”

Oh, yes, she wanted him to meet someone. Lady Amanda. Right. “I don’t mind at all,” he lied. “Where is this lovely lady?”

She shot him an unreadable glance before heading across the ballroom. “Follow me, Lord Stafford.”

“James.”

“Pardon?”

He watched her shapely, swaying bottom as he followed her. “My given name is James.”

She slowed down until he caught up. “We scarcely know each other, Lord Stafford.”

True. But he’d been thinking of her as Juliana practically since the moment they’d met. Not Lady Juliana, just Juliana.

Odd, that.

“We’ve danced together twice,” he pointed out.

“That hardly makes us intimates.”

Intimates.
The word caused a vision to swim through his head. A very inappropriate vision, even though he’d already decided she was entirely too frivolous. “Just call me James,” he snapped.

“Very well.” She huffed out an impatient sigh and came to a stop before a clutch of men. “Come along,” she said and pushed in.

A blond woman was in the center. A lovely blond woman. A lovely blond woman who caused no visions to swim through his head.

Juliana smiled. “Lord Stafford—James—this is Lady Amanda Wolverston. Amanda, Lord Stafford.”

“Lady Amanda,” he said with a proper bow. He wasn’t tempted to call her just Amanda. Or even think of her as just Amanda. She was Lady Amanda through and through.

But Juliana was just Juliana.

This entire evening was proving most disconcerting.

“Lord Stafford,” Lady Amanda returned formally. “I’m delighted to meet you.”

She was lovely and delighted. Being a gentleman, he had to do the polite thing. “May I have the honor of the next dance?”

Lady Amanda smiled a lovely smile, though it looked a tad forced. “With pleasure, my lord,” she said, not sounding as delighted as she claimed.

Juliana shot them both a grin.

At least someone was happy.

Lady Amanda was a fine dancer. But she didn’t feel particularly good in his arms. Although she wasn’t nearly as animated as Juliana, she chatted amiably enough, and she
was
quite lovely, but when the dance ended he wasn’t sorry; he was only relieved.

Another man claimed her immediately. James’s mother sidled near, breathless. “What a lovely girl.”

“Yes. Did you enjoy your dance?” he asked, expecting to hear she hadn’t. Expecting to hear she wasn’t ready to think of men other than her departed husband. Expecting to hear her apologize for encouraging him to court women when he clearly wasn’t ready, either.

“They were delightful,” she said instead.

“They?”

“The dances. All three of them. And all three men. Aurelia and Bedelia thought one dance quite enough, so I danced with their men, too.” She took both his hands in hers. “Thank you, my dear. I’ll admit I thought the very idea was daft, but it’s high time I resumed a social life, and I appreciate your little push.”

He groaned. Silently, of course.

“I’m going to spend the night with Aurelia and Bedelia,” she added, looking happier than he’d seen her in ages. “Good evening, dear. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He certainly wanted her to be happy, he thought as she walked off, and he’d been wishing for a night home alone. So why did her news make him grit his teeth?

“Well, Stafford, you’ve certainly danced with your share of the ladies.”

He turned to see Cainewood. “I’m finished,” he said, relieved to be out from under Cornelia’s watchful eye. But he wasn’t ready to go home yet—suddenly
home alone
sounded lonely. “Can I interest you in a game of chess?”

“Chess? Haven’t touched a board since I left the army.” Cainewood sipped some of the concoction in his half-empty glass. “Sure. For how much?”

“You want to wager?”

“Afraid you’re going to lose?” Grinning, he sipped again. “Ten guineas.”

“Deal.” The stake was steep—certainly much more than they’d ever bet in their schooldays—but James grinned in return. “Follow me,” he said, leading his friend toward the card room.