The Wedding Game(22)

‘Well, then,’ Haines said, with a sudden, relieved smile. ‘I must go and ask someone else.’ He shook Ben’s hand from his shoulder, turned and left the two of them to an awkward silence.

She was staring at him now, and Ben wondered if it was her basilisk gaze that had put Haines off his game. Guy Templeton had claimed to be disturbed by it as well. Though it was threatening, he could not see what they found so troubling in it. Perhaps they felt the same desire he did, to stare back and study her as closely as she seemed to be studying him.

It was rude to stare, he reminded himself. And after their last meeting, showing this woman any interest at all sent a message he did not want to give. He did his best to change the stare into a surprised blink. ‘Well, that did not go as well as I’d hoped.’

She responded with a raised eyebrow. ‘What, precisely, were you hoping for, Mr Lovell?’

‘Merely to broaden your acquaintance. I think it is a shame that such a pretty girl should have so few male friends.’

‘Suitors, you mean,’ she said, still not smiling. ‘Perhaps no one wants to spend time with a frustrated spinster.’

There was no point in pretending their last meeting had not happened, if she meant to throw his hasty words back in his face. ‘I apologise. I should not have said such a thing.’

‘Even if it is true?’ she said, finishing his thought. ‘As I told you before, it is not.’

‘But it surprises me that your sister receives so much attention, while you receive none at all.’

Instead of drawing her into a wistful admission of disappointment, she laughed. ‘Do you talk this way to all the girls, Mr Lovell? You truly are new to the marriage mart, to say such things.’ She added a coquettish flutter of her fan, as if to cement her disguise as just another silly girl.

He knew her too well for it to work. Her actions were as calculated as his were. ‘I was merely matching my statement to your behaviour, Miss Summoner. You are a surprisingly blunt young woman.’

She nodded. ‘Then let me use that candour to enlighten you. First of all, I am not moved by your obvious flattery. I will not apply false modesty and deny that I am passably pretty. But neither will I pretend that Belle is not my superior. I might be pretty, Mr Lovell, but my younger sister is a goddess.’

It was true. And said without a trace of the envy he expected to hear in such a statement. ‘But some men do not want to worship at the feet of perfection. A goddess can be haughty and distant, not the warm flesh-and-blood woman who makes for a good...helpmeet.’ What was he saying? He had been about to suggest something totally inappropriate for a conversation with a lady. Even worse, he had forgotten his purpose in talking to her was to gain the hand of that same goddess he was now denying.

If she had noticed the pause, she did not acknowledge it. ‘If you knew Belle, you would discover that she is not the least bit distant. She is as human as the rest of us and as sweet tempered a creature as God ever put on this earth.’ She gave him another arch look. ‘That is why we are so careful in her company. I would not see her taken advantage of.’

‘Of course not,’ he agreed hurriedly. ‘But though concern for your sister is admirable, it is a shame that she overshadows you.’

‘I do not find it so,’ she said. ‘Because it is not true. Last night you assumed my Season was a failure. But you were not in London for my come out, Mr Lovell. I assure you, I received more than enough attention. In fact, I entertained the suit of your Mr Haines for several weeks.’

‘You knew him?’ By Haines’s shocked reaction, it had been obvious that he knew of her. But Ben had assumed that it had been the same mock-shuddering response Templeton had given him and not based on actual familiarity.

Then he noticed the glint of nostalgia in her eye.

‘What did you do to the poor fellow?’

‘No more than he deserved.’ The glimmer had become a twinkle of amusement.

‘Let me be the judge of that. What did you do to him?’

‘Would it not be better to ask what he did to me?’ she said, now smiling with evil glee.

‘Probably not. I did nothing at all to you at Almack’s. We had not even been introduced. Your assault on me was unprovoked.’

The look in response to that was pointed and the fleck in her eye no longer seemed to dance. It glowed amber with accusation. ‘You did nothing? Think again, sir.’

Had he done something to upset her? She seemed to think so. But what could it have been? He could not remember even hearing her name before the moment she dumped her lemonade on him. ‘We were not speaking of me,’ he said cautiously. ‘But if you insist on it, I will ask the question in a way that is most likely to get me an answer. What did Haines do to you that caused you to respond in a way that left him so wary of you?’

She nodded in approval, as though he were a particularly smart pupil and she the tutor. ‘I made my come out two years ago and he was one of the more promising suitors.’

‘You had more than one?’ It was rude of him to doubt the fact. Had he not just acclaimed her exceptionally pretty?

She responded with the sort of coy pout he’d have expected on any of the playful misses flirting by the pavilion. ‘More than two, as well. I will make you a list, if you wish. It will save us both the trouble of you making introductions to people I already know all too well.’