Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(21)

“While we were in there?” Eucch. What a wretched idea! Luckily, it only took me a moment to dismiss it. “Not possible,” I said firmly. “The room was absolutely empty apart from me and Angeline, and she certainly didn’t do any magic while we…oh.” I took a quick breath. “Did it smell of burnt sugar?”

“Yes. The rogue’s does, too. But it’s not quite as…” Alexander let out a sound of frustration. “Oh, it’s impossible to describe the difference. But this was very, very close to the rogue’s scent without being quite the same.”

“I know who gave off that scent,” I said. “There was another lady, Mrs. Montrose, doing magic in the room when we first arrived. But she was only casting a minor illusion spell to improve her appearance. She was the one whose spell I snapped earlier.”

“Mm.” There was an odd tone to Alexander’s voice this time; I had a nasty suspicion that he was suppressing a laugh. “I wondered just what had happened there.”

“I suppose you felt the spell snap, even from a distance.” I sighed. “Well, I’m sure no matter where you were standing, you must have seen enough to realize that that was the real Prince of Wales, after all.”

“That I did.” That hint of a laugh disappeared entirely, leaving a hard edge behind. “I saw him doing his best to hold you trapped afterwards, too.”

“Oh, well…” I shrugged, grimacing. “That was all a bit embarrassing, but—”

“How?” Alexander asked tightly. He stepped closer, his tone dropping to a low growl. “How exactly did he embarrass you, Kat? And what was he trying to gain from you?”

I felt an odd prickling run up my arms at the tone in Alexander’s voice. I might never have heard it in any man’s voice before, but it was impossible to mistake the sound of protective anger…and I had to admit, there was a tiny, horrifying part of myself that actually rather liked hearing it from him.

It wasn’t enough to make me lose my wits, though. The last thing that any of us needed tonight was any traditionally nonsensical male behavior mucking up our mission. I’d seen more than enough of that sort of thing with my brother Charles and his friends from university in earlier years.

Clearly, the mood had to be lightened.

“I wouldn’t bother calling him out for the insult, if I were you,” I said flippantly. Giving a trilling social laugh, I patted Alexander’s arm as firmly if he were one of Elissa’s children, needing to be calmed down by their Aunt Kat. “Really, that wouldn’t do at all.”

My social laugh didn’t seem to have done the trick. Instead of relaxing, the muscles in Alexander’s arm tightened under my hand. There was a long, uncomfortable pause. When he finally replied, his voice was utterly flat. “Of course. I was forgetting my place.”

“No! That is not what I said at all.” I gritted my teeth, cursing his pride to Yorkshire and back. “What I meant was that I got away perfectly well by myself, remember? It’s over and done with, and there’s no need to worry about it anymore. Besides, he’s not the only gentleman to have tried to talk me out here tonight. Unless you’re planning to call out Mr. Packenham, too—”

“What?” Outrage vibrated in Alexander’s voice. “That drunken lecher Packenham tried to talk you out into the gardens? On your own?”

“Who cares?” I demanded, throwing up my hands. “For heaven’s sake—do I look as if I said yes?”

There was a moment of pulsating silence as the breeze rustled the branches of the tree above and around us…and we both absorbed exactly where I was, in fact, standing at that moment.

“Well, I didn’t say yes to him,” I muttered. “Or to the Prince, either. So there’s nothing to be so shocked about, is there?”

Alexander tipped his head forward and let out a helpless-sounding laugh. It ruffled my hair, warm and inexplicably soothing. “Good God, Kat, you’re a menace. I can’t believe you dragged me out here into the night after turning down two illicit invitations already this evening. If anyone saw us here together, they’d think I was as lecherous as Packenham.”

“Well, we both know that isn’t true,” I said.

Alexander didn’t answer.

I waited…then raised my eyebrows as the silence extended itself. Finally, I asked, testing the words on my tongue: “Are you trying to tell me not to trust you?”

It was too ridiculous to seriously contemplate.

I might not be able to see his expression, but I heard the wince in his voice with perfect clarity. “No!” he muttered. “Don’t be stupid. I’d never dishonor you.”

“Well, I thought not.” There was a tiny, inconsequential quiver of disappointment in my belly, but I did my best to ignore it. “So—”

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” he muttered.

I went still, my own voice stopping in my throat.

A ripple of warmth unfurled inside my belly and stretched like a cat all up and down my front. I took a deep breath, tasting the fresh scents of the sweet chestnut tree and the grass. The breeze through the branches brushed against my cheek and hair, like a whisper urging me: Go on.

I looked up at Alexander, struggling to make out his face through the darkness. “You want to…dishonor me?”