Chapter 2 #2
She turned and let out a small gasp. Standing next to her was Julian Wycombe, Duke of Lynden. She had not seen Julian in perhaps two years or more, but she recognized him at once.
Her dear friend, Arabella, was his cousin, and Clara had spent much of her childhood at his estates, both here in London and in the country.
They had played together when they were younger though he was nine years older than her, and thus, such games had stopped long ago—the interests of a twelve-year-old being simply not the interests of a one-and-twenty-year-old.
But still, she had fond memories of him, and the fact that he was stepping in now spoke well of him.
“Excuse me, I don’t know who you think you are,” the Captain said. He raised his quizzing glass and looked Julian up and down with undisguised contempt, as though he were inspecting something he had found on the bottom of his boot.
“I think that I am a duke, and you are not even titled. I also think that it would be in your best interest if you stepped away now and allowed me to dance with the lady before I am compelled to make a scene. I am, after all, a person of some consequence in this room. I wonder, can you say the same?”
The Captain narrowed his eyes, but he took a step back and raised his hands. “Very well. I shall leave you to it.” He walked away, and as he went, he cut her direct, which told her everything she needed to know about his character.
She exhaled. Justice. The music started, and Julian placed his hands on her. “I think we should dance,” he said. “Otherwise, it will only look peculiar.”
“I agree,” she said, and the two of them fell into step. The second dance was slower, and she was relieved to find that Julian’s hands were resting just where propriety required with precisely the right amount of pressure.
“I could have managed perfectly well myself,” she said. “There was no need for you to step in.”
“I am well aware. However, it was beginning to look rather unseemly, and given everything, I thought it prudent that I should.”
“I see you still fancy yourself a proper savior as you always did.”
“And I see,” he said, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, “that you are in fine looks tonight, despite having only just arrived back in London. Scotland appears to have agreed with you.”
She blinked. She had not expected that. “You are at points with me already, and we have barely spoken two sentences,” she said.
“On the contrary,” he replied, “I meant it as a compliment. Though I can see how a ninnyhammer such as Lansdale might have put you on your guard.”
“I have dealt with worse scoundrels than this one,” she said with a shrug as they took another turn.
“I have heard. I will say, your former fiancé was quite the swine.”
She gasped in an exaggerated manner. “A swine? What language for a duke.”
“It is a suitable term for men like him who seek only to marry upward. I hope he falls face first in manure.”
She looked at him with a genuine smile. Julian always had a way about him that was as charming as it was infuriating.
“And your lady alongside him,” she replied. She felt him stiffen slightly. The news of his broken engagement had reached her before she’d gone to Scotland, but she hadn’t spoken to him about it as she’d not seen him.
“They make quite a pair,” he said. “But I do hope that your time in Scotland, and the events preceding it, haven’t robbed you of your romantic nature.”
She dipped her head to one side. “I did not know you ever noticed my romantic nature.”
“I have noticed it as much as you have noticed my charming personality.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You have a charming personality? We ought to alert the broadsheets. I do not think the realm is aware.”
“Do not tell me you did not find me charming when you used to visit me.”
She smiled at him, enjoying his incredulity. “I never visited you, Your Grace. I visited your cousin, who happened to live at your estate. That is all. You merely happened to live there, too.”
“Ha,” he exclaimed. “You seek to wound me, I see. Scotland has hardened you.”
The music slowed them as the dance came to an end. When they stopped, she looked up at him once more, for he stood a head taller than she.
“On the contrary. It has made me wiser. It has been a pleasure, I will say that much. And I do thank you for coming to my aid. Even though it was unnecessary.”
He bowed before her.
“I am always available should you need an unwanted knight in shining armor.”
With that, he departed into the crowd, and Clara shook her head. Who would have thought that on her first day back in London, she should run into Julian? It was like a reminder from a long-ago past, a past she’d almost forgotten.
And one she was pleased to have remembered, even if only momentarily, for it was true—he had always been charming, and the days spent as his estate were among the happiest of her childhood.
Not that she was going to tell him that.
No, Julian was too devoted to his own ego to need such compliments. Still, it was nice he’d stepped in to help her. Chivalry, no matter how self-motivated, was not yet dead after all.