The Devil's Web by Mary Balogh Page B

and new gown of blue silk. James had been smiling at her as he led her out onto the floor. And she had noticed in one glance at the two of them that that lock of dark hair that had always used to fall down over his brow was there again. Far away as she had been from him, her fingers had itched to push the hair back.
    Jason was looking down into her eyes. He still held her close.
    â€œI think you are probably very good and very experienced at this,” she said, smiling at him. “And I think you had better not give me any further proof of that right now, Jason, or someone might come in and collapse in a fit of the vapors.”
    â€œI am hoping to be discovered by your mama or one of your brothers,” he said, “so that you will be forced to marry me.”
    â€œGracious!” she said, laughing. “If I were forced to marry every man who has ever kissed me, I would have a veritable harem, you know. Can a woman have a harem?”
    â€œI’ve no idea,” he said. “Madeline, I have not spoiled your evening, have I?”
    She shook her head. “Not if I have not spoiled yours,” she said. “It is very flattering, you see, to be offered for by a gentleman whom all the ladies sigh over. But I would not want to hurt you, Jason, and I might, you know, if you are serious about this and if you are confident of eventual success.”
    â€œI am closer to forty than thirty in age,” he said. “I think
I have learned in all those years that no one really does die of a broken heart. I will doubtless survive if you do finally reject me. And you see how jaded one becomes with advancing age? I should be declaring, hand to heart, that I will expire on the spot if you cannot declare yourself to be mine for all eternity.”
    She tapped him on the wrist with her fan. “The music has stopped,” she said. “Lord North will be expecting me for the next set. He will doubtless have all sorts of nonsense to say to me. I have known the man forever, but he has never been silly until this year.”
    â€œI really would expire,” he said, “if I thought you would ever call me silly, Madeline.”
    She chuckled and took his arm. And felt lost and a little frightened as they returned to the ballroom. She seemed to have lost all control over her own life. She had been so sure of herself only an hour before. Less, even. And now emptiness yawned. If she rejected Jason, what was there in her future? If she could not love him, then perhaps she could love no one.
    Miss Cameron was being led onto the floor by Walter.
Dominic was laughing with Ellen over some joke.
Edmund was sitting beside Lady Beckworth and making conversation with her. James was not in the room.
    There was a painful emptiness where the excitement had been until just a short while before. And she knew what had caused the emptiness. She was not free of him.
She had not been for four years. And perhaps she never would be.
    It was a thoroughly frightening prospect.

D UNCAN CAMERON WAS ENJOYING HIMSELF. James watched him dance with an unknown young lady and remembered the amusement his friend had shown when he received the invitation.
    â€œHeady stuff this, man,” he had said, “for a simple
homme du nord,
this mixing with the aristocracy. Of course, I have been doing it for some time. I must never forget that you are heir to a baron’s title.” He had clapped his friend on the shoulder.
    â€œYou never did forget,” James had said. “Do you think I don’t know why you befriended me?”
    Duncan had punched him none too gently on the arm.
    It amused James to know just how out of place his friend was in such a setting, though he was undoubtedly enjoying himself. Duncan was a man who craved the free and often lonely life of a northman, who longed to go back into the interior and rejoin the Cree wife and son he had left at a trading post on the Saskatchewan River more than a year