Regency Desire: Mistress to the Marquis / Dicing with the Dangerous Lord. Margaret McPhee

did not look at him. She did not need to.

      And all of the past was whispering through him, taunting him as surely as she was.

      Something inside of him felt dangerously close to snapping.

      Alice sipped her champagne and let herself relax a little. They were halfway through the evening. She had got this far. She could manage the rest of it. Just about.

      The notes of the next piece of music began, just those first few notes and her stomach sank and her blood turned to ice. And she was gripping the glass so tight that her knuckles shone white.

      Fate could not be so cruel. Please God, let her be mistaken.

      But the notes played on, blossoming into music, and there could be no mistake. She knew that music, knew that dance. The Volse. Their dance. Hers and Razeby’s.

      Her heart faltered, stumbling over its beats.

      ‘Shall we dance, Miss Sweetly?’ Devlin’s voice was warm and close.

      She felt frozen with horror. No! she wanted to say, categorically, unreservedly. No! It wasn’t supposed to be like this. ‘I’m only halfway through my champagne, Lord Devlin. We’ll dance the next one.’ She forced the smile to her lips.

      ‘Come, Miss Sweetly,’ he chided in a teasing tone. ‘Leave the champagne. I’ll buy you a bottle of the stuff when we come off the floor.’ And then to her horror he held his hand out in a gesture that was an obvious invitation on to the dance floor. Anyone that was looking would have known that he was asking her to dance.