Regency: Rakes & Reputations. Gail Ranstrom

watched Miss Eugenia from the corner of his eye, noting that she looked anxious. Was she concerned that he would not mind his manners? No. She knew him well enough by now to know he would not embarrass Miss Race.

      He led her onto the dance floor for a quadrille and attempted polite conversation as they met, parted and met again. “I believe we have been previously introduced, Miss Race?”

      “I do not think so, Mr. Hunter. I am certain I would have remembered.”

      “Then how is your face familiar?”

      “‘Twould not be so odd, sir, as we frequent the same events. Perhaps you have seen me across a room? Perhaps at the punch bowl? Or perhaps we have passed in the street?”

      He conceded the point, though he still suspected they knew each other in some manner or another. “How have you fallen into such bad company as the Thayers and Miss O’Rourke?”

      She laughed softly and he was enchanted by the sound. “I have known Hortense and Harriett for quite some time. Our families are connected. I have only just met Miss O’Rourke.”

      “Tell me what you think of her.”

      He sensed a slight stiffening in her frame as he passed her beneath his arm. “She is quite agreeable. In fact, she has requested that I join their group tonight. I think we shall get along famously.”

      Miss Eugenia requested? An innocent enough way to meet and become acquainted with new people, though he could not help but think she was up to something. Miss Eugenia was not random in her actions.

      The dance ended and Jamie’s anger rose when he returned Miss Race only to find that Miss Eugenia had disappeared. She’d known she was next and had tried to subvert him. How little she knew of his determination! It would take more than she was capable of to keep him from his purpose.

      “Miss O’Rourke offers her apologies, but she was…ah, fatigued and has gone to the ladies’ retiring room,” Miss Harriett explained.

      Harriett Thayer was not a good liar. He smiled, offered a bow, and excused himself to take up station at the corridor leading to the ladies’ retiring room.

      Before long, and thinking she was now safe, Miss Eugenia rounded the corner on her way back to her friends. He fell into step beside her and took her arm, guiding her back toward the ballroom. “Ah, my patience has rewarded me. How could I possibly leave without our dance?”

      Gina covered her astonishment as best she could. She’d been so sure she’d evaded him. He was more patient than she had thought. “I confess to a certain curiosity, Mr. Hunter. Have you always been quite this…social? Or is this a new habit?”

      He laughed. “You have me there, although I do tend to be more social than my brothers. And, when there is something to interest me, I am positively unshakable.”

      “Hmm. So then am I to gather that you are testing the boundaries of our truce? Or are you sweet on someone here?”

      “Both, if I am to be honest. And, since it is my fate to dote upon someone who hates me, if you refuse me I shall be quite inconsolable.”

      He led her into the strains of a waltz and Gina sighed. She was glad he had saved their dance for last. Oh, she had dreaded it, and had even tried to avoid it, but now that the inevitable had happened, she found her excitement rising. James Hunter always made her feel as if she were about to embark on an exciting adventure.

      “So thoughtful, Miss O’Rourke? Or are you anxious to return to your friends?”

      “They are quite diverting,” she allowed, but she was more concerned with keeping him away from Miss Race. If he made the connection between the girl and the Brotherhood, he would instantly know what she was doing. And yet, she could not help but ask, “Had you not met Miss Race before?”

      A brief look of uncertainty passed over his features. “I had not had that pleasure. I must say she is quite lovely. I find it difficult to believe I managed to miss her before.”

      “Connoisseur of lovely women that you are?”

      He laughed and swung her in a wide circle. “Are you calling me conceited, Miss O’Rourke?”

      “Heaven forbid! Fickle, perhaps …”

      “For what it is worth, I rank you among the loveliest to grace the ton, Miss O’Rourke. And by my reckoning, you are generating a good deal of interest.”

      The hair raised on the back of Gina’s neck. She had felt the stares, but she suspected they were for a different reason, and likely from men who had seen her naked on a stone altar. And interest was not what she wanted to generate. She’d rather blend into the background—the better to overhear snippets of conversation that could be of help to her.

      “There is that look again,” Mr. Hunter said. “The one that tells me I’ve said something wrong.”

      “Not wrong, Mr. Hunter. It is just that…well, I do not want to generate interest.”

      “Then why have you come out in society?”

      “I…I thought I should experience London before returning to Ireland.”

      His eyes narrowed and he drew her off the dance floor. “That is a bare-faced lie, Miss O’Rourke. It was a lie the first time you told it, and it is now. I would hazard you have experienced more than enough of London.”

      She gasped at his sudden fierceness. “The wrong London. I wanted to take a happier memory home with me.”

      He took her hand and led her into the famed Albermarle gardens among dozens of strolling couples. Still, it was more private than the ballroom. He found them a bench surrounded by sculpted evergreens and gestured for her to sit. As much as she would have liked to return to the ballroom, she followed his direction.

      “Now, Miss O’Rourke,” he began as he stood in front of her, one foot propped on the bench next to her hip, as if to keep her from bolting. “I know you are up to something. Do not bother to deny it.”

      “Really, sir. I needn’t explain myself to you.”

      “You are going to explain to someone. Me or Andrew. Or better yet, your mother.”

      Gina shuddered. Her mother would have hysterics followed by locking Gina in her room until their return to Ireland. “I’ve told you the truth before. I am tired of hiding in fear. I will not live the rest of my life locked away or shunning society. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

      “Apart from sneaking out and joining in fast company to go places no decently brought-up young woman should ever go? Apart from keeping company with the likes of Henley? Apart, even, from nearly getting yourself killed?”

      She had underestimated his anger. And he had misjudged hers. He had backed her into a corner, and he was going to pay the consequences of that. “Are you saying that I am to blame for what happened to me? “

      “Only in that you made a series of wrong decisions for all the right reasons. But you cannot ignore the fact that you are a female, with all the vulnerabilities of that sex.”

      “I am not ignoring it, but I will not allow it to prevent me from doing what I must.”

      “And what is that, Miss O’Rourke?”

      “Talk to people, discover if anyone knows what has become of Mr. Henley. See to it that he is captured and punished.”

      “Even if that means exposing your …”

      Gina’s stomach turned. Exposing her shame? The fact that she had been splayed on a stone altar? That she was to have been raped and killed for the titillation of dissolute men? No! Dear Lord, no. She did not want any of it made public. But if she was not willing to risk that, Henley was sure to get away with what he’d done to her and countless others. “Even then,” she confirmed, keeping her voice steady and determined.

      He looked into her eyes, measuring her