Melinda Hammond Read Online Free

dance, my lord.’
    The earl inclined his head and led her on to the dance floor. She was aware of the interested stares of the spectators, and she lifted her chin, finding she was human enough to enjoy the sensation of having a partner when so many languished on the benches.
    ‘You are attracting no little attention, Miss Langham,’ her partner murmured.
    She chuckled. ‘They are looking to see the country nobody you have chosen to honour.’
    They stood side by side, gazing out at their audience and the earl spoke without looking at her.
    ‘One or two of the curious may be doing so, of course, but your beauty this evening is quite exceptional.’
    She flushed, muttered something incoherent and lapsed into silence. She did not understand this man: the words were flattering, but his lazy drawl indicated nothing but boredom.
    One dance, she told herself. That is all I have to endure. One dance and then I can be easy again.
    He took her hand to begin the dance and Melissa forgot everything except the music. They stepped and gestured, pirouetted and passed each other with graceful ease. Melissa wondered how it could be that they should move so well together, and as the courante drew towards its conclusion she found herself wanting to prolong the moment.
    The last notes died away and Lord Aldringham reached for her hand. ‘Will you stay for the minuet?’
    She knew she should refuse, take her place beside Lady Fryer, but she could not summon up the will to do so. She found herself taking up her position opposite the earl on the dance floor.
    The music swelled and rolled against her senses. Melissa lifted her eyes to the earl’s face and could not look away. He circled around her, his hypnotic gaze holding her eyes so that she was only dimly aware of the other couples on the dance floor. Her body was no longer her own, it moved and swayed in the same rhythm as her partner’s; when he stepped up to her the lace trim of her corsage brushed against his velvet coat. He led her round, first one way then the other, his eyes never leaving her face. She was lost. The music began again, another minuet, and still they danced. There were murmurs of disapproval from some of those mamas sitting on the benches, and even Lady Fryer began to grow uneasy, but Melissa noticed nothing. She was caught in a world outside time, aware only of her partner, the sinuous elegance of his movements as they followed the steps of the minuet and the way her own body swayed and circled around him while the music flowed about her. They were like two birds performing some ritual courtship, their bodies expressing a primeval language she barely understood.
    The earl took her hand and led her back to their original positions, bowing as the music ended. Melissa curtsied mechanically to her partner. Her eyes searched his face and, reassured by the smile lurking in his own hard eyes, she was about to speak when another voice broke in.
    ‘Well, well, very nice, my dear, but time is pressing -your aunt mistook the day - another engagement. Come along Melissa, I am sure the earl won’t ... your servant, my lord!’
    In a flurry of half-finished sentences, Sir Joseph caught Melissa’s arm and almost dragged her off the dance floor. The spell broken, she heard the earl laugh softly as her uncle led her away.
    ‘Sir Joseph, what is it? What has happened?’
    Trying to collect her scattered wits, Melissa questioned her uncle, but he merely shook his head and hurried her out of the ballroom. Lady Fryer was waiting at the door and turned to follow them. Outside, the cool of the summer night quickly washed away the remains of Melissa’s stupor and she pulled her arm free from her uncle’s grasp, demanding to know what was wrong.
    ‘I’ll tell you what is wrong, miss,’ declared Sir Joseph furiously, ‘you have given every tattlemonger in Bath enough fodder for a month!’
    ‘What?’
    ‘To dance with only one man all night, and that man the Earl of Aldringham!