It was true. Heath was leaning against the wall, watching them with the same intensity that often gave her the most delicious shivers. Deliberately, she turned her back on him, though she could not stop the thrumming of her blood through her veins.
Sir Percy shook his head. “I daresay the green-eyed monster has taken him over.”
“What is this ‘green-eyed monster’ you speak of?”
“It’s from Shakespeare’sOthello.” The music started, and he swept her into the dance. “Jealousy is the green-eyed monster.”
“Oh.”
Could Heath be jealous? Surely not, or he would have asked her to dance himself. Lord knows she had given him enough hints that she wished him to. Besides, one had to feel deeply for a person to be jealous, and he obviously did not feel deeply forher.
Nothing the man did made sense to her. He could not make up his mind what he wanted, and she was tired of trying to figure it out. So, she would dance with Sir Percy, and anyone else who asked, and have a grand time. She did not need Heath’s mercurial emotions destroying her enjoyment tonight.
For the next hour, she danced with a number of gentlemen. She flirted and laughed and tried to pretend that the sinfully handsome man who stood in the corner brooding, drinking champagne, andwatching her obsessively did not hold her entire attention every moment.
Because she hated that he did so. She wished she could forget about him entirely and have a pleasant time. Especially since he did not ask her to dance even once. It began to vex her. He did not ask anyone else to dance, either, but still, why not askher?
When Sir Percy came to ask her for a second dance, Heath appeared in front of her before she could answer.
“Your mother says she’s tired and ready to leave,” he said curtly.
She had not even seen Heath go to speak to Maman, but she had been dancing so enthusiastically that perhaps she had missed it. “Of course,” she replied, then turned to Sir Percy. “Forgive me, sir, but I must depart.”
Sir Percy took her hand and kissed it for the second time that night. “I am sure we’ll see each other another time,mon ange.”
Heath scowled at that, though he said nothing as he led her out the door. But as soon as they were in the hallway, he steered her back into the drawing room they’d been in earlier and closed the door.
That put her on her guard. “What about Maman?” she asked. “You said—”
“I lied,” he retorted, his expression as thunderous as his tone. “Last I saw her, she was having the time of her life talking to that same French gentleman she was with earlier. But before we join her we need to talk.”
She tensed even more. “About what?”
“You making a fool of me.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He stalked the room like a caged tiger. “You’re supposed to be my fiancée. But instead of keeping me company, you went off to dance with any man who asks.”
She crossed her arms. “Yes. Tory told me I am not allowed to refuse unless I mean not to dance anymore. And I wanted to dance.”
He cast her a withering glance. “With every Tom, Dick, and Harry, apparently.”
She blinked. “I do not remember their names, but I suppose there might have been a Tom, Dick, and Harry.”
“It’s an express—Never mind. The point is it will not help my cause one whit in court to have you dancing with anyone who asks!”
She frowned. “You could have asked me to dance withyouwhenever you pleased. Instead, you stood in a corner and sulked.”
“Sulked! I did not sulk!” He glanced away from her. “Besides, I didn’t want to dance.” He even sounded like a sulky boy, the devil.
“So,” she said, planting her hands on her hips, “was I supposed to sit here and do nothing simply because you dislike dancing?”
“I do not dislike … I never meant …” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “It is merely that when you show attention to everyonebutme, it raises speculation—”
“No one noticed or cared but you.” She marched over to thrust her face up to his. “Admit it, monsieur—this is not about your case in court. This is about your beingjalouxof Sir Percy.”
His gaze snapped to her. “I am not remotely jealous, and certainly not of Percy,” he ground out, his eyes ablaze.