Helen curtsied to her brother. ‘Like this, Louisa.’
‘LadyLouisa,’ Lord Cheswick reminded his sister.
‘Oh, I have told your sisters that their calling me just Louisa is fine,’ she said, her cheeks warm. ‘My lord.’
‘Just Louisait is,’ Becca said with a giggle. ‘You can drop Wick’s title as well. If you keep calling in “my lord” he will get terribly toplofty.’
Louisa’s face felt as if it was on fire when she turned to look at the Marquess. ‘I couldn’t...’
‘Please,’ he said in a low, attractive voice. ‘My sisters will tease me abominably if you do not.’
‘That’s true,’ Helen chimed in.
‘Louisa, if your rank is beneath theirs, you lower your eyes when you curtsy,’ Frederica explained. ‘But if it is the same, or higher, you don’t have to.Weonly lower our eyes for royalty.’
‘Now you try,’ Becca said.
Louisa stood in front of Wick—it felt so intimate even to think of him by that name. He bowed to her, one hand on his waist, in a graceful bend. His brown eyes never left hers. Taking a quick breath, Louisa placed one foot behind the other and sank into a deep curtsy. She was too shy to keep eye contact with him when he was smiling at her.
‘Too low,’ Helen said, shaking her head.
‘He’s not royal, Louisa,’ Frederica said, wagging her finger at her. ‘Don’t give him any self-aggrandising ideas. You only need to do a slight bend of your knees.’
Her face even redder, Louisa stood up. Her pulse was racing and her heart beating loudly in her chest. Loud enough that she was sure that the Stringhams could hear it.
‘Try again?’ Becca suggested.
Helen touched the bottom of Louisa’s chin. ‘And keep your chin up. He’s only acourtesymarquess. Not even the real thing.’
Wick barked out a laugh and gave Louisa another perfect bow. Biting her lower lip, Louisa kept her eyes and chin up and made a shaky bounce with her knees, barely dipping. Her body felt stiff and unnatural. Aunt Rockingham had been right: Louisa was terribly awkward.
Frederica clicked her tongue and folded her arms across her chest. ‘Not bad, but not good... Louisa, you need to try again.’
‘Why don’t you three go and play a game of cards over at the table near Mrs May?’ Wick suggested, clearing his throat. ‘I think having three demanding tutors is rather overwhelmingJust Louisa.’
Louisa’s lips twitched upwards when he said her name. ‘Just Louisa’ almost felt like an endearment. But that was ridiculous. He’d made his lack of interest in her plain.
‘Her face is very red,’ Becca remarked with painful honesty.
Louisa touched both of her cheeks with her gloved hands. They did feel hot—but then so did the rest of her. Oh, how she wished she were a polished and accomplished young lady.
‘All right, Wick. I suppose we can play someSpeculation,’ Helen said, the last word dripping with innuendo.
All the Stringhams laughed—even Wick. The three sisters moved to the round table on the other side of the room and sat down. Mrs May brought them a pack of cards but did not join their game.
Wick grinned at Louisa and her heart jumped inside her chest. Her pulse felt erratic, and even the blood in her veins seemed to heat under his scrutiny.
‘There’s no need to be nervous,’ he said, with a smile that melted away what was left of her sense. ‘I don’t bite...despite what my sisters say.’
But Louisa had already been bitten. This young, handsome, loving, kind and perfectly wonderful marquess had quite captured her heart. But Aunt Rockingham had been right. Such a man would not be interested in her romantically. Not even her fortune would tempt him.
Her eyes fell to her borrowed slippers. ‘I don’t want to disgrace you or myself in public.’
He shook his head, giving her the same sweet, tender look he gave his little sisters. ‘You couldn’t. You’re every inch a lady.’
Louisa released a shuddering breath, daring to move her gaze from her feet to his boots. ‘I’ve been dreaming of having a London season since I was a little girl. My mother died when I was seven years old, and my strongest memory of her is the story she told me of her presentation to the Queen.’
‘I take it the event was memorable?’