Hart searched for the audacious chit and found her lurking in the shadows. She couldn’t be bothered to stand, stayed partially hidden behind garish pink hangings, and demanded he come to her.
“On the contrary, the affair has since concluded, as is evidenced by each of our presence here.”
“It isn’t over. The normal humans are having a rollicking good time.”
“Which makes you one of the abnormal ones?” On that, they could agree.
“I’m merely hiding.”
He smiled. “Like a child.”
She smiled back. “Like a woman who isn’t afforded the luxury of being able to excuse myself and attend whatever event I would rather be at.”
“Ah, another common ground found. We both found the company intolerable.”
“On the contrary, I quite enjoyed my company,” she said.
“So much so, you are avoiding your family.”
“I referred to Lords Archdale and Kerr.”
He flattened his lips into a hard line. Of course she had. The little traitor.
“Lord Archdale and Lord Kerr had the luxury of adjourning for billiards and port. I did not.”
Why was he not surprised she drank port and played billiards? Or was it that she was eager for more time with those blackguards?
“For someone who had insisted her table companions were a poor lot, you appeared to have a deuced good time with one of them, Lord Alec Archdale.”
Lady Fleur batted her long, thick lashes. “How good of you to notice.”
“How could I not?” He flicked a reproving stare over her. “Your garish laugh demanded the room’s attention.” Just as it had at Chilton’s auction. A welcome rush of anger worked through him; it blunted his lust.
Lady Fleur hopped to her feet; her curls bounced, her ruffles and bustle joined in the silly dance of regrettable fashion choices.
“By your sour disposition, you did not enjoy your company this evening, Your Grace.”
“You know I did not,” he said coolly.
“Ah, Myrtle and my sister-in-law. Myrtle talked incessantly and too fast to determine what exactly she was saying, and Lady Alexandra discussed the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been enjoying.”
He meant the lot on the whole—he wasn’t such a bastard to say as much.
As for her sister and sister-in-law, she had those two nailed, to a T.
“I’ve concluded you are the only tolerable McQuoid.”
The bit of baggage dropped the only curtsy she was capable of—an insolent one. “I concur.”
Modest she was not.
“My brothers are the greatest offenders, utterly intolerable.”
They had struck a new common ground—disparagement of her unseemly lot.
“My brothers, since they were lads, held belching contests and competed to see who could pass the loudest gas.”
All normal boy behavior. “I can see how, as a lady, you would find that type of behavior intolerable,” he said.