Why hadn’t he refused the Marquess of Redver’s invitation?
He’d known Millicent would be here. He’d known they’d cross swords.
In fact, he’d been full of anticipation for those very things. He’d even sent his brother John to his mother in Brighton—a mother barely speaking to him these days—just so he could steal a few additional moments of the pained pleasure he felt in Millicent’s presence.
His justification? Once she and Lenora made their debuts this Season, he may never again have the chance to soak in her enlivening presence. But coming to Ravenswood had been a mistake.
He’d return to his own estate, Fountainwood, on the morrow. There, he intended to purge Millicent Wainwright from his heart and his mind.
With any luck, tonight would be the last time she would plague him.
Chapter One
Almack’s
February 1819
Ah, the Templeof Marital Ambition, a Wednesday Night Assembly at Almack’s.
Miss Millicent Wainwright pursed her lips and fanned her heated face, searching the Ton’s Tiresome Toadeaters for her eldest sisters. Among the waltzing pairs, she located Cassie, Duchess of Harbury, with her duke. Then, in a blissful blur of dark hair, black tails, and deep burgundy skirts, Cassie’s twin Eliza swished past with her husband, the Marquess of Redver.
Just as Millie feared,bothcouples were blatantly enamored.
Or, more accurately, completely deluded.
Certainly, marriage and motherhood were admirable ambitionsfor some. Cassie had always wished to marry, for instance. But Millie would rather snip out a seam by the dim light of a smelly tallow candle than endure another endless evening on the Marriage Mart.
At Millie’s side, the formidable dowager Lady Asquith, Millie’s chaperone, sighed. “How lovely your sisters look. Don’t you agree?”
“Indeed,” Millie replied.
Lady Asquith assessed Millie with a sidelong glance. “You should be dancing, too. Especially in that stunning purple frock.”
“There is a shocking shortage of eligible young men this Season,” Millie quipped. And she’d chosen the dress with the express purpose of intimidating the few of them in existence into leaving her alone.
“Tut.” Lady Asquith lifted her brow. “You forget—my sonis among this Season’s eligibles.”
“Forget Asquith?” Millie feigned astonishment. “One couldnever.”
Lady Asquith’s lips twitched with a suppressed smile. “As your guardian, I suppose he is out of the question. Still, a dance with him would be better than none.”
“I am perfectly content with your company, Lady Asquith.”
“Tsk. You may visit me any day, as you know. Your younger sisters often do. ButAlmack’sis a veritable fortress. Havesomerespect for how hard I worked to persuade the patronesses to grant you and your sister Lenora vouchers this Season.”
“Yes, Lady Asquith.”
Of course, Millie owed the dowager.
During another Almack’s Assembly the prior spring, the Duke of Harbury had swept a startled Cassie into a waltz without the patronesses’ permission, and the patronesses had reacted by immediately banishing both twins. Lady Asquith, Cassie, and Eliza had all gone to desperate lengths to restore the family to respectability just so that Millie, Lenora and Nettie had a chance to secure their futures.
But an Almack’s voucher was a boon Millie never wanted, nor expected. In fact,she’drather be notorious than leg-shackled, as she’d told her younger sister Lenora earlier this evening.
The family had been branded a scandal; Millie might as well become one. Then, at least, she would be bundled off to the country, where she could hunt and shoot to her heart’s content, unencumbered by the dictates of some menacing male.
A male who might turn out to treat her exactly as her father had treated her mother—terribly.
Yes—she raised her chin—she would make herself notorious in a minute, if she could do so without also harming her sisters. But, alas, among the three unwedded Wainwright ladies, Millie was alone in her apathy toward the marital state’sallegedpleasures.