At least a dozen people moved within, chatting. The duke came over to greet her. A bow and curtsy and off they went, winding through the little group that included some very fine ladies indeed.

She spied Chase across the chamber, chatting with a lovely woman in red who flirted with him boldly. He didn’t seem to be minding. That cleared the dazed befuddlement out of her head at once. She turned her full attention to the introductions, memorizing every name she heard.

“That is the Countess von Kirchen. She is visiting from Vienna,” the duke said, noticing where her attention kept returning.

“She is very . . . lovely.” She almost said voluptuous. Due to her ample endowments, the countess’s bodice revealed more bosom than it covered. Minerva glanced down at her own décolleté. Upon donning the dress she had thought it daring. Suddenly it appeared sedate enough for a church.

Eventually the duke brought her to Chase, and pointedly eased the lady in red away. The chance to flirt with a duke proved an effective lure. Minerva watched the red stroll into the group.

“She is beautiful,” she said.

“I suppose so.”

“Of course she is. You have eyes.”

“My, you are snappish. Are you jealous?”

“Of course not.”

He tipped his head closer. “Not at all? I am wounded. As for my eyes, I saw only you once you appeared. It was all I could do not to be rude, and to these eyes no woman here is as beautiful as you are.”

Now she felt foolish. She had been snappish. “Perhaps I was a little jealous. I suppose lovely women flirt with you shamelessly all the time. I should not make too much of it.”

“Still snapping a bit, I see.” He stepped back and looked at her from head to toe. “The dress makes you look seductive.”

It was not a word she would have used. Certainly no one else ever had. Yet his calling her that made her feel seductive. “Perhaps I should flirt shamelessly too.”

“Only with me, darling. Now we will walk over and join Kevin and that woman who has been pursuing him for months. She is a viscount’s wife—the viscount is that man over there—and apparently she finds Kevin’s preoccupation with his invention attractive.”

“Perhaps she only finds him attractive. He is a very handsome man in a somewhat dramatic way. All the Radnor cousins were blessed by nature. Even that one whose wife talks for him.”

They made their way toward Kevin and the eager viscountess. “Thank you for the carriage. It was a treat. I felt like a queen.”

“I’m glad. I bought it yesterday.”

She fingered the raw silk of her skirt. “Thank you for this too. I assume you were my mystery benefactor.”

“I make no claims or denials.”