Sissy gazed at her pink slippers in an agony of perplexed embarrassment. The whole room could probably hear the Earl of Slaslow’s sharp voice. Why, he was almost shouting at Lady Sophie. She had distinctly heard him say, “You owe me that, at least!”

Then she realized that Patrick Foakes had come out of his daydream and was looking at her again, with a charming smile. Surely he had heard Slaslow’s comment, but he didn’t look as if he cared a bit.

“Would you like to dance?” Patrick slid his hand under Sissy’s arm and turned her toward the ballroom floor.

“Well …” Sissy glanced uneasily toward Braddon and Sophie. They seemed to be deep in argument. “Shouldn’t you dance with your wife? I’m sure that you must wish to be dancing with her.”

Patrick’s smile grew a trifle cooler. “Not at all. Given that I wish to dance with you.” And without another word he swept the annoying girl into a line of couples waiting to make their way down the floor in a reel.

Sissy colored. It was shocking to find herself on the dance floor with Patrick Foakes, and with everyone watching, of that she was sure.

“Oh goodness,” she whispered. “Am I turning crimson?”

Patrick grinned at that. “No. Should you be?”

“Yes!” Sissy had utterly lost her composure. “I’m dancing with the groom, and your reputation, you know, and your wife …”

“Miss Cecilia—or is it Sissy?” At her shy nod, Patrick continued. “Well, Sissy, in a year we can twirl all about this ballroom and no one will give us a second glance.”

Sissy considered this suggestion and didn’t find it comforting. She had just caught her mama’s eye, and she looked to be in a high rage.

“Why in a year?” she asked. Her mama was always telling her that it was a lady’s duty to keep a conversation going.

“In a year we’ll both be old married people, and Lord knows, no one pays attention to married people dancing together.”

“They will to you,” Sissy blurted, then hastily added, “And anyway I shan’t be married.”

Patrick smiled at her. The girl’s miserable face had awakened a glimmer of sympathy in him. “Yes, you will.”

“Oh no, I never took, you see.” Sissy was so beside herself that she found herself laying bare her most agonized thoughts. “I kept falling in love with the wrong people, and they never came up to scratch, as my mother says.” She tacked on that last phrase, belatedly realizing how excruciatingly vulgar she sounded.

But Patrick just laughed. His eyes were looking at her so warmly that Sissy felt her toes curl.