Christiana was distracted from her thoughts when Dicky’s hand moved up and then down her back in an almost unconscious, soothing caress. At least, she suspected that was how he’d intended it, but it had an entirely different effect on her. Rather than soothe, it sent shivers up her back to her neck.

Confused by her body’s reaction, she instinctively stepped back to try to put some space between them and bumped into someone.

Richard pulled her closer again and murmured, “I apologize. It has been some time since I danced. I am a little rusty at leading.”

Christiana glanced over her shoulder to offer an apology to whomever she’d bumped, and then glanced sharply back to Richard. The small accident had been her fault for moving, yet he was taking the blame. That was completely unheard of prior to this. Dicky simply did not take blame for anything. In fact, Christiana usually caught the blame for everything, even if it had nothing to do with her.

“No, it was me,” she admitted, not one to allow others to take the blame for her mistakes.

Dicky lowered his head and said with amusement, “My dance instructor would disagree most stringently with that. It is always the man’s fault. He is the one leading, the one who is supposed to be steering you safely around the dance floor.”

Christiana bit her tongue and said nothing. Confusion was rife within her and it wasn’t just because of the complete about-face in his attitude. He had spoken the words into her ear, his breath brushing the outer shell and sending startling shivers through her. She was also suddenly very aware of just how close he’d pulled her after the small accident. She was now plastered to him, her breasts against his chest, and his legs and hips brushing against her with every step. He had also let his hand slip lower on her back so that it now crested the upper curve of her behind. All of this was stirring the oddest sensations in her, making her shiver and long to press herself tighter still against him. She even had the quick mad thought to wonder what it would be like if he slipped his hand a little lower, and pressed a little tighter so that their hips met more firmly.

Even when courting she hadn’t experienced these physical reactions to him and it was quite unsettling.

Richard found himself repeatedly stealing glances at the woman in his arms. It seemed obvious from their brief exchange that she had no idea what George had done, and that the man she lived with and thought was her husband was actually an imposter. It also seemed obvious that this last year of the sham marriage had not been a happy one for her, that his brother was treating her poorly. Christiana was as much a victim of George’s machinations as he was and the revelations about to come out would not be pleasant ones. Scandal would follow as it was realized that the wedding had not been legal, that she wasn’t actually married at all since George was an impostor.