Page 38 of The Language of Love

“No, not at all. I’m amused because you think I look like a man who rules his household. How so?”

“Well… you have a very determined jaw and chin.”

“Ah, I see. Why don’t I look like a Colin—what does the name mean?”

She chewed her lower lip. “I must admit I don’t know what Colin means.”

He clucked his tongue. “I’m very disappointed to hear that.”

“You are mocking me now.”

He smiled. “Just a little.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“You are hopping again, Annis.”

Slow down, she told herself, and then looked up to see him watching her, wearing an odd smile.

“There is only me.”

“I beg your pardon?” Annis asked. “Only you?”

“I have no siblings.”

“Oh, yes.”

“What about you?”

“I am an only, too.” And that was probably a good thing, given how much trouble only one of her had managed to cause.

“Lady Sedgwick said you lived with your grandmother before moving to London?”

“Yes, that is true.” She swallowed and looked away.

Thinking about her grandmother brought all the guilt she felt to the surface, and she hated that reaction. She should enjoythinking about the person she loved most in the world. But Mr. Leech had robbed her of that.

“What brought you to town this year?” he asked.

“Hmm? What was that?”

“You lived with your grandmother, but you’ve moved to London. I asked why.”

“Oh, no reason in particular,” she lied.

He gracefully guided her past a bottleneck of unskilled dancers.

“You are an excellent dancer. Did you dance a lot in India?”

“Rarely. Lord Rotherhithe engaged a master for us and we practiced in the ballroom at Rotherhithe House for the past week.”

“You’ve only been dancing a week? Then you’re a superb dancer.”

“I have an superb partner.”

Annis stumbled a bit.

“Steady on,” he murmured, his face serious but his eyes smiling.