Dance With Me At Midnight by Samantha Holt

Author:Samantha Holt
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2017-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Despite the near disaster, dinner went swimmingly as near as Charles could tell. The food was perfection, the table looked wonderful and as for Eloise…well, she looked just as wonderful. She might have had to change into a pale pink gown but it did just as much justice to her as the last.

He met her gaze across the table and that sweet, soft smile had him practically sweating beneath his cravat. He had seen a different side of her tonight. Eloise had proved herself to be kind, hard-working, humble and able to adjust to any situation. Those were certainly traits he looked for in a wife…

But were they enough? He was attracted to her to be sure. More than he had perhaps first realized. However, he was not foolish enough to believe that a mild attraction to someone was enough to make a marriage.

Fool! Albert’s squawk intoned in his head.

Yes, he had been a fool. In a few ways, he reckoned. He’d been foolish to think he could barrel in and marry a woman he had never met. He had also been a fool to dismiss Eloise instantly. What he did not wish to do was to be a fool now. He had to be certain they would be a good match before he did anything.

Not to mention, he had to be sure she actually liked him.

With dinner finished, he followed the rest of the men into the drawing room while the women went to the parlor. One benefit of that was Miss Blythe’s mother would not be pushing the poor girl onto him for yet another evening but it did mean he had no chance to speak to Eloise.

Viscount Tremaine, Eloise’s stepfather handed him a brandy and offered a cigar. Charles took the brandy but refused the cigar. Unlike the main drawing room, this one had been deliberately made to look masculine with dark wood paneling, hunting trophies adoring the walls and swords mounted in one long row along a wall. He did not much care for home décor either way but he found himself longing to be in the parlor amongst all the brightly dressed ladies and more feminine furnishings.

Mostly because that was where Eloise was.

Although, if he was honest, he never enjoyed these moments. The forced conversation and all the boasting and ribald conversation that seemed to come with being a man. He would rather be out in the countryside, riding Ace at full speed or going for a decent hike. Those sorts of pursuits made one a man far more than boasting about one’s achievements in his opinion.

“You have been spending time with my stepdaughter?” the viscount asked.

Charles nodded. Eloise had corrected him when he called the viscount her father and he had yet to hear Lord Tremaine refer to her as his daughter. It seemed there was little affection between them.

“We have spent some time together, yes.”

“You can see for yourself then, that she is good wifely material.”

“She is dutiful, yes,” Charles said vaguely.

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