Every Time We Kiss. Christie Kelley
name has been bruised enough. He needs a wealthy wife to save him from his father and brother’s gambling debts. And I will do my best to find him one.”
Banning crossed his arms over his chest. His blue eyes sparkled with anger as he stared at her. “Just as long as it isn’t you.”
Her lips curved upward. “I have no intention of marrying him.”
“Good.”
She walked toward the door and paused to gather herself.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Find him a bride.”
She just wasn’t certain which of her friends to try first. Elizabeth, while the daughter of a duke, had strangely been left out of her father’s will. With only her allowance, Jennette didn’t believe Elizabeth would be wife material for Matthew.
Then there was Sophie. As the bastard daughter of an actress and some nameless earl, she had plenty of money from her father, but no real respectability. Matthew needed a woman with both.
With Avis married to Banning, that left Victoria. Jennette frowned in thought. Something about Victoria created doubt in Jennette. She was the daughter of a vicar who supposedly had given her enough money to buy a home, which she converted into an orphanage. However, Victoria was always seeking donations to keep the orphanage open.
Not that she could envision any of them marrying Matthew. Or more specifically, she couldn’t imagine having to watch them with him. Seeing one of her friends come to love and desire him would be far more than she could bear.
As Jennette walked down the hallway, she realized this plan would be much more difficult than she’d impulsively thought. She needed to match him with an acquaintance, not someone with whom she was too close. Entering the ballroom, she scanned the area for anyone she could convince to dance with him. She smiled. No one needed to know who he was tonight.
Miss Lucinda Bartlett stood by the edge of the dance floor longingly watching the quadrille. The daughter of a viscount who reportedly had plenty of money, she might be just the thing. While she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the room, Lucinda had a quiet sort of beauty that many men respected.
“Lucinda, what are you doing standing on the edge of the dance floor when you could be dancing?” Jennette asked with a smile.
Lucinda’s face fell. “No one has asked me to dance tonight. Apparently, after obtaining the age of six and twenty, I’m no longer in demand.”
“I have a friend here tonight who I know would love to dance with you.” Jennette glanced around for the scoundrel highwayman. After catching his eye, she nodded toward Lucinda.
“Who?”
Jennette laughed at her enthusiasm. “This is a masked ball, Lucinda. I cannot tell you his name.”
Her dull brown eyes lit with excitement. “Where is he?”
“Right here, my dear.” The sound of his deep voice rolled down Jennette’s back until she shivered.
“Oh my,” Lucinda whispered. She leaned forward and said, “Please tell me who he is, Jennette.”
“Not yet,” she replied.
Matthew held out his arm for Lucinda and Jennette watched the pair head for the dance floor. She wondered briefly at the little stab of envy that had pricked her heart, but she quickly brushed aside the feeling.
She had known even five years ago that she and Matthew were never meant to be.
“Did you hear the rumor circulating tonight?” Lucinda asked in a voice barely above a whisper. “It’s quite scandalous.”
“Oh?” Matthew leaned forward as if to listen better. Not that he cared about any gossipmonger’s tale. He’d been on the wrong side of the gossips’ tongues for far too long.
“Someone said they were certain Lord Blackburn was here tonight.” Her eyes widened. “Can you believe he would have the gall to come to Lady Jennette’s ball?”
“Perhaps,” Matthew said tightly. “Just perhaps, the gossips are wrong.”
Her brows knit into a cavernous frown. “Indeed. They have been known to be incorrect at times.”
“Many times.”
“Even still, I should never want to meet that man after what he did to poor Jennette. Can you imagine? The man impaled her betrothed.”
Matthew tried to relax his taut muscles and enjoy the dance. There was no possibility of that with Lucinda defaming him to his face. “Do you think there’s a chance that everything we know about Blackburn is all a falsehood?”
Lucinda looked up at him with confusion. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Maybe things aren’t as they appear with him.”
She shook her head. “The man is a killer. There is nothing more to know about him.”
“I believe you know nothing about the man.”
She glanced around the room and then back at him. She stiffened her back and said, “I am not feeling well. Please return me to my mother.”
“Figured it out, did you?”
“How dare you come here? Jennette will have the vapors just knowing she sent me to the dance floor with the likes of you.”
Matthew hurried to escort her off the dance floor and back to her mother. He should have known this would be the response from any decent woman among the ton. Any woman…except Jennette, his mind countered. Jennette hadn’t run from him. She had even defended him to her brother.
As they reached Lady Bartlett’s position in the matrons’ corner, he attempted to bow over Lucinda’s hand only to have her draw it away.
“Good evening, sir,” she huffed and walked off.
There was no use in staying here any longer. No doubt, the word of his presence would blow about the ballroom with the strength of a gale-force wind. While he should at least thank Jennette for trying, he didn’t wish to bring any gossip down on her. He would sneak out the terrace door, exactly as he’d entered.
Feeling the burning gaze of a hundred guests upon his back, he walked to the door. He made his escape quickly and silently. Or so he’d thought.
“Leaving already?” Jennette stood in the moonlight looking everything like the angel she’d dressed to be tonight. She rubbed her arms as if to keep the cold wind away.
“Yes. I wouldn’t wish to cause you any further distress tonight.”
She lifted one black eyebrow. “Am I to assume the dance with Lucinda didn’t go as I’d planned?”
He approached her slowly. She had matured into an exquisite beauty. She had delicate cheekbones and flawless ivory skin, a mouth too full to be perfect but just right for other things. The white gown outlined her slender body and slight fullness of her breasts. He shook his head to clear it of his sordid thoughts.
“No,” he finally replied. “She determined my identity.”
Jennette sighed, a delicate sound that brought his attention to her full, pink lips again. “I will have to do better at this matchmaking plan.”
He moved a step closer to her, knowing they already stood far too close. “Unless you don’t wish to do better?”
She looked up at him with a start. “What do you mean?”
“Perhaps you don’t want to find me a bride.”
“But…oh, no,” she said with a little smile and a shake of her head. “I will not marry you.”
“Maybe,” he whispered. “But don’t you want to know what you will be missing?”
Her