all the females he met, young and old, fawned over him. For what was there not to fawn over? He was a young, handsome, wealthy, and very eligible member of the aristocracy. And he was charming to boot.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Remington,” he said, acting as if he had not seen her in the shop earlier that day.
“Good evening . . . Lord Waverly, was it?” she murmured carelessly before dismissing him entirely by turning her attention back to Ainsworth.
Edward was almost giddy with the attention she paid to him, and before Phillip knew what had happened, Miss Meredith Remington, the oil heiress from New York, was on the dance floor with his penniless friend. Phillip watched them carefully while he made small talk with Mrs. Remington and Lady Eastwood, and then he walked to the edge of the ballroom. He had a much better view of the waltzing couple from there.
Miss Remington was quite graceful as she stepped easily in time with the music. Was Ainsworth holding her a little too closely? There should be a more respectable space between them, certainly. Shouldn’t her aunt step in and separate them?
“There you are, Phillip, darling.”
The sultry voice filled him with excitement, and he knew Lady Katherine Vickers was standing behind him. Her ample breasts brushed up against his back.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she murmured softly, pressing herself against him.
His heart rate increased at her words. She had been looking for him. Now that was more like it. He turned to face her. “Well, it seems you have found me.”
A slow smile lit up her pretty face. In her sophisticated jade ball gown, with her golden blond hair done up around her head, she appeared to be a proper lady. Quite different from the wanton, naked woman he had had his way with just two nights ago.
She leaned ever so slightly closer to him and said in a breathless whisper, “I’m lucky to have finally found you, for I have missed you greatly, and later this evening I intend to show you just how much I’ve been longing for you.”
“Then by all means, show me,” he responded, wishing he could wrap her up in his arms and kiss her senseless, as he’d done on more than one occasion.
With a satisfied smile, Katherine added in a throaty whisper, “Come to my house at midnight after we have left this dismal little party. I shall make you very, very glad that you did.”
“How can I resist such an offer? I’ll be there.” Phillip watched her saunter out of the ballroom. He checked his gold pocket watch. It was only nine-thirty. How would he survive until midnight?
* * *
Meredith Remington watched in fascination as Lord Waverly spoke with the willowy blonde in the corner of the ballroom. She had been right.
The dashingly handsome man from the bookshop was a pompous English lord!
He had been so smug when she’d been introduced to him, that she had to fight the impulse to smack him. It seemed he had expected her to ignore his brazen behavior that afternoon and fawn all over him like every other woman he’d ever met. She’d seen it in his expression, the recognition, when he saw her. Meredith decided not to give him the satisfaction.
So she ignored him and acted as if she’d never laid eyes on him before. He looked dumbfounded when she favored his tall friend with her attention instead.
It felt good to take him down a peg. It probably didn’t happen often enough to him.
Oh, but he was so incredibly handsome! In his evening clothes he looked even more dashing and debonair than he had earlier that afternoon. He really would make the most perfect-looking hero in a novel. In fact, she had decided that she would rewrite the current blond hero in The Edge of Danger, so he looked exactly like Lord Waverly. But ever so much nicer.
As she danced with Lord Ainsworth, she noted that Lord Waverly watched them very closely. His studied interest in her was a bit unsettling. Was it because he was a little smitten with her or simply interested in her supposed inheritance? Her curiosity piqued when the elegant blonde came over and whispered something in his ear. What on earth had she said to make him grin like that? The man’s smile could light up a darkened cave!
“Have you been in London very long, Miss Remington?” Lord Ainsworth asked.
His voice grabbed Meredith’s attention away from wondering what Lord Waverly and the lovely blond woman were up to together.
“My aunt and I have been here only a week, but I’m enjoying it very much,” she murmured half-heartedly, with a bright smile pasted on her face.
In truth, she longed to be back in New York, but she was trying to make the best of the situation. Having to pretend that she was an heiress when she was not one only complicated matters. Lord Ainsworth seemed quite nice and even attractive, if a lady preferred her gentleman to be extremely tall and thin.
As the dance moved on, she began to wonder, So just exactly what am I supposed to do now?
Aunt Delilah’s sister, Lady Eastwood, had arranged for Meredith to be introduced into London society this evening, and the plan required her to try to become engaged to the wealthiest man she could in the shortest amount of time. The quicker, the better, before anyone discovered the truth about their dire financial situation.
How was Meredith supposed to discern who had great wealth and who didn’t? It looked like everyone in that ballroom fairly dripped with money. But as Meredith knew all too well, looks could be deceiving.
Now take this nice young man who had clearly shown interest in her. Did Lord Ainsworth have money? Or was he merely after hers? And how would she know the difference? And how would one of these fine English lords feel when they discovered that Meredith was not, as it turned out, an heiress after all?
For the plan called for them to suddenly receive a telegram, right after the wedding, declaring that the Remington Oil Company was bankrupt.
It seemed an awful plan to Meredith, but her aunt had given her no other alternative. And in the end, she supposed it was no worse than being forced into an arranged marriage. At least this way she was allowed some say in whom she married.
In the meantime, what else was there for Meredith to do?
As she looked this lanky man up and down, she tried to assess his character, if not his bank account. Would Lord Ainsworth make a good husband? Would he care for her? Would he support her writing career? Would this sandy-haired man with the too-wide smile and kind eyes be the man she would be tied to for the rest of her life?
The thought sobered her.
This London Season was a serious business.
Marriages were being brokered in every corner as young girls in their debut season preened and the women in their last season looked desperate, while the anxious mothers assessed and appraised and the eligible gentlemen looking to wed scrutinized and judged. In truth, Meredith was no different than any other young lady in attendance at the Braithwaites’ ball.
She was there looking to find a husband.
The very thought tied her stomach into tight little knots.
The dance ended and Lord Ainsworth escorted her back to Lavinia. After she thanked him for the dance, Lavinia shook her head. “No,” she whispered so only Meredith could hear. “His family is on the brink of ruin.”
With a heavy heart, Meredith watched Lord Ainsworth head toward his friend, the pompous earl.
It seemed that poor Ainsworth was in the same predicament as she was. He needed to marry someone with money to save his family, just as she did. Apparently, that was the way of the world. Perhaps she would write a story about young women marrying for money when she finished The Edge of Danger. She’d call it, Mercenary Maidens. Then she laughed in spite of herself.
“He seemed rather nice though,” she said to Lavinia.
“Yes, he’s a nice young