"Yes, sorry, Gordon. Just lost in my thoughts … May I ask you something? I would like your honest opinion." He left his seat and approached the older man, watching as the butler instructed the footman clearing the table to leave them alone. When it was just the two of them, Gordon waited for Leo to speak.
He studied his wine goblet, fingers tracing the delicate etchings in the glass before he spoke. "If you were faced with two choices, one you knew was sound and logical. Would you choose that, or select the choice that might be as temporary as lightning flashing in the night and certain to cause scandal?"
///
Gordon considered the question. "I suppose it would depend upon the lightning strike. If it changes you, turns you into something new, something better, then it might be worth the risk. Nothing is ever gained by safe choices."
"Nothing is ever lost either," Leo countered softly.
Gordon only smiled knowingly. "You cannot lose what you do not have." Then the butler nodded, half bowed, and slipped back into the shadows.
Leo pushed his chair back to the table, sighed, and began to walk to the ballroom. Did he want to risk his future to explore a dalliance with Ivy? Would she even agree to it? If she was like the other women he knew, she would expect marriage. But then again … she was an independent woman, a suffragette. Perhaps she would see a love affair as freeing and would not expect a proposal. If he could keep it quiet, then no one would believe he was following in his father's footsteps. Ivy was nothing like the woman his father had been having an affair with, but people would make the comparison nonetheless. The thought made his stomach roil, but he didn't like the idea of not going after Ivy either. Something about her called to him on an instinctive level that he still didn't fully understand.
All thoughts of denying himself Ivy were drowned by the jealousy flooding through him when he caught sight of her waltzing with Owen. They flowed effortlessly across the floor, and Leo's entire body went rigid. She was laughing at something Owen said, and a red haze descended over Leo's vision. It took every bit of his control not to storm across the ballroom and snatch her away. Instead, he plastered a smile on his face and joined his mother and Mr. Leighton, standing next to the six-person orchestra his mother had hired for the weekend. A pianist bent over the piano, fingers flying over the keys while his companions played a beautiful accompaniment on the violins and cellos. The Athertons and Pevenlys were dancing, as were the Pepperwirths. Only Mildred avoided the gaiety of the evening. She sat near the window staring at Owen and Ivy, her lips pursed in disapproval.
"Why don't you see if Miss Pepperwirth would like to dance?" Mr. Leighton nodded toward the frowning lady. A ghost of a smile flitted across his mother's face before she hastily masked it. She was playing the game well, and Leo did not like it.
He did as suggested, however, and approached Mildred.
She raised a dark brow, her lips pinched. "Yes?"
"I thought you would like to dance." He held out a hand. Her eyes dropped to his palm, and she curled her lips in a sneer. Even when she was furious, she was still lovely. It was a pity he didn't feel anything romantic toward her; it would have made the prospect of proposing to her so much easier.
"Dancing so close together is unseemly. I will not. One should not take such delight it."
The retort that came readily to his lips died as he sucked in a breath and cooled his temper. "Mildred, there is nothing wrong with dancing. Your parents are dancing." He waved toward the viscount, who moved sedately across the floor with his viscountess.
"I do not care for it." Even as she said it, though, he thought he glimpsed a fracture in her disdainful demeanor, a momentary view of a woman who longed for dancing and love, a woman whose heart was shielded by a fortress of ice. Leo wondered if he would ever break through that ice, or if perhaps another man was destined for such a task. He forced himself to ignore that thought. He would marry Mildred and he would try to woo her as best he could to make their match a decent one. It would never have the fiery passion he wished for in a marriage, but it would be stable and that was more important. Protecting Hampton was his duty. He could not run across the countryside after a wild raven-haired beauty no matter how much his heart wished for him to.
Leo took a chair and sat down beside her. She seemed a little startled by his choice to remain with her. It was not out of desire but out of his sense of obligation.