To tame an Earl (four hoydens #2)

Chapter 3

The Sutcliffe ball.

"I am not dancing with him, mother," Alice said firmly.

"Why not?" Lady Woodbury asked, dragging her daughter into the crowded ballroom.

"His very presence makes me uncomfortable," she replied.

Lady Woodbury nodded her understanding, she was never one to force her daughter.

"Just endeavour to be polite should he come upon you. You know he's important for your father's new investment, do you not?"

"Yes, mother," Alice agreed quickly. She knew that while her father wasn't exactly in dire straits, the success of this business venture would certainly help them.

"I shall go seek out my friends," she told her mother.

"See that you do," her mother smiled.

"You look lovely, Alice!" Sarah grinned at her.

"Yes, this colour suits you," Vanessa murmured, assessing Alice's dress.

"It does, doesn't it?" she smirked, doing a little twirl in front of them.

"As humble as ever," Sarah said drily.

"Where's Rosa?" Vanessa asked, looking this way and that.

"Lord Fortescue must have convinced her that they could find alternative means of entertainment," Alice rolled her eyes.

As happy as she was for them, her friend and her husband were disgustingly in love with each other.

Vanessa nodded with great feeling while Sarah laughed.

"I hear Ralph's to attend," Vanessa murmured.

Alice almost groaned out her displeasure.

"It's a good thing he's attending, it's high time he found himself a wife," Sarah was saying.

"Any woman would be lucky to have him," Alice said dutifully, lying through her teeth.

"He is a gentleman," Vanessa nodded and Alice almost scoffed at that.

If only she could tell Vanessa that he was anything but that.

But she couldn't...

She'd discovered what a scoundrel Ralph was, but she couldn't tell her friends. It would break Rosalyn's heart to hear that her brother was a womaniser and more.

Alice had tried to give him the benefit of doubt, she really had. But he'd given her no explanation, hence proving that he was guilty.

The worst part was that he pretended to be a gentleman in front of the ton.

He was as bad as Ralston, if not more.

Alice had played along these last few years. She certainly couldn't openly showcase her hostility towards him without an explanation. In fact, she suspected they'd overdone it for not long ago, her friends had thought that they were romantically inclined towards each other.

Ha, as if.

She was pulled out of her mental ramblings when Vanessa pinched her.

She was really doing that a lot these days.

Alice turned around to find him standing behind her.

It wasn't the him that she'd been waiting for her entire life, although she'd stopped waiting for any him. But it was the him that made her skin prickle with unease.