Mallory whispered as she perched on a dining room chair next to Claire. “I thought I told you to stay away from Lord Islington.”As for Islington, once he’d located a table for himself and Claire, he’d made his excuses and left to procure selections from the buffet spread out in glorious excess across the room. The moment he’d departed, Mallory had hurried over and dropped down into his empty seat.Claire sent her friend a look of deliberate unconcern. “I know you did, but then I met him and he asked me to dance. I couldn’t very well refuse.”“Of course you could. You ought to have given him the cut direct and refused to speak with him at all.”“Why? Despite your admonitions, he seems an amiable sort of person, quite intelligent and interesting. I can’t understand what’s so very dreadful about him. You said yourself you don’t even know what it is he is supposed to have done wrong.”“No,” Mallory agreed, her expression troubled. “But Edward wouldn’t have warned me off without good cause.”
