The Devil's Web by Mary Balogh

Cameron and Miss Marshall were also approaching their table.

J AMES STOOD UNDECIDED IN THE DOORWAY, looking about him. Should he choose an empty table? One occupied by strangers? Or one with family members? His companion’s hand burned through his sleeve and through his arm.
    â€œShall we join your brothers?” he suggested.
    â€œYes,” she said.
    He had been determined this evening to treat her no differently from the way he would treat any other lady. He would ignore her if he could, he had decided. And if he could not, then he would behave toward her with a cool courtesy.
    And what had happened? He had been rude to her again. He had agreed with her suggestion that he had asked her to dance only because her cousin had been engaged to dance the set with someone else. And he had made almost no effort to match her attempts at conversation. He had felt quite unable to prevent himself from putting on the usual defenses against her. He had become surly.
    Sometimes he did not understand himself at all. And sometimes he angered himself. He seated her at the table and found himself quite unable for the moment to smile at any of its occupants.
    â€œJames,” Alexandra said, her cheeks flushed, “I had no idea there would be such a crush here tonight. Everyone must have come out of curiosity, knowing that it is all in your honor.”
    James managed a grin at her. “More likely it was out of curiosity to see the Amberley ballroom,” he said. “I gather it is not used a great deal.”
    â€œFor which I make no apology,” the earl said. “One ball a year is usually quite sufficient for my peace of mind, and the neighbors at Amberley Court would be severely disappointed if we were to discontinue the annual ball there.”
    â€œYou must realize what a great honor is being done you, Purnell,” Lord Eden said with a chuckle. “Edmund has a reputation in town as something of a hermit. Yet here he is, playing amiable host to the
crème de la crème
.”
    â€œYou will all be making Mr. Purnell decidedly uncomfortable to know that he is the cause of all this,” Ellen said, giving him a quiet smile. “I for one think it all very splendid, and I am glad you came home and made it all possible, sir.”
    Madeline was sitting straight and silent in her chair beside him, not at all her customary sociable self.
    â€œI danced with Mr. Cameron earlier,” Jennifer Simpson said, smiling at that gentleman across the table. “He told me that he has traveled thousands of miles inland by canoe, climbing in and out of the boat constantly to pass rapids and waterfalls. It sounds like the most exciting job in the world.”
    â€œBut do you prefer this part of the job?” Ellen asked Duncan. “Coming to England, I mean?”
    â€œIt is a novelty to be invited to English parties, I must confess, ma’am,” Duncan Cameron said. “And to waltz. But I do believe the lure of the wilderness is in my blood. I am hoping that next spring I can be on my way back there.”
    â€œDo you feel the same way, James?” Ellen asked.
    Madeline’s hands were twisting in her lap, he could see out of the corner of one eye. He turned cold for a moment when he realized that he had been about to reach out to take one of them in his.
    â€œIn my blood?” he said. “I am not sure I would put it quite like that. But it is a great experience. One comes face-to-face with oneself when surrounded with such vast emptiness and such harsh living conditions. I can well imagine that it could become essential to one’s being.”
    â€œYou make it sound very romantic,” Jennifer said.
    â€œOf course,” Duncan said with a grin, “there are the mosquitoes and black flies to eat one alive in the summer and the snow and the ice to bury one alive in the winter.”
    They all laughed. James was watching Madeline’s hands. White, long-fingered