"I dinna think blondes were your type," Hugh said, beginning to sound alarmed.

Never looking away from the girl, Ethan said, "They're no'."

"Nor slim, short lasses."

"Tall and buxom for me," Ethan said absently. He watched her accept a glass of punch, delicately take a sniff of her drink, then partake heartily.

"Then what is it?"

"Doona know," Ethan answered in half truth. He knew why he was attracted to her—he could tell she was an extraordinary beauty, even with her mask—but he didn't understand thedegree of his attraction.

He'd bedded women as lovely as she, so why did he feel an inexplicable sense of urgency to join her—toget her? Ethan knew he could find her again. She was friends with the Weylands. So why did he want herat this moment?

"Are you actually going to approach her?" Hugh asked.

"Bloody hell I am."

"I thought I was no' to reveal myself to Jane if I could help it. She'll recognize you."

"No' with this mask," Ethan said, then asked, "Why are you behaving as if my interest is so bloody consequential?"

"It's consequential because you've never pursued a woman in your entire life."

Ethan had never had to before that night in Buxton—and he hadn't bothered to after.

"No' even your fiancée," Hugh added.

No, Ethan's fiancée had been handed to him as though on a platter—and it had cost Sarah her life. He'd had no idea that by trying to salvage his life after what the Van Rowens had done to him he'd be destroying another's….

Shaking off those memories, wanting to forget, Ethan strode for the stairs to go after the blonde lass, but Hugh shoved him back.