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you,” Heath said with confidence.
    Still looking uncertain, Fanny hesitated a moment longer. “Thank you, my lord,” she said finally. “And I hope you will forgive me for my unwanted interference, but I care deeply for Lily and don’t want to see her hurt.”
    â€œYour concern is duly noted, Miss Irwin,” Heath replied, keeping his tone easy. “But I am not in the habit of hurting women.”
    A smile flickered on her lips. “Not intentionally, I know. Indeed, your reputation for giving pleasure is legendary. But unintentionally? Please…just take care with her, my lord.”
    â€œI will, I assure you.”
    With that, Fanny gave him a respectful curtsy and left him.
    Coming out from behind the palms, Heath returned to stand on the ballroom sidelines, absently watching the dancers. The Danvers wedding ball was a crush by anyone’s standards. The press of perfumed bodies, along with the candle flames from myriad glittering chandeliers, made the warmth of the ballroom oppressive. But the guests were clearly enjoying themselves.
    Heath paid little attention to the gaiety and noise around him, however. His thoughts were too focused on his recent conversation about his matrimonial intentions.
    Was he truly serious about pursuing Lily Loring?
    Fanny’s dire prediction didn’t concern him overmuch, since he had always been able to have any woman he wanted. And he most definitely wanted Lily. If he set his mind to winning her, he was certain he could have her.
    But did he want to win her?
    His only option was marriage, of course. Seducing her was out of the question. His own honor wouldn’t allow it, not to mention the certainty that Marcus would cut out his liver along with other more sensitive parts of his anatomy.
    Until Marcus’s engagement, he hadn’t thought seriously of marriage. In fact, he’d earnestly avoided it, eluding the traps of countless matchmaking mamas and their grasping young darlings who saw him as prey.
    He liked women immensely; he just had never wanted to be tied to a particular one, having her forever by his side until death did them part.
    But perhaps it was time that he contemplated a foray into matrimony, Heath realized. He would eventually have to settle down to produce heirs to carry on his illustrious title, in any event. Just as Marcus had done.
    Quite unexpectedly, Marcus had been the first to take the plunge. Before inheriting the earldom and assuming guardianship for the three impoverished Loring sisters, Marcus had absolutely no desire to end his precious bachelorhood. In fact, he’d planned to discharge his unwanted duty as guardian by marrying his wards off to respectable suitors, despite their fierce objections. But his initial attraction to the beautiful eldest, Arabella, was so fierce that he’d wagered he could persuade her to accept his proposal of marriage—a wager that Arabella was just as determined he would lose. After several weeks of spirited battle, they had both fallen deeply in love.
    Heath was sincerely pleased for his friend. It was not usual for a nobleman to find love and happiness in marriage. In the normal order of things, the aristocracy made unions of convenience to insure the best alliances of fortunes and bloodlines.
    It was what his own parents had done, as had all the generations of his family before them.
    Heath was not prepared to do the same. His parents’ union had been such a wretched mismatch in terms of personalities and interests, he’d vowed he would never follow in their footsteps.
    If he had to marry, he wanted a woman who could match him in the ways that counted most…in spirit and passion, in a craving for adventure.
    Lily Loring might very well fit that bill.
    Even her stubborn need for independence was appealing to him, Heath mused. He understood that need, for he felt it himself.
    And admittedly, of late he’d begun to envy Marcus’s newfound