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"But if he does, Fayrehaven will have an absolute cow"
"Are there un-absolute cows, I wonder?" Anne asked "Might he have one of those instead?"
"Anne, honestly You don’t understand what you’ve done"
"Relax, Sarah He oing to sail away Perhaps he has by now" She wouldn’t put it past him in order tothat he didn’t want to do
"I heard he approached you and Chetwyn at the park"
"Are we all the gossip then?"
"Apparently so, yes"
Anne sighed "I’d arranged to o with Chetwyn One could hardly bla some disappointment"
"Tristan? Such informality You’d best take care that others don’t hear you referring to him in that manner"
"Oh, Sarah, we sees"
"Yes, well, those trivial things lead to a goodof, I see that Lord Chetwyn has just arrived And look at how he smiles now that he’s spotted you I daresay, I think he has set his cap for you Come with me to welcome him I’m fairly certain he can take your mind off this Lord Tristan"
Unfortunately, Anne verythat Lord Tristan Easton thought he would ever be doing was attending a garden party Yet there he was, standing by the rhododendrons, feeling very h seas any day compared with this maze of etiquette and proper behavior
He’d been forced to ask Mary what to wear to such an event, which had resulted in her arching a brow in speculation He’d been halfway te with a troubleso hi to marry her, he’d admire her for it As it was, he was ht’s end So he’d held his tongue, left Mary none the wiser, and prodded her again for assistance on his attire Having spent a good part of her youth in a convent, she’d been of little help and suggested only that he not be too forotten that part right
He’d arrived late because he wasn’t certain he wanted to coain, and she’d issued her blasted challenge, one similar to the one he’d delivered when he wanted to entice her into cli the mast She’d implied he was a coward Blast her to hell The wo no other female of his acquaintance had ever done His other partners had been content to romp about in bed Anne wanted to romp elsewhere
He’d spied her as soon as the butler had shown hi to strike a ball so it went through a h neck that was buttoned all the way to her chin He understood why that shade was her favorite It ith her fair co sleeves that ballooned out froainst her skin Gloves covered her hands She wore a small hat, brim down on one side, up on the other
He wanted toaround her that he knehat she looked like with all those buttons undone He knew the silkiness of her skin that all that clothing hid He had peeled off her gloves, peeled off her dress, peeled off everything
Without even bothering to glance around, he knew she was the most beautiful lady here It didn’t matter what anyone else looked like To hihtly danced over her face, trying to chase off the shadows provided by her hat The way she ance when they’d clambered to the crow’s nest and when he had her in his bed But here with an audience, she was poised She belonged here, and he wished to hell that she didn’t
She gave one of the gents--Chetwyn, he recalled--a playful slap before directing her attention to the blue ball at her feet She lightly tapped it It rolled along the green grass, hit the side of the arch, and cah She craned back her head and laughed, the sweet trilling traveling across the garden to touch hiht beside hiarden, than she’d been at the ball Perhaps because that night had been her first public event since going intoin now, and he could see that this was her world She ered over his ship
She said soht bow he htened his hands into fists, and growled low He didn’t think he’d been loud, but she suddenly jerked up her head and looked in his direction With a soft sents, reen and he wondered briefly if she was coah she was truly happy to see him, and he felt a sharp stab of pain in his chest He would do anything to keep that smile on her face, and that made him want to leave because he’d never cared soof the lips, revealing of the teeth