page10 (1/2)
Thank heavens Sapphira had such overweening confidence in her own appeal that, since Rob resisted her, she’d not be able to conceive of hira’s secret hope, she’d make life even more miserable for her
But possessing the Antinori fierceness, Allegra wasn’t about to give up yet Somehow she would find more opportunities to be with hiht
Cheered by that resolution, she gave Rob hersmile when at last, his instructions to the footman complete, he returned to offer each of them an arm
“Are the loveliest ladies at the party ready to greet their hostess?”
“With you beside ra said, and put her hand firether they mounted the stairs to Lady Ormsby’s ballroom
IN THE RECEIVING LINE upstairs, after s round of introductions, Will led Lucilla toward the ballroo his best to look as if he were interested in the proceedings To his greetings, he’d received er maidens, speculative looks under veiled lashes frolances from tell-endos
“Perhaps my wicked reputation has preceded me,” Will told his cousin “I seem to terrify the infants”
“They will find you charh once they converse with you But upon firstlook Please re are not rival pugilists you are about to confront in the ring! S unexceptional and you will put them at ease”
“I have confined myself to the unexceptional!” Will protested “‘Miss Westerly, what a charhts up your eyes’ I daresay I’ve never uttered soNow, several of the hed and looked at Lucilla, a twinkle in his eyes “Having bowed before innocence all evening, I find htforward sin”
While Lucilla batted hiible,” Will scanned the roolances Once he’d danced with Lucilla, he ht seek out their co an entire dinner with Miss Benton-Wythe
As Will paused at the entrance to the ballroouests who had just ascended froe before his eyes registered in his brain and he froze in midstep
Outlined against the black-garbed older lady leading the group was a old The burnished glow of the material set off the faintly olive hue of the skin perceptible above her gloves and thenoith avid appreciation, Will noted the lovely line of shoulder and neck—and the voluptuous curve of bosoown
Throat drying and fingers curling in his gloves, he spent another instant regretting the neckline hadn’t been cut lower, allowing bystanders a better look at that te, he forced his eyes upward
Her face, with its high cheekbones, narrow nose and wide forehead, was the saned to try towith rice power, very likely she’d employed no artifice to thicken the luxuriant lashes that frae dark eyes Whether or not the ripe apricot hue of her full lips stemmed from nature or artifice did not affect his ihtened at the thought
Who was she and as she doing here? he wondered Looking like an exotic Eastern princess, she seeowned debutantes as if one of the glasshouse orchids his classics professor used to grow had suddenly sprouted in a field of delish daisies
A jerk at his arm pulled him from his rapt contemplation of the newcomer
“Will, what is wrong?” Lucilla asked
“That girl in the saffron gown” Will angled his chin toward the doorway “Who is she?”
His cousin looked in the direction he’d indicated “The one walking with the woman in ’s black?” When he nodded ira Antinori Despite the foreign narandfather She’s the ward of a distant connection of her entle the two ladies “—whose cousin, Mrs Randall, is her chaperone”
“Allegra,” Will repeated, the ue “And she’s unathering, she uiling a well-bred