A Marriage of Convenience with a Rake: A Historical Regency Romance Novel (Love’s Gentle Manners Book 2) by Emily Barnet

Author:Emily Barnet [Barnet, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The evening sunlight slanted through the long windows of the upper hallway as Sebastian hurried downstairs. He grinned to himself. In a few hours, after sunset, which happened earlier each day as Autumn progressed, the ball would begin.

He walked down the stairs, the sound of his boots loud in the silent hall. It felt as though he’d been working in an empty house all day—his father was visiting a neighboring estate, and Eleanor was flitting all over the house, from the kitchen to the hallway to the garden to the laundry, personally supervising each element of preparing for the ball.

He smiled to himself. In the week she’d had to organize, she had gone about it with such fervor that one could imagine she was overseeing a small army. She had planned the food that would be served at the refreshments table, and the drinks, and how many footmen they might need to attend to the guests. She had checked they had enough pitch torches to light the drive and dispatched the gardener off to the village to employ some youths to hold them to light the guests back to their coaches. She had even organized with the groom and the gardener to make sure the coaches and horses would be accommodated on the grounds for as long as the guests might need them to be.

He walked lightly across the entrance-way to the ballroom, hearing the butler and the housekeeper hurrying from the ballroom to the rest of the house.

As soon as he got there, he heard Eleanor’s voice, low and soft, instructing the maids who were mopping the vast marble floor.

He waited, watching her showing them what she wanted. She was always so friendly with the servants, and they adored her. He grinned, watching her graceful movements as she walked lightly about the room. She was beautiful. His cheeks warmed as he watched. He thought often of the night she had spent sleeping by his side. He had ached to turn around and kiss her, but he had not wanted to scare her. She was unused to such things, and he would not touch her without her enthusiastic consent. He had already promised himself that.

He waited at the edge of the ballroom, watching her. He wondered when she would notice him. She walked lightly across to where some male servants were setting out some chairs—maybe they were the musicians, since he could swear that he’d never seen them before. As he watched her talking, she looked up. She saw him and blushed.

“Eleanor,” he greeted, wandering across to where she stood.

“Sebastian!” she grinned, tucking some honey-brown hair out of her eyes. She was flushed and her eyes sparkled, and Sebastian felt longing for her. She was even more beautiful than he remembered, and he remembered her well from breakfast that morning. “Did you want to have some tea?” she asked him.

“Mayhap we should have some tea,” he agreed. The ball would start at seven o’ clock, which made things difficult in terms of dinner.

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