A Rogue Walks into a Ball by Emily Greenwood

Author:Emily Greenwood [Greenwood, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-07-02T18:00:00+00:00

As Sarah and Lady Alice watched, Lord Jack guided Annabelle to a bench at the side of the path and sat down next to her. Sarah and Lady Alice stopped where they were, at a discreet distance and where they could not hear what was being said.

“She’s talking to him, so that’s real progress,” Lady Alice said. “But this part... I hope it’s less awkward for her than it is for me watching it.”

“I know,” Sarah admitted. “And yet, I can only think this must be helpful.”

“I really hope so,” Lady Alice said. “I know of a few young ladies whose heads were turned by flatterers, and they ended up badly married.”

“Exactly what Annabelle needs to avoid.”

“I wish we could hear what they are saying,” Lady Alice said, prodding a pebble with the tip of her shoe.

Sarah didn’t, and she didn’t want to examine why.

They watched the pair on the bench talking, Annabelle listening with a bent head. Then abruptly, she lifted her head to look at him. After a few moments, she smiled, and then she laughed.

“She’s laughing with him,” Lady Alice said with a degree of wonderment. “That is amazing, considering she could hardly even look at a gentleman before.”

“I know,” Sarah said, relief washing through her as she dared to hope that this would be a turning point for Annabelle. She vowed then not to express any more negative opinions about men to her cousin, unless it was a life-or-death situation.

Lady Alice leaned slightly forward on her toes. “I wonder what she’s laughing at. I do love to laugh.”

Sarah supposed Lord Jack had said something witty. He was quite witty.

And then Annabelle and Lord Jack got up and started walking back to the path, both of them smiling, though Sarah thought his smile held something of the relief of a person who’d just had a tooth pulled.

“Lord Jack and I had a marvelous conversation,” Annabelle said when she and Lord Jack reached them, deftly leaving off any comment about what else they had been doing.

“It was quite a good conversation, once I stopped talking,” Lord Jack said.

Annabelle laughed. “Oh, you,” she said, and Sarah hid a smile. There was the lively Annabelle she knew and loved. “Now,” Annabelle continued, “the only thing I still am unsure about is, if I ever am in a situation where a man offers me a compliment, how will I be completely certain he is sincere?”

“You can never be completely certain,” Lady Alice said. “I say trust your womanly instincts.”

Lord Jack looked down his nose at his sister with all the haughtiness of a much older brother. “You get to know the man first,” he said pointedly to both the young ladies. “None of this running off to Gretna Green after a few days of giddy courting.”

“Why, Jack,” Lady Alice said, “that’s downright staid of you.”

He proposed a trip to Gunter’s.

“Feeling in need of a reward?” Sarah asked him as they followed the young ladies who, predictably, were walking far ahead with their heads together, giggling.

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