A Scot's Surrender by Lily Maxton

Author:Lily Maxton [Maxton, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

It wasn’t long before they had an audience of three—Miss Hale, Ian, and Miss Worthington. Georgina was playing cards with the elder members of the party. She caught his gaze from the round table across the room, mouthed quadrille, and then mimicked shooting herself in the temple. She hated quadrille, but unfortunately, everyone over the age of forty was quite taken with the game.

Robert smiled and turned his attention back to Mr. Hale.

“Go for the easier shot first,” Robert said as Hale stepped forward, immediately eyeing the more difficult shot. “Give yourself time to warm up.”

He nodded and leaned forward. He seemed slightly more relaxed without Mr. Worthington’s scathing commentary, but he did still have an audience. His eyes flickered to them—Miss Hale was saying something to Ian, but Miss Worthington smiled encouragingly.

Hale’s grip tightened on the cue stick, face paling. He pulled his elbow back jerkily—

“Wait,” Robert said. The other man froze in place. “Just breathe for a moment. Line up your shot.”

Hale nodded.

“If you hit here”—Robert pointed to a spot on the ball—“the ball will go this way.” He pointed to another spot. “Here, it will go this way. Why don’t you take a few trial shots just to get a feel for it?”

Robert moved closer to the other guests, where he could get a better view of Hale’s progress. But he found himself distracted as he leaned against the cue stick. As always, his eyes went to Ian Cameron. “I could teach you, too,” he murmured.

Cameron had already turned him down once before. He was probably an idiot to ask again. He was probably an idiot to want to be closer to him in the first place—but want he did. He wanted the easiness between them when they were alone and forgot about their respective positions. He wanted no reminder of class differences, no reminder of expectations—things were natural between them when they didn’t let the outside world seep in.

Ian did not look impressed. “What would be the point of me learning billiards?”

Robert lifted a shoulder. “For fun?” For me? He didn’t voice that last part.

“I don’t usually have time to be idle,” he said. “Billiards isn’t a working man’s sport.”

The problem was Cameron seemed to have no qualms about bringing up the differences between them, as though he wanted some kind of barrier in place, and Robert was helpless to do anything but watch as it was erected.

He felt like he was losing hold of something, like it was slipping away before he’d ever really had a chance to possess it.

“You would be good at it,” Miss Hale said to Ian. “You have the focus required.”

Robert stared at her. He’d nearly forgotten she was standing there.

“It’s about more than focus,” Ian said with a wry smile. Robert hadn’t seen him smile at Miss Hale before. He wondered if he was softening toward her. He realized he didn’t like the idea of Cameron softening toward a girl who was clearly besotted with him—it was a pinprick of irritation, needling his chest.

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