By Any Other Name by Ava Stone

Author:Ava Stone [Stone, Ava]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-301-29595-1
Publisher: Ava Stone

“What is it?” Harry asked.

But Pippa wasn’t sure. Just a feeling that she was headed the wrong way. She shook her head. “I just want to explore a bit. I don’t want to find our seats quite yet.”

“We’re already late.” Harry scowled. “I am meeting…someone, and I just want to see you settled before I go.”

Someone? A woman, if Harry’s sudden inability to meet Pippa’s gaze was any indication. Perhaps he was a wolf, like Berks had suggested. How interesting. “Very well,” she conceded, knowing she wouldn’t win against her brother anyway. Best just to let him think he won.

Alice flashed Pippa a surprised expression, to which Pippa only shrugged. They’d do exactly what they wanted once Harry went to meet his someone.

They let Harry lead them towards the supper boxes and Pippa’s face burned when she caught Lord and Lady Heathfield’s curious gazes on her. She must have made an awful scene at their ball that night. What must they think of her?

“Here we are,” Harry announced, gesturing Pippa and Alice into one of the boxes. “Sit down. I’ll be back…soon.” And then he hurried off through the crowd.

“Where do you suppose he’s headed?” Alice asked, as Harry disappeared from their view.

Pippa shook her head. “To some clandestine meeting, I’d guess. Berks informed me tonight that Harry is a wolf. I had no idea.”

She briefly scanned the surrounding boxes, looking for Lord Colebrooke and caught Patience’s eye, several yards away. Oh, yes, she had promised Berks would find Patience later this evening, hadn’t she? Pippa nodded at her friend to acknowledge their agreement and hoped Berks would return in time to play his role.

“And you thought if you went along with his plan of sitting in the box, that we’d do what we liked after he’d departed?”

Pippa grinned at her friend. “You really do know me very well.”

Alice nodded as though that was quite obvious. “So what do you want to see? The Indian temples? The spring gardens?”

Pippa wanted to see it all, but first… “Let’s just head back the way we came.”

They quickly exited their box and started back towards the entrance, Pippa very careful not to meet Lord or Lady Heathfield’s gazes this time. She should probably apologize to the lady at some point, but Pippa had no idea what she could possibly say. It would help if she remembered what exactly she should apologize for.

A man in rough clothes bumped into Pippa on the path and muttered a barely comprehensible, “Sorry, mum,” before blending back in with the crowd. And what a crowd it was. A more diverse group of people Pippa had never seen. Everything from regal ladies and gentlemen to the middle and much lower classes.

“One could get lost here and never find their way out,” Alice muttered.

Pippa squeezed her friend’s arm. “Isn’t it grand?”

Alice laughed, but said nothing else as they navigated the vast sea of people.

Just as they approached the grove, a hand reached out from the shadows and caught Pippa’s arm.

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