One Last Kiss by Ally Broadfield

Author:Ally Broadfield
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Select Historical)
Published: 2016-04-10T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

The next afternoon, Misha knocked on the door of Kennedale Hall and waited for Bentley to answer.

“Captain Abromovich. If you’ve come to see Princess Tarasova, she is currently receiving callers in the parlor.”

He handed him his hat and coat. “Thank you, Bentley.”

An unfamiliar voice escaped through the open door of the parlor. Anna had another caller. Suddenly too warm, he pulled at his collar and tamped down his jealousy. He supposed that was normal. After all, she hadn’t been a recluse prior to his arrival in London.

Bentley preceded him through the doorway and announced him. The number of men packed into the chamber shocked him. A riot of mismatched bouquets covered every available surface. Orange next to pale pink, red competing with yellow. None of them had been astute enough to bring purple flowers, the color that brought out Anna’s pale blue eyes. Misha hadn’t brought her anything, but he knew something about her that the others did not, which was that she greatly preferred hand-picked wildflowers to those from the hot house. There ought to be bouquets available in a few weeks when the spring flowers began to bloom.

Anna and her aunt were the only females present, but they seemed not to be overwhelmed by the plethora of gentlemen attending them. Her Grace appeared to be fully occupied with her needlepoint, but if he wasn’t mistaken, she didn’t miss a single word that was spoken in the room.

Good lord, there was a boy, for he certainly couldn’t think of him as a man, who looked no older than Natalya. And he was reciting Byron to Anna. Misha choked back a laugh and covered it by clearing his throat.

“Good afternoon, Your Grace,” he said, bowing over the duchess’s hand. After giving Anna a similar greeting, he moved against the wall to survey the room. He recognized only Lord Ashdown and Monsieur Bonnaire. Misha did not like him sniffing around Anna, but it was convenient to have him here so he could keep an eye on him. There were two men playing chess at a table in the back of the room, and several others were crowded around them, placing bets on the winner. Those must be the men who sought Anna as a result of the gossip column and were only interested in her fortune. They would be better served spending their time at their club than here, ignoring her in favor of their games.

His attention was drawn to Anna’s lilting voice.

“Surely you jest, sir,” she replied to a foppish young man.

“I’m afraid I do not, Your Highness. He swooned in the middle of the dance floor and had to be removed.”

Lord Ashdown moved next to him just as Misha decided the present conversation was not worth the effort it would take to follow.

“I’m quite relieved that the princess has another caller over the age of twenty. These young dandies can be rather trying on the nerves. I don’t know where she finds the patience to entertain them every afternoon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.