Quinn, Julia - A Tale Of Two Sisters.html by A Tale Of Two Sisters

Author:A Tale Of Two Sisters [Sisters, A Tale Of Two]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-16T17:24:02.994000+00:00

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Ned had been sneaking up the side staircase with the express purpose of avoiding all human contact, but when he'd seen Charlotte Thornton on the landing, something had clicked into place inside of him, and he'd realized that all human contact simply didn't include her. It hadn't been as he'd feared it might be, that he'd wanted her, although every time he allowed his gaze to slip down to her

lips he felt something clench in his gut that should never, ever clench in the company of one's sister-in-law.

It was more that when he'd seen her, just standing there with her eyes closed, she'd seemed a lifeline, a stable anchor in a

world tipping drunkenly around him. If he'd somehow been able to touch her, just take her hand, everything would be all right.

"Do you want to dance?" he asked, the words surprising him even as they left his lips.

He saw the surprise in her eyes, heard it in the soft rush of her breath before she echoed the question, "Dance?"

"Have you?" he asked, quite certain he was leading himself down a very dangerous road but quite unable to do anything

about it. "Danced, I mean. There wasn't much of it this evening, and I didn't see you on the floor."

She shook her head. "Mother has had me busy," she explained, but she sounded distracted, as if her words had absolutely nothing to do with what was going on in her brain. "Party details and all that."

He nodded. "You should dance," he said, really meaning, You should dance with me.

He set his plate down on a nearby stair, murmuring, "What's the point of turning your ankle if you don't have fun with it

once it's healed?"

She said nothing, just stood there staring at him, not as if he were a madman, although he was quite certain he was that, at least for this evening. She just stared at him, as if she couldn't quite believe her eyes, or maybe her ears, or maybe just the moment.

Music was drifting up from below; the staircase was twisted in such a way that no one could have seen them on the small landing from either below or above.

"You should dance," he said again, and then, proving ihat one of them still had a sane thought in their brain, Charlotte shook

her head.

"No," she said, "I should go."

His hand fell to his side, and it was only then that he realized he'd lifted it with every intention of placing it at the small of her back for a waltz. "Mother will be looking for me," she said. "And then I should check on Lydia."

He nodded.

"And then I should—" She looked up at him... just for a moment. Just one single fraction of a second, but it was long enough for their eyes to meet before she pulled away.

"But I shouldn't dance," she said.

And they both knew she meant, I shouldn't dance with you.

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