Seduction Diaries 1 - Diary of an Accidental Wallflower by McQuiston Jennifer

Author:McQuiston, Jennifer [McQuiston, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Regency, General, Romance, Historical
ISBN: 9780062335012
Google: mv6WoAEACAAJ
Amazon: B00KPVB4JA
Barnesnoble: B00KPVB4JA
Goodreads: 22401001
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2015-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Panic ripped through her. The rest of the crowd fell away, and Clare felt only the choking absence of her family. “Where do you think they are?”

Daniel peered up at the wire, his eyes crinkling in thought. “Young Geoffrey looked rather determined to meet Madame Sylvie,” he mused.

“Surely he wouldn’t have,” Clare protested, her fingers curling around the wilted posies. Her heart tumbled in her chest, seeking traction and finding none. “Surely Lucy wouldn’t have. We instructed them to stay together.”

“True. And I imagine they have—just not with you. Your sister and brother strike me as the sort of souls who might twist those instructions to suit their own advantage, especially when there’s a bit of adventure at the ready. Geoffrey wandered off for a bit at St. Bart’s, too. I found him knee-deep in the morgue.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Clare retorted, nausea being the natural response to the thought of Geoffrey anywhere near a morgue—be it as voyeur or victim.

“If it eases your mind, I don’t think he intends any offense. He’s still possessed of a boy’s curiosity. They will have turned back to the scaffolding, I suspect.”

“But . . . they’ll be alone!”

“Hardly. They’ve each other. And they are with your maid, who seems worldly enough.”

Clare emitted a strangled gasp, thinking of the looks the maid Maggie had been dropping toward Daniel all morning, and the way the servant had winked at Geoffrey when she looped her arm through his. “Is that supposed to reassure me?”

She pivoted on her heel, determined to plunge back the way they had come.

But in the moments since their feet had found the pier, the crowd had closed in behind them, thick and jostling. She dropped the posies and pushed ineffectively against the wall of bodies with her hands, then began to pound on shoulders and backs and bellies alike, but it was like kicking a bare foot against Hadrian’s Wall.

Not that she wouldn’t sacrifice a phalange or two for her brother.

Toes. She’d meant toes.

Oh, curse Daniel Merial and his maddening interference in her life!

“Clare.” A touch on her shoulder froze her frenzy. Daniel’s voice reached down to her, distinct through the throbbing pulse of the crowd. “It will stay too tight to navigate until Madame Sylvie passes. You may trust me on this, after my experience at Kennington. The mob is like an animal. You can coax it, but you cannot change it. There is naught to do but wait.”

She whirled back around to face him, her fists clenched, ready to fight. But the look on his face trapped her objections in her throat. He looked . . . determined. The realization that he wanted to find Geoffrey and Lucy, too, calmed her somewhat.

Daniel stretched out his hand and beckoned to her. She numbly placed hers in it, not knowing what else to do. “They will be fine,” he told her. “I promise.”

But his promise felt a bit like that pole in Madame Sylvie’s hand, swaying in the breeze.

He squeezed her hand, and the strength in his touch made her want to believe him.

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