The Contrary Debutante (The De Petras Saga Book 3) by Emily E K Murdoch

Author:Emily E K Murdoch [Murdoch, Emily E K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

May 24, 1810

The sixth ball.

For the first time since Emerald could remember, she was excited to attend a ball.

“Ems, wait!”

But she did not heed her sister Sapphire’s words. Striding into the ballroom, Emerald looked around eagerly for the welcoming face of Robert Ainsworth. Ever since their last meeting, days ago, what felt like a lifetime, she had not stopped thinking about him. About his last words to her.

“I will never ask you to kiss me.”

“Well, you know your own mind best, I am sure. I just think that one day…you will.”

Not that she would admit it. Emerald knew her family was confused, bewildered even, by her behavior this evening. Her eagerness to get into the carriage, her demand Sapphire not hold them up, her frustration the carriage was forced to wait more than a minute before depositing them outside.

Emerald swallowed, her gaze flickering across the faces of so many people she did not know.

But no sign of the one gentleman who was able to get her pulse racing, who made Emerald feel…everything. How she had managed to get through days without him—

“What on earth is the rush?”

Emerald turned to smile weakly at her sister. “Rush?”

Sapphire pushed back a lock of hair escaping one of her pins and frowned. “You know precisely what I mean, Ems, so do not try to pretend all innocence with me. Did you have a meeting planned—an assignation?”

Heat seared Emerald’s cheeks at the mere mention of something so scandalous. An assignation? She had never heard anything so ridiculous in her entire life!

Except, I could have arranged something with Robert. He was, after all, most handsome…

And most unsuitable. Besides, she had no plans to marry!

“You do confuse me, you know.”

Emerald blinked. Sapphire was still frowning, though most of her irritation seemed to have disappeared. “Me? I confuse you?”

She had never met a more confusing, more contrary person in her life as Sapphire de Petras. The idea that she was the confusing one was…well. Confusing.

Sapphire nodded. “Here’s Mama, having to force you into a compromise merely to attend ten balls—and I can tell you now, she is not going to count Almack’s—”

“I went!”

“You spent less than five minutes in the place, and you know it,” shot back Sapphire, though she managed to speak while smiling and fluttering her fan.

Emerald swallowed and looked around them. She must not forget they were in public. Absolutely anyone could be here. They were not sniping at each other in the drawing room at home. They could be overheard.

A rush of panic overwhelmed her.

No one was listening to them.

“I still think it counts,” Emerald said quietly, stepping closer to her sister. “Mama gave no precise time that I had to spend at each ball to—”

“You are preposterous, you do know that?” said her sister conversationally.

Emerald could not help but smile. “I do, Sapphy. I really do.”

She was being preposterous. Robert had made it perfectly clear what he wanted—at least, when Emerald had got home and tried to think about it, she was almost sure.

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