The Convenient Engagement (The De Petras Saga Book 5) 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: 2022-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

April 11, 1814

“Mama,” said Sapphire quietly. “I…I have a favor to ask.”

Opal de Petras looked up from the papers she was reading on the sofa in the parlor. She had been there sometime; Sapphire had been watching her.

Waiting.

Waiting for the right moment to speak. Eventually her impatience had got the better of her, as she had expected. But really, what on earth could her mother be reading that was that interesting, and that long?

It was maddening.

“A favor?” Opal smiled. “You are not usually one to ask for favors, Sapphire.”

“So I needed someone I could trust. Call it…call it a favor after a lifetime of friendship.”

Sapphire felt her cheeks flush, knew they were red, boiling red if the sensation was anything to go by, and wished to goodness she had better control of herself.

But how could she, with her mother reminding her of the favor she so recently asked Maltravers? A favor which had felt easy, straightforward, when she had first asked. How difficult would it be for her friend to pretend to be her betrothed for a few months?

It felt anything but easy now.

“W-Well?”

“I think further study is required.”

Sapphire swallowed. She had done her best to put that evening out of her mind. Her best was not particularly good, the memories of Maltravers kissing her most ardently intruding in her thoughts almost every minute of the day…

But still. She was trying.

It was ridiculous, she told herself silently as she smiled at her mother and attempted to think about how she could ask this question.

Maltravers and her, kissing!

It was ludicrous. If anyone had told her that she would be kissing Maltravers most passionately in one of Lady Romeril’s drawing rooms, she would have laughed in their face.

It would never happen!

Yet it had. And after that first kiss, light on her lips yet making her heart soar, Sapphire had done what she could never have predicted. She had asked—ordered, really—a gentleman to kiss her.

That was all very well…but it was Maltravers. Maltravers!

“I think further study is required.”

And she would not have had to ask him to kiss her again if he had not been so—so infuriatingly warm. So irritatingly close, so present, so strong as he had held her—

“Sapphire?”

Sapphire blinked. How long had she got lost in her thoughts of Maltravers’ kiss this time? She was starting to get a reputation in her family for daydreaming.

Little could they guess that she was not imagining some fanciful thoughts, merely reliving a fantastical moment. Which was why she had decided to ask her mother a favor.

It had been three days.

“I wondered, Mama,” Sapphire said aloud, wishing her voice was calmer and wondering if her mother had noticed, “if you would invite Maltravers to dinner this evening?”

She had expected questions; expected her mother to frown, to wonder why, to say that she could not simply change that evening’s preparations, that Cook would be most put out at changing things with such little notice.

But true to form, Opal did nothing that was expected of her.

“Of course,” she said lightly, turning from daughter to papers.

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