The Duke's Unexpected Bride by Lara Temple

Author:Lara Temple
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

‘It was well worth the wait!’ Bryanston announced as he led Sophie off the Montagues’ dance floor towards where Max was standing in a group of people, one of whom Sophie recognised as the very fashionable and yet scandalous Lady Jersey. In this setting Max looked quite intimidating and aloof and it was hard to reconcile this handsome, imposing man with the passionate lover who had initiated her into physical pleasure in Aunt Minnie’s parlour and then faced her with such touching contrition. She didn’t know quite which one of these men Max was, or how they all managed to cohabit together. All she knew was that everything she found out about him just peeled back another layer in her, and that the initial, elemental attraction that had drawn her to him was just the first step along a journey that had already changed her in ways she wasn’t sure she understood. As she moved towards him, his grey eyes unfathomable but sparking far too much in her, she felt the heat prick at her cheeks and hoped they ascribed her flush to the dance.

‘Sally, is it you I must thank for allowing Miss Trevelyan to dance the waltz?’ Bryanston grasped Lady Jersey’s hand and raised it reverently to his lips. ‘If so, I offer you my profound gratitude. She waltzes divinely. Like a nymph or a zephyr or whatever it was that turned into a spray of water. I can never remember their names; it’s all Greek to me. Do you know, Miss Trevelyan?’

‘I am sorry, I don’t, but in any case it doesn’t sound very enjoyable for either the nymph or her dance partner,’ she replied, feeling her flush deepen as she felt everyone watching her and waiting for her to slip up. She had no idea what Max was thinking and she really didn’t want to embarrass him again. At least Lady Pennistone was nowhere in sight.

‘Quite right!’ Bryanston agreed, struck. ‘Who wants to embrace a spray of water? What’s wrong with the fellow who wrote that? Sounds like a dashed damping experience, if you pardon my indelicacy, Miss Trevelyan.’

She couldn’t help laughing at his comical expression. Somehow his nonsense made her feel less nervous.

‘I don’t think it was meant so literally, Lord Bryanston, but it is annoying the way poets are forever transforming women into and out of things. If it isn’t a water nymph it’s a swan or a statue. I suspect they don’t know what to do with us as we are.’

Lady Jersey burst into a trill of her distinctive laughter.

‘How very true. Then you are quite lucky that Max here has no poetic leanings. And he knows precisely what do with us. As we are.’

‘Manners, Sally.’ Max said easily. ‘Are you trying to scare off Miss Trevelyan?’

Lady Jersey’s humorous eyes met Sophie’s.

‘I don’t believe I can. Certainly not like that. Could I, Miss Trevelyan?’

‘Certainly not like that, Lady Jersey,’ Sophie agreed demurely.

‘Oh, marvellous.’ Lady Jersey laughed again. ‘I do like your betrothed, Max.

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