The Great Christmas Ball by Joan Smith

Author:Joan Smith [Smith, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1993-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Cathy just stared, incapable of speech. She was not so much frightened as momentarily stunned beyond any sensation.

Costain watched as her lips trembled and her eyes, wide with fear, blinked nervously. “What an idiot I am! I’ve frightened you half to death. I am sorry, Miss Lyman. It is only your faithful old lion, Leo,” he said, smiling to ease her fears. His gloved hands reached out and gripped her wrists to steady her. “You’ll catch your death here. Let us close the door,” he said, and placing an arm around her shoulder, he drew her into the study.

She twitched away. “What are you doing here?” she demanded. Her voice, though breathless, sounded truculent.

“There is no need to bite my head off. I didn’t come to steal your books,” he replied in an injured tone. “When I saw your light on, I thought perhaps you expected me. I noticed you noticing me at the theater.” A smile grew on his handsome face as he removed his coat and tossed it aside, sure of his welcome. He walked toward the grate and held his hands out to the fire. “Ah, that feels good.”

“I thought it was you in that box,” Cathy said. When she took a seat on the sofa, he joined her. She was unsure how to behave, but soon decided to act as normally as possible. He thought a smile and a flirtatious word was all it took to con her. Let him think it! His conceit might serve her well.

“Those were the Leonards I was with,” he said. “You would have recognized the fair Helena. The old fellow is Harold.”

She nodded. “So I assumed. Who was the elderly lady?”

Costain stretched his long legs toward the blazing grate and drew a sigh of satisfaction. “A neighbor and relation, a Mrs. Newhart. Are you not curious to learn how I came to be with Helena?”

“I was wondering why you were with the Leonards,” she said, not stressing the plural, but using it intentionally.

He cocked a brow and said brashly, “Point taken. Harold was there, too, though he is eminently forgettable.”

“I noticed you forgot to include him at the intermission.”

“Oh, that was intentional. I am not that forgetful. But we are beginning in media res here. Let me begin at the beginning. I decided to follow Gordon’s lead and keep an eye on Mrs. Leonard this evening,” he explained. “That is why I did not call on you. I followed the Leonards to the Royal Coburg and went in behind them, hoping to add myself to their party. The boxes were sold out, and when Mr. Leonard saw me turned away, he offered me a spare seat in his box. Naturally I jumped at the chance.”

“Naturally.”

“A demon for work, you see,” he said modestly, but there was a dash of amusement in his manner. “At the intermission Mrs. Leonard said she felt faint.” His eyebrows lifted in a manner that invited her to share his doubt of the claim. “And I, being a perfect gentleman, offered to take her out for a breath of air.

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