To Entice an Earl by Naomi Boom

Author:Naomi Boom [Boom, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, historical, regency, England
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2017-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Lord Edwin greeted her upon her descent for dinner. Her maid had styled Alexa’s hair in a beautiful, rambunctious coiffure that benefited from wayward strands, and even he would have a hard time criticizing it. That, and her maid had used a staggering number of pins tonight, so hopefully nothing would riot out of its position unless intended to do so.

“You look ravishing tonight, my lady.” Lord Edwin bowed low over her hand and beamed at her. Her cheeks heated, and she avoided eye contact by continuing to walk to the dining room. He followed and extended his arm to her. “I cannot help but appreciate your gown. What color would you consider it?”

She glanced down at her pristine white gown. “White, my lord.” It was a plain enough, and the color nothing special. She continued to walk, but this time allowed him to escort her.

He looked disconcerted at her brusque tone, but he recovered and said, “I am happy to see you rallied from this morning’s unfortunate events.”

“As am I, my lord. I do detest appearing frightful.”

He stopped their stroll and turned her to him. “Is that why you are upset? Because I said you looked frightful?”

She raised her eyebrow, allowing her tone to sound frosty. “Is there some other reason I should be aware of?”

“Of course not.” He patted her arm and smiled at her. “I did you a favor, so there is no reason for you to act cross. If I had not interjected, Father might not give you a second chance to make a good impression.”

“I already told you we will not wed.” How obtuse was Lord Edwin that he could still believe he had a chance?

“I know.” He tucked her arm in his own and began to walk again. “We will, though.”

Her free hand clenched into a tight ball. Apparently, he was dense to the point of block-headedness. “What must I do to convince you otherwise?”

One of the other house guests hailed Lord Edwin before he could respond, and she endured a tedious, polite exchange before they finished their short walk to the dining room. “Ah, there he is,” Lord Edwin said as he brought Alexa across the room to where his father stood.

They approached Lord Rudgers, who appeared engrossed in conversation with another gentleman. Lord Edwin and Alexa stood in polite silence until Lord Rudgers turned to them and acknowledged their presence. “Father.” Lord Edwin smiled. “May I present you to Miss Farris? You may notice she is a bit more presentable than when last you saw her.”

Lord Rudgers raised a quizzing glass and inspected Alexa at length. She fought back the desire to squirm as she waited for him to finish his intense perusal of her person. “Yes, she does look better.”

She froze. What an asinine thing for the marquess to say to her. Should she smile, or perhaps say thank you? No. She refused to do anything more than nod.

Lord Edwin apparently knew what to do, because he laughed and said, “She most certainly does.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.