Vexing Lady Violet (A Lost Lords Story) by Cassandra Dean

Author:Cassandra Dean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: regency romance, enemies to lovers, fake dating, grumpy sunshine, grumpy sunshine romance, false courtship
Publisher: Cassandra Dean

Chapter Seven

A SOIREE AT AMBERLEY House always drew a crowd. The dowager Duchess of Meacham was known for her elegant parties and her particular talent for arranging the most intriguing of diversions, such any invitation she sent was quickly accepted.

This soiree was no different. Colin stood with his shoulder against a wall, looking past the dozens upon dozens of heads to the space cleared for a stage his mother had spent hours arranging to appear impromptu. For this event, his mother had challenged the guests to display a talent, and he had suffered through poorly quoted verse, his brother-in-law sawing at a violin, and the mistaken belief many seemed to possess that a questionable mastery of children’s toys was the greatest of entertainments. On occasion, a performer stunned with their chosen talent, but they were few and far between.

On the chaise set before the stage sat the lady herself. His mother was flanked by two of his sisters, and then those his mother deemed of greatest importance. Other guests crowded around them in the order his mother preferred, though only some were seated. There were never quite enough chairs at his mother’s soirees, a strategic manoeuvre she knew would lead to an insane crush and the soiree appearing better attended than it actually was.

All these people, and he had no idea where Violet was.

Shifting his weight, he cast his gaze across the throng before him once more. He’d lost track of her somewhere between the third and fourth act, when she’d murmured she required the refreshment room and then did not return to his side. She was probably somewhere in this room, but he wouldn’t have put it past her to have snuck to the library for fresh air, as she so charmingly put it. Maybe it was fresh air she sought, but he also knew she sought distance and calm, especially if her overbearing mother was being, well, overbearing.

Though she believed he and Violet courted, she still hunted her daughter through every social event, offering unwanted instruction on how best to attract the right sort of attention. Even now, Lady Crafers sought to claim a coveted seat beside his mother. Relegated to the fourth row, she crept ever closer, managing a small advance every act or two. He could see why Violet believed they would not be able to escape Lady Crafers demand they be wed, but he had promised he would make it so they would go their separate ways and never have to be in the other’s company ever again.

Something twisted in his chest at the thought of no longer being around Violet.

“Brother, you again loiter against a wall. I thought you had outgrown your need to hide.”

Every muscle in his body tensed. “Millicent.”

His eldest sister smirked at him. “Surely you are aware you are the main attraction? You and that girl you are courting.” She looked about. “Where is she, by the bye? You have been joined at the hip for weeks now and suddenly she is absent? Have you lost her favour already?”

He fought the urge to fold his arms over himself.

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