With This Kiss by Victoria Lynne

Author:Victoria Lynne [Victoria Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Amazon
Published: 2010-06-30T14:00:00+00:00

Julia scanned the room once again for Morgan. She wasn’t desperately in need of her husband’s presence as much as she was desperate to be extricated from her present situation: keeping company with Marianne and Theresa. It wasn’t that she disliked her cousins. She simply had nothing in common with them. They were both completely feminine — in a manner she found completely annoying. At the moment they were engaged in a pastime they clearly found to be of the utmost enjoyment — issuing scathing critiques of the other guests’ ball gowns.

“Did you see Lady Vackerby?” Marianne inquired in a hushed whisper, leaning forward in conspiratorial delight as she cast a sly glance at the woman whose gown had so deeply offended her sensibilities. “I mean, really. Purple lace? And she hasn’t even the dignity to—”

A shrill scream pierced the echoing din of laughter and conversation that filled the grand salon.

Marianne paused abruptly.

A second scream followed the first. A shocked, quizzical hush fell over the salon at the unprecedented disturbance. The orchestra paused, as did the guests who filled the crowded dance floor. Heads turned. An eerie, unnatural silence hung over the assembly. Then an audible gasp echoed through the chamber as horrified understanding set in.

Julia’s gaze shot to a twisting, hissing wall of flame that licked up the damask draperies near the room’s main entry. Within seconds the cloth covering the adjacent table simmered and writhed, catching flame as well.

For what seemed an infinitely long moment — although it was probably no more than a fraction of a second — a frozen stillness seemed to hold everyone in place.

Then pandemonium broke out. Cries of fire! mixed with shrill screams of terror. A few lone guests called for buckets of water as they bravely raced toward the flame, swatting at it with whatever was near to hand. The vast majority, however, surged toward the doors that led to the terrace, the salon’s only other exit. A panicked tumult of pushing and shoving instantly engulfed the room.

With a great roar and a hiss, the tall swath of flaming drapery abruptly tore away from the rod on which it hung and fell to the floor, collapsing on top of the men and women who had attempted to flee through the main entrance.

What had been an anxious crowd disintegrated into an outbreak of mob hysteria. Screams flooded the room. One moment Marianne and Theresa were standing before her, the next they were gone, whisked away in the tumult. Julia stood frozen, unsure what to do. She desperately scanned the salon for Morgan, somehow confident that he could bring order to the melee. No sooner had that thought seized her when she was struck by another. Should she look for Lazarus? If he was behind this, surely he remained nearby. Unfortunately the moment of indecision cost her. She felt a hard blow knock her from behind, nearly driving her to her knees.

She quickly regained her balance, and in the next moment she was moving — but not of her own free will.

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