From Governess to Society Bride by Helen Dickson

Author:Helen Dickson [Helen Dickson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 978-1-4603-4943-4
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-10-14T16:00:00+00:00



Chapter Seven

Every neck in the ballroom craned to see Eve, tall, proud and very lovely, walk beside Lucas. The folds of her gown clung to her slender body, down to her exquisite slippered feet, and her necklace gleamed with prisms of sparkling light.

Impressed and amused by Lucas’s supreme indifference to the excited curiosity their appearance was generating, Eve watched as he bowed to acknowledge friends and acquaintances, introducing her to what seemed like hundreds of people. An admiring coterie of young bucks gathered round her, and half-heartedly she wrote their names on her dance card, recognising those who had left their calling card at Berkeley Street when she had come to England in the hope that she would accept their suit.

Lord Gradwell, a widower who seemed in no haste to remarry, was a middle-aged, imposing man with a relaxed congeniality that came from leading a privileged lifestyle and being descended from an illustrious blood line. His parties and balls were always popular and informal, with people clamouring to be invited.

Taking two glasses of sparkling champagne from the tray of a hovering footman, Lucas handed one to Eve, clinking his glass to hers in a toast.

‘To the future, Eve.’

For the benefit of their audience she gave him a dazzling smile. ‘To the future,’ she murmured, taking a hasty swallow, aware that her hand was shaking slightly. As she met his gaze she thought back to the kiss he had given her. She should never have let that happen. What a foolish, uncharacteristic, impulsive thing for her to do. But it had been such a wonderful kiss—awkward for her as she came into close contact with another man after five years. His mouth had covered hers with casual expertise and increasing demand, and when he had raised his head, ending the kiss, he had stared into her eyes with an unspoken promise of seduction.

Eve’s cheeks reddened with embarrassed heat and without warning she knew a moment of blind panic. Somewhere in her mind a voice cried out that she was making a dreadful mistake and that what she was doing was madness, committing herself for the rest of her life to a man she did not love, a man who had told her in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to be loved, that he had no love to give, that he didn’t need her and never would.

This was the beginning, and after they had said their vows, there would be no turning back. Lucas said something to her and she looked at him, meeting his gaze, and she wondered if he felt as she did, a sense of being caught up in an implacable destiny, that whatever the future held, they had to endure it together for the rest of their lives.

‘I’m sorry, Lucas, I wasn’t listening. What did you say?’

‘That you look exquisite and are by far the most beautiful woman here tonight.’ His eyes flicked about the room, taking note of the men who were eyeing her. He guessed their thoughts were not so different from his own.

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