One Fine May by Courtney McCaskill & The Rake Review

Author:Courtney McCaskill & The Rake Review [McCaskill, Courtney & Review, The Rake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hazel Grove Books
Published: 2024-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Letty peered around the column of the Daughtrey family’s supper box to observe Vander’s approach. David had announced that he would collect Vander and meet them there, and surely enough, there they were, strolling up the path with their heads bent together, laughing at some joke understood only by the two of them.

Vander wore stone grey breeches and a black tailcoat. Truly, no one looked half so handsome in black evening wear as Vander, with his glossy black hair and golden skin perfectly offset by his snow-white linen…

Beneath the table, Emily squeezed her hand, a gesture Letty gratefully returned. Only Emily knew how hard this was, having to match Vander with another woman.

Especially when the woman she was to introduce him to was as exquisite as Beatrice Haddington Barnet. Letty didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of Mrs. Barnet immediately. She was perfect for Vander in every way. Sophisticated. Clever. In possession of a fine wit.

She was a widow, but she was a young, beautiful widow with brown hair and sparkling green eyes. She was just jaded enough for it to be fashionable rather than tiresome, and she had a worldly air about her Letty was sure Vander would find appealing. There was nothing he could find objectionable about Mrs. Barnet. Absolutely nothing.

Letty felt a horrible foreboding that tonight, Vander would be spending the evening with his future bride. And she would be the one to make it possible.

Emily squeezed her hand again as David and Vander approached the table. They were the last to arrive. The supper box was enclosed by wooden walls on three sides and topped with a roof to keep out the frequently inclement English weather. A plain wooden bench lined each of the walls. Letty’s parents were seated to her left, she and Emily were squeezed in along the supper box’s back wall, and they had left the right bench open for David and Vander.

“Switch places with me, Letty,” were the first words out of David’s mouth. “I want to sit next to Emily.”

“And good evening to you, too, brother,” Letty muttered, sliding around the table.

She made it to the opening and started to stand, but her skirt must’ve snagged on something because she stumbled as she attempted to rise. David was making eyes with Emily and didn’t even notice.

But Vander surged forward and caught her beneath the arms before she could fall face first in the dirt.

“Sorry, Letty,” David said cheerfully. “That was my fault. I seem to have trod upon your hem.”

Vander swiftly removed his hands from the more intimate areas of her anatomy—more’s the pity—but offered her his hand before she could sway. “Are you all right?” he murmured, brown eyes creased with concern.

“I’m fine.” Other than the fact that she’d just made a cake of herself in front of the man she’d been in love with for most of her life. “Thanks to you.”

“Good.” Vander placed his other hand on the small of her back to help her back onto the bench, and Letty shuddered.

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