Some Enchanted Evening: The Lost Princesses #1 by Dodd Christina

Author:Dodd, Christina [Dodd, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

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Eighteen

The most interesting people are the people interested in you.

A wise princess can use this knowledge to rule her world.

— THE DOWAGER QUEEN OF BEAUMONTAGNE

Clarice started down the corridor toward the library, Norval forgotten, Amy forgotten, the demands of the ladies and their complexions forgotten. Nothing mattered except the clench of her gut and the rising anticipation she experienced at seeing Hepburn again.

Then she noticed the footman’s frightened eyes staring at her anxiously. She didn’t care; she just didn’t care what his problem was.

But the sight of his hangdog expression clung in her mind. Before she turned the corner, she found herself stopping. “Is there a problem, Norval?”

He shuffled his feet. “Yer Highness, the master told me t’ immediately direct ye t’ the library when ye had finished wi’ the ladies, and…and I was working elsewhere.” He flushed miserably under her inquiring gaze and corrected himself. “That is, I was speaking t’ one o’ the maids, and I missed telling ye straightaway, like the master instructed.”

“Then we won’t tell him.” She tried to leave, to go see him.

“The master sees everything, and he has a fearsome temper.” Norval lowered his voice. “I hear that yesterday he killed ten rogues wi’ his bare fists.”

“Two men, and he merely beat them.” She couldn’t believe she was comforting Norval about an event that had awed and frightened her.

“They say in the kitchen that the master’s mad,” Norval whispered.

“He is most certainly not mad,” she said with irritation, “and so you may tell them in the kitchen.”

Norval bowed as she moved off at a brisk pace.

How ridiculous to think Hepburn was mad because he’d beaten those men! Yes, at one time she might have thought so, but last night had changed that. Last night…

She tucked a wisp of hair back with trembling fingers.

Last night she had hated him and loved him and feared him…and she had lain with him.

Oh, God. All the previous days of her sojourn in MacKenzie Manor she had feared his madness. Now she wondered at her own. She was going to see him again, and she didn’t know what to say. Grandmamma had taught her how to act in every eventuality — except this one.

The bright sunlight coming through the windows should have given her courage; instead, she feared it would expose her thoughts for everyone to see.

An internal voice mocked, Everyone?

No one lingered in the corridors. She fooled only herself. The one from whom she wanted to shield her thoughts was Hepburn, because last night had been wonderful and awkward and too much to comprehend.

The door to the library loomed before her. Standing still, she stared as if it were a portal to another world. He was on the other side. Last night, when she’d made her way to her bedchamber, she had slept only with difficulty. Her mind had been a tangle of new revelations and old dreams, her emotions swinging from exhilaration to despair. Now she had to face him again, and she wasn’t prepared.

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