Adam looked up the hall to see a cluster of guests pausing to stare at them.The women whispered speculatively behind their fans.
Ellie thrust her hand through Constance’s arm and steered her to a door that led out onto the veranda.
Adam followed.Neil stalked behind him, anger emanating from every line of his stiff posture.
They pushed out into the thick, humid night.The veranda was deserted save for a pair of gentlemen puffing on cigars at the far end.Intimate tables lined the railing.Beyond that lay narrow gardens and the shadowy sprawl of a twilit golf course.
The lanterns that lined the walkway had been left unlit against the coming weather, cloaking them all in gloom.A rumble of distant thunder and a flicker of violet light near the horizon whispered of an evening storm.
“Do you know, that’s never happened to me in England.”Constance stared out over the golf course, gloved hands resting on the rail.“Isn’t that funny?There are the occasional rude comments, of course, or the dowagers who are simply a little dim and warn me I’m spending too much time in the sun.But I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced something quite so…”
Her voice trailed off as though she didn’t know how to finish the thought.
Hateful,Adam mentally filled in.
“Class matters more than color in England,” he said.“You’re descended from royalty.And you’re an heiress.”
“I suppose that’s true.”Constance’s voice was uncharacteristically neutral, as though she were going through the motions of the conversation rather than actually having it.
That numb distance kindled a low, wrenching anger in Adam’s gut.
“Well, it hardly matters,” she concluded.
Neil whirled toward her from where he was pacing along the tables.His words snapped with fury.“Hardly matters?”
Constance’s eyes narrowed.“I am fully capable of fighting my own battles, Stuffy.”
Neil answered her with deliberate control even as his hands clenched into fists at his sides.“I know that.But those people in there think you’re less than they are.And that’swrong.”
His voice cracked on the word.
Adam was surprised by the intensity of Neil’s response—but only a little.Neil might be a quiet guy who mostly wanted to be left alone with his books, but there’d always been places where he chose to plant his standard.
And lord knew he could be stubborn as hell about it once he had.
Constance met Neil’s look with a fierceness of her own, chin lifting.“But they’renotbetter than me.”
“Of course, they’re not!”Neil burst out, throwing up his arms.
Ellie glared through the glass doors at the glittering, laughing bodies inside.“Frankly, the whole business makes me want to burn this entire place to the ground… which wouldn’t be all that hard to do, really.It looks quite combustible,” she added with a hint of dangerous contemplation.
“Do you want to go home?”Adam pressed flatly.
Constance was startled by the question.“Home’s a long way off,” she pointed out with a hint of an edge.
“Back to your family,” Adam countered patiently.
Constance returned to the rail, staring at the golf course as the sky flickered in the distance.Adam could feel the quiet struggle in her as she weighed the question.
“I won’t be chased out of here by a bunch of bigots.”She pushed back, turning to face them.“We need to find Borthwick.That bounder has to be somewhere on the property.”
“His information would probably be in the secretary’s book,” Ellie offered thoughtfully.“If we found a way to lure the fellow out, we might be able to search for it.”
“We don’t need the book,” Adam returned tiredly.“Places like this are always seething with gossip.All we need to do is talk to a few people.”
“In the North Dining Room?”Constance suggested in a voice edged like a knife blade.
“No,” Neil retorted sharply.
