His smile spread slow and serpentine. “Then behave yourself, my darling. What transpires after we’re wed depends entirely upon your conduct. I can prove most generous. Or most unpleasant.”
A chill wrapped around her despite the ballroom’s stifling heat. She had no choice. Not yet. But if she could find Sebastian, speak to him before the night ended, perhaps she might finally have answers about who he truly was. She scanned the crowd desperately. There! On the far side of the room, near the terrace doors. The gentleman in green.
Sebastian.
He slipped through the doors and vanished.
Panic flared in her chest. She had to reach him. But first, she had to lose White.
As the final notes played, White bowed with exaggerated gallantry, then clasped her fingers in a lingering, possessive grip. “Now I shall escort you to supper.”
The supper gong rang out across the ballroom. Guests began removing their masks amid animated chatter and compliments. Rose lowered hers to dangle from its ribbons. When White turned to acknowledge another gentleman’s greeting, she saw her opportunity.
“Baron White, might I refresh myself before we dine?” She spoke sweetly, touching his sleeve with what she hoped appeared wifely deference. “I’m rather overheated from dancing, and I shouldn’t wishto embarrass you with such a flushed complexion.” She smiled, soft, obliging, utterly docile.
His chest swelled with satisfaction. “Very well. Don’t tarry.”
She curtsied and turned, her stomach already twisting as she hurried across the ballroom floor. The moment she cleared the doorway, she gathered her skirts and ran toward the rose garden, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Please be there. Please be waiting.
*
Lanterns illuminated thegarden pathways for guests who might wish to take the evening air, thus she had no trouble finding her way. As she approached the rose arbor, she spotted the shimmer of emerald silk. It was him.
“Hello. Wait, please.” Her slippers flew over the gravel as though the devil pursued her. Which, she reflected grimly, he very well might be.
She arrived breathless seconds later. The lanterns cast dancing shadows but couldn’t disguise the masked figure who had stopped before the wooden swing. He stood with his back to her, shoulders rising and falling as if he too struggled for breath.
“Please, tell me who you are.”
Slowly, he straightened and turned. The intricate details of his mask remained barely visible in the lamplight. He had not yet removed it.
She swallowed hard and stepped closer. “Please. Take off your mask. I must see who you are.”
A pause stretched between them, filled only by the distant sound of music and laughter. Finally he spoke: “You already know the answer.”
She did know. The way he moved, the way he had touched herduring their dance, the way her treacherous body responded to his mere presence. No one but Sebastian had ever stirred such feelings. She suspected no one else ever could.
He hooked his fingers beneath the mask’s edge and pulled it away with one fluid motion. Sebastian stood before her, transformed by elegant evening dress yet unmistakably himself. She drank in the sculpted planes of his face, the waves of dark hair, that determined mouth she had dreamed of kissing.
Sebastian had risked everything to infiltrate her ball. But why?
Her temper suddenly blazed. He would tell her the truth, or she would walk away and never look back. “What are you truly doing here? You’re no gardener. No man dances as you do without years of proper instruction. You’re a gentleman, aren’t you?”
“Lady Rose, it’s difficult to explain.”
Heat, fury, and desperate longing crashed through her in equal measure, leaving her breathless and shaking. “Why are you at the ball in disguise? What game have you been playing with me?” The worst possibility struck her like a physical blow. “Did my father employ you to watch over me?”
“God, no. I want nothing to do with your father’s vile enterprises.”
“Then what?” Her pulse thundered so loudly she could barely hear her own voice. “Your continued silence only compounds your deceptions. Can’t you see that?”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened visibly. “I hardly know where to begin.”
“Try the truth.” Her voice cracked. A reflection of her breaking heart.
Sebastian stepped toward her, regret flickering in his dark eyes. “I came here seeking vengeance. For what your father did to my family.”
