No.
Instead it was snapped in half.
He watched as her face caved.As the admiration that had once been there dissolved.As her shoulder sank.
And then stiffened.
His heart was being wrung dry as his feet felt like solid lead.He flexed his jaw.
“What is it, Soren?”Lynette’s voice splattered over the vision of Pru and drew him back to the moment with her.
“It’s—” And if he had spoken from his heart, he would have finished that sentence witheverything, but he spoke from anger instead and said, “—nothing.”
Chapter 8
Soren
“WhathappenedwithPru,”Rafe asked the moment Soren stepped back into the ballroom.
“Nothing.”He waved off his friend in an attempt to dismiss him.After what had just taken place, he was ready to leave.There was no sanctuary in the ballroom now.But then a thought occurred to him, “Did anyone else mention that something was amiss?”
“Not that I heard or can see.I only picked up on it because I was keeping an eye out for both of you.”
“Thank God for small miracles.”
“Soren, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”Rafe turned to scan the ballroom’s exits.“We can find a place to discuss this before—”
“I couldn’t help detecting Lynette following you back inside,” one of the dandies from earlier cajoled.Soren shot him a look to shut him up.And then he was surrounded by his flock of idiots again.And everything was the same as it had been before he’d left to chase after Pru.
No one had noticed Prudence entering before him.She was completely unremarkable to the men huddled around him.And for that he was relieved, if only to protect her identity and maintain her pristine reputation.
“I need a drink,” he muttered to Rafe.
“Shall we find Ash?”
“Lead the way.”
Unapologetically, Soren detached himself from his herd and headed off in search of a drink.In short order, the two men found Ash in one of the cardrooms.Alone.
“Playing cards alone again, are you?”Soren sank into one of the adjacent chairs.
“They all just left.”Ash picked up a deck of cards and shuffled.Then he held the deck up to his friends inviting them to play.A swift nod from each led him to deal a game of piquet for the two newcomers.
“Of course they did.You haven’t been sitting here all night by yourself avoiding someone.”
Ash scoffed.“I wouldn’t go to such great lengths just to avoid Verity.”
“Sure you wouldn’t.Haven’t been doing it for the past decade—”
“Eight years,” Ash corrected.
“Eight years of avoiding someone seems a bit excessive, wouldn’t you agree Rafe?”
Rafe nodded while eyeing his cards.
“I don’t need to avoid her.She does a good enough job on her own.Haven’t seen the chit since her debut.”
“Impressive,” Soren clicked his tongue, “that you know the date and time of your last sighting.”
