Page 27 of The Language of Love

Chapter 5

Annis had just finished delivering orgeat to her aunt—who’d sent her back for it after declining the lemonade she’d already requested—and was lurking near the entrance to the hall, where she was least likely be hailed by any of her family and sent on errands.

“Are you hiding from somebody?”

Annis squeaked and spun around to find Mr. Parker on the other side of the shallow alcove.

Her pulse quickened at the sight of him. “Oh. Why, hello, Mr. Parker.”

His brows—dramatic black slashes that were far darker than his sun-kissed brown hair—jumped. “You recall my name.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Few young ladies would recall an impoverished clerk-slash-secretary when they’d been introduced to a rich, handsome peer at the same time.”

Annis did not think Lord Rotherhithe was as bewitching as Mr. Parker seemed to believe, but even she knew it would be rude to point out such a thing.

“Fortunately, I have ample mental capacity to remember the names of two new acquaintances, Mr. Parker.”

His grin seemed to suck all the air from the room. Had she thought he was merely attractive? He was breathtaking when he smiled like that, his teeth a flash of white in his deeply tanned face, a tiny dimple to the right of his mouth.

“Touché, Miss Bowman.”

“Do you speak French?”

“You’ve just heard the extent of it.” He smiled again, and she found it difficult to focus; he was so intensely, suffocatingly… male.

He cocked his head at her and for one horrified instant she feared she’d said that out loud.

But he only asked, “Were you hiding from somebody?”

“Not really,” she lied. “What about you?”

“Oh, yes.”

His dry retort startled a laugh out of her. “Who are you hiding from?”

He jerked his chin toward a woman with a cluster of young men around her. “The lady in the red gown—I can’t recall her name just now.”

Annis glanced at the woman in question. “Oh. That is Lady Keating.” The gorgeous young widow was spilling out of her dress as usual, but Annis kept that observation to herself. “You are avoiding her?”

“You sound surprised?” he asked, his confident smirk making her want to slap him.

Or kiss him.

Annis blinked at the astonishing thought, which had bounced through her mind like a rogue cricket ball before bouncing back out again.

“Miss Bowman?”

Annis looked into Mr. Parker’s too penetrating eyes. “Er, yes?”

“I said you sound surprised that I would avoid her.”

“I am.”

“Why is that?”

“She is exquisite and I understand she is also very, er…”