AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Or they would be sorely disappointed.”
Charles pushed off from the wall. “I am going to ask her to dance.”
“Miss Pemberton?”
Charles’s determined, narrowed gaze found the object of his desires and clung to her. “Mrs. Fawn.”
A warning went off in Mac’s chest, and he held out a hand to halt his friend. “Hold for a moment, Charles, and think about this. How many times have you asked her to dance before in your life?”
“Countless.”
“And how many of those times has she accepted the request?”
Charles’s mouth shut. He swallowed, his throat bobbing. “None.”
“Yet Miss Pemberton, who stands just two paces away from Mrs. Fawn, might overhear this request, yes? How shall that make her feel?”
“She is unaware of my feelings for…but I do see what you are getting at.” He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. “Perhaps I ought to ask Miss Sophy instead. I must do something to busy myself, Mac, or I will go blasted mad, and I’ve already asked Miss Pemberton twice.”
“Then you ask Miss Sophy, and I will inquire of her sister. We will pass this evening as swiftly as we can.”
With that battle plan in place, the men moved out, picking their way through the crowded ballroom toward their targets. They passed Miss Giulia Pepper on the arm of a tall, blond gentleman—her intended, Mac had earlier learned—the two of them positively beaming. He hoped to one day look as pleased as this man did, and hoped it was Mabel hanging from his arm, looking as smitten as Miss Pepper did now.
Someday. Someday was sure to come, once everything was put in order.
They approached the group, Wright’s overbearing voice breaking through the din of voices and assaulting Mac’s ears.
“I know just the place for a seaside venture, and I should be most happy to escort you there,” Wright said, his attention fixed on Mabel.
“A trip to the sea sounds most delightful. What place is that, Mr. Wright?”
“You’ve probably not heard of it. It is a small oasis of a place, really, called Camden Cove.”
Mac’s teeth clenched, his blood rushing up past his ears so loud he could not make sense of what else was being said around him. Of course Mabel had heard of the place; anyone from Graton would have. But how had Wright heard of it?
If this interloper thought he could slide into Devon and pretend he was a local, he was bound to be disappointed.
“Mr. MacKenzie,” a sly, feminine voice said at his elbow.
He turned, stunned to find Miss Sophy there, her hand sliding up his arm and wrapping around it like a declaration. Her other hand closed over the first. Did she not realize they were in a crowded ballroom full of Graton’s gentility?
Her voice, silky and slick, dripped over him like an unpleasant rain. “I have heard you make mention of Camden Cove before, but I cannot recall why. Would you care to remind me?”
“I cannot think what you are referring to.”
She pouted, her lip jutting forth, and pressed herself into him. Mac felt as though all eyes in the ballroom were on them. He tried to disentangle himself from her grasp, but she was unrelenting, gripping him fast. Panic bloomed in his chest, pounding his heart hard. He stepped back, but Miss Sophy only stepped with him, laying her head on his arm.
It was happening again. The wily woman was entangling herself with him in such a public place on purpose, putting him in a predicament. He must either be utterly rude to her or give rise to gossip about the nature of their—truly nonexistent—relationship. Glancing around for something or someone to help him, Mac found Mabel watching him and he froze.
Her eyes were wholly transfixed on his arm and Miss Sophy’s secure hold there. Mrs. Fawn said something to Mabel, and she snapped her head around, but the furrow upon her brow would not yield. Standing, Mabel smoothed out her dress, taking Mrs. Fawn by the arm, and they slipped away together quietly, Mabel’s limp more pronounced now than ever before.
Yanking his arm free, he heard Miss Sophy yelp softly. But he did not care. He’d been such a fool to imagine her changed. He’d let his guard down, convinced she did not think him the prize she once had. He was a fool.
He tore away from the group, following the direction Mabel and her friend had gone, but she was nowhere to be seen. Heading for the exit, he bumped a man in the shoulder and, turning to apologize, found a startled Desmond.
“You,” he said through his teeth, “ought to remind your sister that I am not the catch she thinks me.”
Desmond’s eyes grew wide. “Sophy, was it? What did she do this time?”
