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If only she could quit thinking about him!
There were over two hundred guests in attendance, not the least of whom were the parson’s family and hopping-hands Charlie Simms, who kept trying to drag her out into the gardens.
People drifted around her as they went about their regular lives, while she had experienced something miraculous today. Something she knew she would never forget.
Enough, Serenity! Pay attention to the dancers. Look at the matrons chaperoning their young charges.
Concentrate on poor Parson Jacobs!
The parson had already had to repeat himself three times while he talked to her. Even now she wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. Something to do with Jonah. Or was it Job?
Oh bother!
Nodding at the parson and murmuring what she hoped was an appropriate response to fill the few lulls in his conversation, she let her gaze roam about the room in search of Douglas. Maybe he could answer all her questions about her mysterious visitor.
A flash to her right caught her attention. Turning her head, she looked up just in time to see her sister rush toward her with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes.
“Please excuse us, Parson Jacobs,” Honor said breathlessly an instant before she seized Serenity’s arm and dragged her rather rudely toward the open French doors.
Serenity frowned. “Whatever is the matter—”
“He’s here!”
“Mr. McCarthy?”
“Nay, not my beau, silly. Yours!”
Completely confounded, Serenity stared at Honor as if she’d gone daft. What was she talking about?
Hopping-hands Charlie?
Nay, her sister wouldn’t be so cruel. “My suitor?”
Honor grabbed her about the waist and swung her to face the crowd.
Serenity swept her gaze across the marble and gold ballroom where dancers twirled about in time with the minuet. Candlelight flashed against jewels and brightly colored gowns and even a few outdated wigs. She saw a number of men she knew fairly well, but none of them would have elicited such a response from her sister.
A sudden hum of voices permeated the room. Voices that grew louder and louder until the musicians stopped playing.
Dancers faltered in their steps, and all of a sudden the dance floor cleared.
“Holy Christmas,” Serenity breathed. It washim. And everyone in the place was obviously as entranced by his presence as she.
And if she thought her mysterious man handsome before, she was wrong.
He wasn’t handsome, he was…
Whatever there was that went beyond handsome—that was what he was!
Her breath caught in her throat and an electric charge ran the length of her body, riveting her.
No longer disheveled and rain soaked, but still dressed in black, he had the bearing of a prince and the aloofness of a king.
Until one noticed his eyes. Eyes that betrayed his studied nonchalance. Like some exotic predatorial beast, he scanned the crowd, taking in every detail. Sizing up every man as a possible opponent and every female as a possible conquest.
As his gaze touched on the women, feminine heads came together behind fans that fluttered and swayed. It was obvious he was on a quest, and in that second of realization, Serenity knew he soughther.
Her heart pounded in expectation. In excitement.
