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“Get out of the bushes,” he ordered.And get the hell off my property.
The rustling stilled. Caught. Then slowly, with reluctance to show herself, a small figure in white slid out from the shadows to stand in front of the bushes. She was only a slip of a little girl who couldn’t have been more than five or six based on her size and the braids in her hair. Her head was bowed in embarrassment at being caught or—guilt raced through Mason at the possibility—in fear.
“I’m—I’m sorry,” he stammered out the apology. “I-I didn’t realize—”
Her tiny hands twisted in her cotton night rail, and big, round eyes stared at the ground just in front of where her bare toes poked out from beneath her hem.
“I thought you were guests coming over here to…ah…umm…” He explained dryly, “Experience fireworks.”
She darted a glance at him, then went right back to staring at the ground and not saying a word.
With a smile, he lowered onto his heels to bring himself down to her level. Perhaps he could soothe away some of her unease at being discovered and—he winced—yelled at.
“You surprised me,” he admitted in a quiet voice that was a stark contrast to the loud noises still coming from the party, which now increased even more to be heard over the fireworks. “I didn’t expect a little girl. I expected—” He bit off.
I expected two foxed and randy masqueraders looking to tup a spouse who wasn’t theirs against my garden wall.
“Someone from the party,” he finished. He cocked a brow. “But your fine white gown indicates that you had other plans for a night out in London…A visit to the opera, perhaps? Waltzing at Almack’s? Ah, I know—you were on your way to feed the lions at the Tower Menagerie.”
Her eyes rose to meet his, and she stared at him for a moment, still as a statue. He didn’t dare to move a muscle or even breathe for fear of further frightening her.
But then her pink lips curled into a small smile at his teasing, and she took a single, hesitant step toward him.
“Introductions are in order.” Despite being half undressed in his shirt sleeves and without a neckcloth, he stood, snapped his boot heels together, and gave her a low and formal bow that would have made the dandies next door jealous. A soft giggle rose to her lips. “I am Mr. Mason Granger, lately of Stratton Hall in Kent, most recently residing here in St James’s. And you are Miss…?”
The girl said nothing, her attention rising to the flashes of color and light exploding overhead. Clearly, his brilliant conversation was no match for fireworks.
“Emmeline!” A soft, light voice called out from the bushes behind her, which began to rustle and shake a second time. “Emmeline, come back here this—”
When the woman pushed through the bushes into the garden and saw Mason, she stumbled to a stop. The surprised stare she gave him was identical to the little girl’s. Mother and daughter. But unlike the child, she was dressed for the party, wearing a pale blue satin and lace gown whose pastel color highlighted her blonde hair even in the gardens’ shadows and flattered her full figure. From her hand, a mask dangled on its ribbon.
But then her attention landed on the little girl. Heedless of both dirtying her gown and being rude to Mason, she dropped to her knees in front of her daughter and grabbed her into her arms. The look of pure relief on the woman’s face tugged at Mason’s heart.
“Shame on you for sneaking out of the nursery! You nearly gave Nanny and me a heart attack when I went up to check on you and found you missing. Do you realize how worried I was? How panicked?” She pulled back only far enough to cup the girl’s small face between her gloved hands. “I searched the entire house for you.”
The girl guiltily lowered her eyes.
“And then I saw that the garden gate had been left open. Just the thing you would do, to sneak over here where you wouldn’t be seen disobeying.” She rested her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “And bothering the neighbors.”
The girl cast curious glances at Mason, only half-listening to the loving chastisement her mother was delivering.
The woman rose to her feet and turned apologetically toward Mason. She held the girl in front of her by the shoulders as if not trusting the imp not to disappear into the shadows again. Based on the way the little one’s attention kept moving back to the fireworks, her fear was valid.
“I’m terribly sorry,” the woman rushed out in a breathless apology. “This is my daughter Emmeline. I told her to stay in the nursery with Nanny, that the party was for grownups and not little girls.”
He stifled a smile at the half of that explanation which was meant to chastise her daughter. That half went right over the little girl’s head with the fireworks.
Concern tightened her lips. “Apparently, when her nanny fell asleep, she sneaked out of the house to see the fireworks anyway.”
“She was no trouble.” He smiled, wanting to ease away the woman’s worry when he shouldn’t have cared…except that her daughter remained silent. “I enjoyed having a visitor.”
Oddly enough he meant that. They were the first guests he’d had at the house all season who weren’t related to his business.
She returned his smile and stirred an answering warmth in his chest. “You’re too kind.”
“Not at all.”
She turned her daughter back toward the gate in the wall. “We’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your evening in peace and quiet.”
