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“Miss Radcliffe, have you any room on your dance card?”
My friend barely managed a tight smile, but penciled him in, to her grandmother’s approval.
The night went by slowly. I stood to the side of Lady Radcliffe, adding the appropriate nods and laughs to make it seem as if I was interested in her conversations. No one spoke to me, of course – I was a prop meant to make the Lady look good, and nothing more.
Lord Marsden walked by us a few times, causing my heart to race in my chest, but he never looked my way or approached us. The ladyship made a few comments on how deplorable he was, and I nodded silently, feeling a bit of nervousness flutter in my chest.
What if she discovered the extent of my relation to him?
Would she cast me out, rendering me helpless and homeless once again?
But just the thought of that was ridiculous. Ihad no relationto Lord Marsden after all, did I? We had been friends in childhood, sure. Perhaps even best friends. But now, he was a Viscount and a rake… and I was a poor orphan with no dowry, destined to die a spinster governess.
By the time the clock struck midnight, Lady Radcliffe was engaged in busy conversation with a group of ladies and had altogether forgotten me. Recognizing an opportunity, I slipped outside onto the terrace, desperate for some quiet and a breath of fresh air.
It was a warm, balmy summer night. The stars were shining brightly from clear skies, lighting the gardens from above. They were ample and well-taken care of, with large boxwood trees and clipped bushes in the shapes of horses and pillars.
I found myself wandering through the starlit garden, slipping in between hedges in the first moments of happiness I’d had all night. Surrounded by greenery, the sounds of the party behind me were muffled, as if it were happening miles away.
I walked through the winding hedgerows of the garden, hearing the sound of trickling water around the bend. Before I had a chance to stop, I heard the sound of humans just around the corner.
“Mars, don’t you dare!” A female voice said in a hushed tone of mock anger.
“Oh, I will. Did you think you were naked for no reason?” A male voice responded, deep and velvety.
It struck some familiar chord inside me, but I couldn’t place it.
I tried to process their words, but I couldn’t understand.
Naked?
Something was telling me I should turn around, but I suddenly wasn’t sure where the entrance to hedge was. If I just stepped around the next bush, I would be able to see if there was an entrance –
Big mistake.
The moment I stepped around the thick leaves, I found myself in an open clearing. The full moon was shining directly overhead like a spotlight, illuminating two figures before me.
One was a girl. Beautiful, with long, cascading raven black hair and warm brown eyes. It was Juliana Pembroke, without a doubt – the new fiancé of Lord Turley.
I realized, with some shock, that she was completely naked, her fine gown thrown hastily across a shrub. A large fountain of moonlit water was behind her, and it looked as if she was about to fall in.
To her left was a man. It was the man with the deep, velvet-y voice that I had somehow recognized from some far-off dream. I stared at him, and found my face growing bright scarlet red.
There was no doubt who it was. I had been staring at him from across the ballroom only hours before.
William Thorne.
My best childhood friend, the Lord Marsden.
And he wasnaked, too.
“Oh my, I’m so, so sorry, I-”
I felt my eyes drop down Will’s – no, I couldn’t think of him like that, he was a titled Lord –Lord Marsden’sbody, as if they had a mind of their own.
He was tall and broad, with lightly rippled muscles across his arms and chest. The body of an athlete, no doubt, and far different from the twelve-year-old boy I remembered playing with as a child.
His face was still the same though – boyish and handsome, but with a hint of kindness.
