AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I rather suspect he would not be so handsome if his estate was not so grand.”
“What was that, dear?”
“Nothing.” Annie felt a stuffiness in the room. She was always eager to follow her mother’s rules and make a good impression on the strangers that they met, but sometimes it was rather difficult to maintain the stiff posture and the constant smile. “If you would excuse me, Mama, I will just take a minute of fresh air.” She pointed toward a glass door that led out to a courtyard.
“You will need accompanying.” Barbara stepped forward to go with her, but Annie held up her hand, pleading with her to stop.
“There is no need. We can see from here the courtyard is empty, and is not that Lady Denver coming to speak with you?” Annie pointed behind her mother, seeing her words worked, for Barbara looked away and hurried off to find Lady Denver, leaving Annie free to make her escape.
The moment she stepped outside, the chilly air of the spring evening hit her. She hastened to close the glass door behind her and took a few steps away to tip her chin to the darkness of the sky and breathe in the air. At once, she felt her shoulders relax a little, and the shawl slipped a little from her shoulders, hanging loosely around her waist.
“The company in the ballroom a little much for you?” a deep voice called to her. Annie blanched, her chin dropping downward as she recognised that voice. “I could hardly blame you for it. Do you think we are all born with this want of pretence, to put on a show to be someone we are not, or do we learn it over time?”
Annie turned her head, looking to the side of the courtyard to see there was someone out here after all. Lord Yeatman was perched on a stone bench, hidden under a lofted archway in the corner of the courtyard. Flanked by two white urns blooming with early spring flowers, he looked quite out of place. He was a rumoured demon surrounded in white.
“Good evening, again.” He smiled, seeming to note her discomfort.
Do I amuse him?
“I should….” Annie turned, eager to get back into the ball. What would people say if they saw her out here alone with a rake after all? She would be condemned by society! Her name would appear in the very scandal sheets that she so disparaged.
“There is no need for you to go.” Lord Yeatman shuffled along on his stone bench, making a space for her. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, turning his gaze far ahead again. “I was rather enjoying my escape from the people in there. I would not begrudge that escape to anyone else.”
“I cannot tell if you are jesting or not.” Annie found her feet didn’t make the escape she so desired. She looked back at him in wonder, watching as his dark eyebrows raised a little.
“I couldn’t blame you for that. I’m fond of a jest, though not everyone understands my humour. Shall we exchange pleasantries instead?” he said with a smile, perfectly politely. “Shall I compliment the ball? You could then reply by saying what good company there is tonight.”
“You seem to be partaking in the conversation for me.”
“Ha! I am merely predicting the usual banality of such pleasantries. You must think something similar to escape out here too. Do you not?” This time when his dark eyes landed on her, they were piercing, so much so that she knew she had to escape.
“New acquaintances usually partake in such banal conversation. It is polite, courteous, and a way to know each other.” Annie found herself repeating her mother’s words. “It is the done thing.”
“Well, I do not concern myself with doing the ‘done thing’, as you call it,” he said with a small smile, turning his gaze forward in the courtyard again. “Believe me, Miss Storey, I would infinitely prefer to be out here and talking of something that truly mattered, rather than in there.”
“I should….” Annie tried to leave again, but she noted how her shawl had slipped from her shoulders. It made her hasten to reset it, so that she would appear as she must do when she re-entered the room.
“You fuss that shawl as a man would fuss with a dog, with too much affection.”
“I nearly dropped it,” Annie tried to explain herself, though her fingers fell limp around the shawl. It felt a rather foolish thing to bother with when such a plain-speaking man was before her. He frowned a little at her as if he thought it a nonsensical thing to worry about.
“If you would excuse me.” Annie curtsied, trying her best to be polite as she hastened to the door. Despite her efforts to make a courteous escape and not offend, she scrambled with the door, missing the handle the first time in her effort to leave. She heard his chuckle following her as she stepped inside.
With the door closing behind her, she cursed under her breath.
I must pray no one saw us out there together!
A lady alone in the company of such a man was a scandal indeed.
