Part 11 (1/2)
”The three favourites?” Tempted to tear three reputations to shreds, Sarah hunted for something complimentary to say of each. ”Lady Catherine astonishes me with the breadth of her accomplishments.
Her musical performance is superior, her sketching admirable and her conversation witty. I have often heard you laughing at the stories she tells of your London acquaintance.”
”She has a talent for making an on-dit amusing, to be sure, but her wit is not infrequently malicious.”
”Well then, Vanessa: she is quite the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, always excepting Eliza, of course.”
”Eliza is quite the silliest of my sisters, and her friend takes after her. For all her speaking looks, Miss
Brennan has not a sensible word to say for herself.”
”You are harsh. At least Lydia is kind enough and intelligent enough to take an interest in your orphanages. She is interested in education and adores children, I understand.”
”I mean to set up my nursery, not to spend my days in it, and as a sole topic of conversation, it will quickly pall.”
”Heavens, Adam, you are excessively hard to please. Do you feel no slight preference for any of them?”
”Miss Davis is the best of the bunch, I suppose. However, I've no intention ... Mama?”
Lady Cheverell came up to their table. ”The orchestra is returning to the ballroom, dearest. If you and Sarah were to make a move in that direction, the rest will go, too. Whatever have you done to your hair, Adam? Let me smooth it down.”
Adam sat patiently while his mother patted at his head, finis.h.i.+ng with an unsuccessful attempt to persuade
the errant lock to stay back.
”Thank you, Mama.” He stood up and kissed her cheek. Offering his arm to Sarah, he proceeded toward the door of the supper room.
There was an immediate move to follow.
”'All we, like sheep...”' quoted Sarah.
He looked down at her and laughed. Their inexplicable awkwardness with each other had pa.s.sed, but
she could not help wondering what he had been going to say.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
Adam was in love.
But he was not ready to admit it, even to himself. He only knew that his feelings for Sarah had changed irrevocably in that moment when he looked up and saw her regal figure standing in the doorway. For the first time, he had seen her as a woman, not just as a companion of his childhood and the best of friends.
Busy about the duties of a host, he had not had time to consider the revelation or its consequences. When at last his turn came to dance with her, he had been unable to treat her with his usual teasing informality, yet he had not known what should be in its place. As if sensing his uncertainty, she had been distant. The constant parting and rejoining of the dance had frustrated his need to break through the sudden barrier between them.
And then, when he was able to speak to her properly, he had started on a serious subject on which they were in complete sympathy, only to realize that this was neither the time nor the place.
Not until they returned to the ballroom did he feel at ease with her again, and he found himself back on the old, friendly footing. It was comfortable, but it was not what he wanted.
His first partner after supper was Miss Davis. Not once in the course of the dance did she interrupt his thoughts by addressing a remark to him, for which he was duly grateful. He left her with Louise and went to look for Miss Brennan. She was standing by the open French doors onto the terrace, fanning herself and whispering with Eliza.
”Adam, it is unbearably stuffy in here, and poor Vanessa is feeling a little faint,” his youngest sister informed him. ”I promised her you would take her out onto the terrace.”
It was a warm, moonlit night, and several couples were visible taking the air, strolling about or leaning against the stone bal.u.s.trade. Miss Brennan looked her usual imperviously beautiful self, neither flushed nor pale, but Adam could scarcely accuse her of deceit. He succ.u.mbed to good manners and escorted her outside.
”That is a little better,” she murmured, with a sigh designed expressly to draw attention to her exquisite bosom.
She let go Adam's arm and drifted down the shallow steps to the garden. He followed perforce.
”Miss Brennan, I believe we ought to return to the ballroom,” he protested. ”There is a chill in the air and it will never do for you to catch cold.”
”I shall be warm enough if we walk a little. Do let us go just so far as the jasmine bower. Its fragrance is so sweet at night. It will revive me.”
She seemed in little need of reviving, for she took his arm again and walked determinedly away from the house. Soon they were beyond the reach of the lights in the ballroom, their way illuminated only by the moon.
Then Miss Brennan tripped.
Adam reached to save her from falling. Somehow, she was in his arms, pressed full-length against his body, her face raised to his. Instinct won out and he bent his head to drop a kiss on her rosebud lips.
He came to his senses immediately but her arms were around his neck, clasping him to her with unexpected strength. If he stepped backwards, the move instinct now belatedly suggested, they would overbalance. He tried to pull away gently, without success. Her eyes were huge and dark in the moonlight, and quite unreadable.
”Oh Adam,” she breathed, ”you do love me after all.”
”Miss Brennan...”
”You must call me Vanessa.”
”Vanessa. I must apologize for insulting you so. I cannot think what came over me. Say you forgive me and let us-”
”Of course I forgive you, dearest Adam, for it was done in the heat of pa.s.sion. Only say that you still respect me.”
”I have the utmost respect for you, ma'am, but-”
”Then I accept your offer. What more can a girl ask in a husband than love, pa.s.sion and respect?”
”I did not precisely offer for you!”