Sam’s face went hot, and he turned back to Jack with a forced smile. “Far from my type. Just looking around the room.”
His eyes drifted back to Clara and as if she could sense his stare, she turned her head in his direction. Her blue eyes connected with his hazel eyes. Sam should look away, but he couldn’t. Her lips curled into the smallest smile. He tilted his head and arched a blond brow in her direction. She held his gaze and warmth radiated through his body. He was crossing into dangerous territory, playing this game with Clara. But was he really? It wasn’t as if a match between them would ever be a consideration.
Some of the lords and ladies of thetonwere more than willing to marry their daughters off to a wealthy man without a title but not the families like Clara’s. To them his blood was pure gutter. A memory of his adoptive mother telling him that he could be and have anything he wanted as long as he worked for it flashed in his mind. How he missed her. She would have rolled her eyes at the pomp that these lords and ladies presented themselves with, just as she did with the ladies of Philadelphia’s high society. For some reason though, he thought she would like Clara. Maggie had always been good at seeing what was underneath the surface.
“Are you listening to me?” Jack asked.
Sam ignored him and smiled back at Clara. He would take the smile, no matter how tiny it was. She turned back to her conversation and nodded politely at something one of the other ladies said.
“What is wrong with you?” Jack demanded.
Sam turned back to him, smiling broadly. “Nothing at all.”
“I asked when you planned to return to Liverpool?”
He needed to get back up there soon. Their family business, a passenger vessel company, was prepping their newest ship for its inaugural launch. It would be their third ship and the first that traveled between Liverpool and New York. The other two went between Liverpool and Philadelphia.
“I’ll probably leave straight from Adderly’s,” Sam said.
“You need to be back in time for the first ball of the season.”
Their sisters were having their coming out season. He wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sophia was thrilled and Annie not so much.
“I’ll be back in time. Unlike you, I actually like speaking with people. I enjoy social interaction.
The dread you feel at having to smile as we escort Annie and Sophia around London doesn’t afflict me.”
Sam looked around and didn’t see Clara. His eyes scanned the room as he tried to figure out where she may be.
“Excuse me, I’ll be back. Go talk to your wife and Sinclair.”
Jack scowled at him, and Sam chuckled as he left.
~
Clara stood in Lord Adderly’s exhibit room lost in the crowd. Every wall was covered with paintings Lady Adderly had painted over the past year. They ranged from portraits to large country scenes. No one was looking at the paintings even though the room was packed. People were going back and forth between the exhibit and the ballroom. She looked at the painting in front of her, unsure if it was a picture of a dog or a horse. She wrinkled her nose.
“I love that your nose has freckles.”
Her eyes darted sideways, and Sam stood next to her, looking dapper as ever with his tails and his hands folded neatly behind his back. They both studied the painting as people laughed and talked around them.
“My freckles are not your business, Kincaide,” she said tartly.
Her eyes darted back to him, and he grinned broadly. Why was this man never bothered by anything?
“True but they are absolutely charming on you.”
She pursed her lips and whispered, “Do statements like that work with the plethora of adoring ladies who follow you around?”
He chuckled softly. “All of them but you.”
She didn’t look his way; she didn’t want to cause a scene or start gossip. Right now, they were two people studying a painting in a very crowded room, nothing more. “I don’t adore you.”
“Simmer down. We’re mates. I’m just messing with you. I know you don’t adore me. Good looks don’t seem to interest you. This painting is atrocious. Why have you been standing here so long staring at it?”
Clara blushed, realizing he had noticed she was alone in a room crowded with people. People spoke with her of course, but conversations generally didn’t go past anything superficial or last for more than a few minutes. They were all, besides Diana, acquaintances more than friends. She was lucky she had her sister.
“I was trying to figure out if the blob in the field was a dog or a horse?”
