Startled, Cecilia’s head snapped to the right and the left, scared that someone had encroached on their private moment. Butthen, she realized the voice was coming from around a corner. Relieved, she sagged on the wall while eyeing Cassian.
Irked, she smacked his chest, “Don’t look at me like that. I am not used to being caughtin flagrantelike you constantly are.”
Snorting, Cassian pushed away and angled his head around the corner. “I need to correct you there; no one has ever caught me, and if they had, the term would bein flagrante delicto.”
The man called again, “Or I believe I did see you. Are you here?”
Gripping Cassian’s shirtsleeves, she frantically whispered, “Who is he?”
“That is Earl Rainsville,” Cassian said while craning his head over his shoulder. “Solomon Schlepper.”
For a second time in less than five minutes, Cecilia was thrown for a loop. She blinked and then blinked again. “His name is Solomon…Schlepper?”
“I know,” Cassian said as he pulled away from her and walked to the fence. “The irony is not lost on me. Or maybe it’s not ironic. I suppose his parents were desperate to counter the unfortunate last name.”
Of course. No one would like to be called an idiot on purpose.
As they walked the few feet to the fence, Cecilia found herself almost jogging to keep up with Cassian’s long limbs. The man walked with a loose, long-limbed stride that she’d wager even horses had a warm try to follow.
The man on the horse was dressed in a blue-lined waistcoat and matching tailcoat; his impeccable riding habit was finished with cream breeches. He descended from his horse and tugged off his gloves.
“Your Graces,” the earl bowed, his bright blue eyes alight with cheeriness. “I am so happy to cross paths with you.”
“How are you, Rainsville?” Cassian asked cordially. “May I introduce you to my dear wife, Cecilia?”
“Your Grace,” the earl bowed again. “Welcome to Millfield. Have you had a chance to see our bucolic town yet?”
“No, I haven’t,” Cecilia replied, “I—we—have been settling into married life these past few days.”
“Ah,” the earl nodded sagely. “I remember those first few days of married life—” His voice trailed off as his expression turned nostalgic. “My dear Victoria and I married young, you see, she was a day after eighteen, and I had just come into my majority.
“We were so wrapped up in our passions that we were sequestered for days,” Solomon finished wistfully.
“’Tis no wonder,” Cassian muttered. “They have four children and another on the way.”
Her eyes widened incrementally.Four children, good gracious.
“But—” Solomon shook his head, as if pulling himself out of a daze, “—that is neither here nor there. The reason I called out to you is because I am sure my dearest sent you an invitation for a small dinner. It’s a simple get-together with two more couples.”
Instantly, Cecilia wanted to find a way out of this dinner. Even though she had demanded that they attend social functions, eventually, she had not anticipated so soon.
“When is this dinner?” she asked hesitantly.
“The Sunday after the Harvest Festival,” the earl answered happily.
Oh Lord Almighty.
Before she replied, she shot a look at Cassian, who looked as placid as a lake’s surface. “As much as we would love to attend—”just not at this time,“—I do believe that we have something planned for that evening. Right, Cassian?”
He peered at her. “What was that again?”
She felt her chest tighten. “You know that…thingin London.”
“That… thing?”
From the blank expression on Cassian’s face to the expectant one of the earl’s, Cecilia’s cheeks reddened with every passing moment.
“Yes, that thing in London, with your friend and mine…” She felt heat scald her cheeks. “It was at your friend's house, the best man at our wedding, you know the one. He said something about a dinner party and a musicale—”
