“It was at my expense, my friend, so vanity prohibits me from an explanation,” Hugh said ruefully. He smiled down at Vanessa. “I am pleased to see your good humor restored, especially as I was the cause of the unfortunate accident that robbed us of your charming company."
"Very prettily said,” Vanessa responded dryly, cocking her head to the side. “I shall have to take care that you don’t turn my head by your flattery.”
“Whoa! I should say, Hugh, she has put you decidedly in your place,” Trevor said, laughing.
Hugh shrugged laconically. “It is not a position to which I am unaccustomed,” he said with a smile. “One can only account oneself fortunate when it is done by as beautiful and gracious a lady as Miss Mannion.”
Vanessa started to answer, but Trevor interrupted. “Be done, Miss Mannion. I warn you, you shall only encourage him to become more outrageous. Any more, and he will be near to waxing poetic.”
“Oh? Well, it might be an improvement,” she said teasingly.
Trevor groaned theatrically. “Not when it is his poetry. He sounds as harmonious as a cawing crow.”
“Now, Trevor,” admonished Hugh, “I must protest. I fear you’re confusing my singing with my poetry.”
“No, I’m not. They’re both awful,” he assured Vanessa, “and something to be avoided ere he has you running for the alligator swamps.”
“Why, Mr. Danielson, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard you so ardent,” Vanessa said, laughing freely.
“That’s because you’ve never heard his bleating. I have.”
“Bleating!” protested Hugh.
“Bleating,” affirmed his friend grimly, a pugnacious expression on his face.
Hugh looked at him silently for a moment, then burst out laughing, clapping Trevor on the back as he did so. “You have a decidedly unfortunate memory, my friend.”
“Unfortunate for you, maybe, not for Miss Mannion and me. I would call it provident.”
Vanessa laughed. “I am surprised you two have not seen each other in so many years. You act so close. Why the long absence?”
Hugh’s face wore a melancholy smile. “He married the woman I thought I loved.”
“Oh,” she responded weakly.
“And it was the happiest day of my life when I realized she preferred me to him,” Trevor interjected cheerfully.
Vanessa looked down at her hands resting in her lap. She felt awkward and at a loss for what to say. It pained her to think Mr. Talverton’s life had been blighted by his friend. She remembered Julia Danielson. She had been an elegant and charming woman, full of warmth and sincerity. She fidgeted on her seat and abruptly stood up.
“Adeline and Paulette should be here shortly. They went for a short stroll toward the marketplace.” She turned away from the gentlemen, straining on tiptoe to see down the path. “Oh, look, there they are now, and Charles is with them!” She hopped up and down, waving broadly at them to catch their attention, caring little how undignified she looked.
Hugh touched her arm to halt her antics, wondering what had made her so suddenly skittish. “They see you. Be careful else you fall and bruise another portion of your anatomy.”
“Mr. Talverton!” she said, scandalized, a hot blush flooding her face.
Hugh raised his eyebrows when he noted a telltale sliver of red below the edge of the veil and above the blond lace at her throat. “You have a vivid imagination,” he drawled, causing her to blush anew.
The man was infuriating, Vanessa fumed, caught between embarrassment and chagrin. Just when she was beginning to like him or feel some sympathy toward him, he invariably reminded her he was devoid of gentility, whatever his birth!
“Monsieur Talverton!” cried Paulette, releasing her brother’s arm and skipping toward them.“Je suis—"
"Paulette,” warned her brother ominously.
She looked back at him and wrinkled her nose distastefully before turning back to Hugh. “I am so happy to see you, for you will never guess what has transpired. Charles, Charles, tell him!” she said excitedly, grabbing her brother by the arm and urging him forward.
Charles rolled his eyes in dismay at his sister’s hoydenish behavior, but he could not repress a smile. “Don’t you mean toask himrather thantell him?"he inquired.
“Oh, Charles, don’t be a gudgeon,” Paulette said petulantly. She looked up at Hugh. “Louisa is planning a party."
