"Everything?" she asked.
Jerrold felt the same way, but she disliked his overbearing, competitive nature. There was nothing overbearing about St. James. He could be competitive, she sensed that about him. Perhaps even dangerously so, but it was vastly different.
There was no cruelty in this man. Instinctively she knew it. She'd felt it in the gentleness of his hand. As she thought of that touch, and the feelings it had aroused, she was curious. Who was he really?
"It isn't necessary for you to remain here with me," Elyse informed him. "I'm really much better, and I can take care of myself."
"Yes," he admitted, his fingers slipping beneath her chin and tilting her head up so that he could look directly into her eyes, "and you never faint. "His tone was teasing.
"Never." Her gaze lowered to the curve of his smile. Color crept into her face as she found it impossible to break away from the humor she saw there. "Why did you call me Lady Barrington?"
"Why did you think that we might have met before?" he answered her with a question of his own.
"It was a simple mistake." She dismissed it, but knew the question went unanswered for both of them. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why she'd said what she had. Still, she was curious.
"You thought I was Lady Barrington?" she replied. Jerrold's mother had been dead for many years.
"As you said," he replied. "A simple mistake. "But still there was the pendant. "Your fiancé has excellent taste. The pendant you're wearing is extraordinary."
Her hand went to the pendant. "A gift," she replied, but didn't elaborate. The pendant was very special to her.
"It's very much like the color of your eyes."
That seemed a bold thing to say, and yet... Her fingers tightened around the pendant. The clasp separated and the pendant fell to the flagstones at her feet.
Zach bent over, his fingers closing over the cool of diamonds and pearl intricately set in an old-fashioned design. The muted light from the ballroom illuminated the stones, the large pearl glowing softly.
She stared at the pendant in his hand. How was it possible that she felt as if she had done this once before? Her gaze met his as she reached out to take the pendant, her fingers brushing his.
"It's most unusual." His voice softened, as he caressed the large pearl. "Like the one who wears it. "His gaze shifted then. "A gift from your fiancé?"
"Jerrold?" She laughed softly and shook her head. "No. He prefers more simple jewelry. He's given me several other pieces."
And still, he thought, she'd chosen to wear this particular piece.
"I'm sure he has," Zach remarked. "Why aren't you wearing them?"
"I prefer the pendant." Elyse smiled softly. "It holds a special meaning for me." Her voice had softened. "It was a gift from my grandmother. It was given to her by a friend many years ago, Felicia Barrington."
Zach's gaze changed at the sound of the name that had brought him thousands of miles across oceans and continents to a country he loathed.
"Lady Felicia Barrington," he repeated the name.
"Yes," Elyse answered uncertainly. The night had suddenly grown cold, and she shivered at the way he said it, as if there was something else that wasn't being said. After all, what did she know of this man? Watching his gaze, partially hidden behind that eye-patch, she felt that first impression all over again.
"Who is she?” he asked.
"She was Jerrold's mother."
"Was?" he asked. "What happened to her?”
"She died many years ago. I remember my grandmother telling me she died the night of the... " She hesitated. "The night my parents died." She asked herself why she felt compelled to tell him that? Or to explain anything to him at all for that matter?
She should have left then, but she didn't.
"I would like some answers as well," she told St. James.
Zach's smile returned. "Fair enough," he acknowledged, hiding his disappointment at learning that Felicia Barrington was dead.
