“I shall miss your company most dreadfully,” she said with a dramatic flair. “Perhaps you might grant me a lock of your hair to hold on to in your absence, o fair knight.”
“Minx.” He rose and offered her a mocking bow. “I meant what I said.”
She smiled. “As did I.”
As she watched him stride from the room, she couldn’t help but to admire his long legs and broad shoulders. He moved with the self-assured gait of a man who knew how attractive he was and wasn’t ashamed to flaunt his looks. It seemed criminal that he was so beautiful.
Curse the man. Unfortunately, it would seem that her feelings for him couldn’t be extinguished by his poor behavior alone.
A sigh interrupted her thoughts.
“Quite the handsome devil, isn’t he?”
Rhiannon turned to find a lady in a blue mask hovering over her. The woman’s eyes were warm. Her voice wasn’t familiar, which filled Rhiannon with relief. One of her greatest fears had been that she would come across someone who knew her and would easily see through her ruse.
Aside from Richford, who was busy attempting to ruin everything.
“You mustn’t say so in his vicinity,” she told her newfound companion. “He’s already intolerable enough.”
The woman chuckled. “Do you mind if I sit with you?”
“Of course not,” she said, smiling. “In fact, I’d be delighted.”
Her companion settled her repast on the table and then seated herself. “It is lovely to find a friend here. At least, I hope we shall be friends.”
Rhiannon’s need for an ally was even more obvious, given Richford’s campaign to continue locking her away in rooms.
“Nothing would make me happier,” she said sincerely. “It is going to be a dreadfully tedious house party if I only have Richford to speak with for the duration.”
Unlike most of the other guests, Richford hadn’t been masked this morning, so there was no need to shield his identity from her fellow revelers. Perhaps he only bothered with thepretense on the first night. She couldn’t be sure, and she hadn’t spied any of his fellow hosts yet either to determine whether he was alone in eschewing a disguise.
This was a new, dangerous world in which she found herself. It was thrilling to be a part of it, even if her chance was to be short-lived and even if Richford refused to see her as a woman.
The notion left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“The two of you are well acquainted, then?” her new friend asked at Rhiannon’s side.
“He is a friend of my family’s,” she answered, taking care to keep her response politic. “Do you have any acquaintances in attendance?”
“Yes, unfortunately, I do.” The woman’s lips pinched with distaste. “Only one, however.”
Rhiannon cut a delicate bite of pineapple. “Oh?”
She didn’t wish to pry, instead allowing her companion to reveal as much or as little as she preferred. This was a game they were all playing. One of secrecy and scandal.
“My husband,” the woman elaborated, bitterness tingeing her voice.
Sympathy swept over Rhiannon. Perhaps her friend was trapped in an unhappy marriage and both she and her spouse had come in search of comfort in the arms of another. Such arrangements were commonplace enough in polite society.
“Did the two of you arrive together, then?” she asked carefully.
“No.” The woman sliced her Bayonne ham with vigor. “He hasn’t even the slightest inkling that I am here.”
That certainly added another layer of mystery to their conversation.
“I see,” she offered, though, in truth, she didn’t see at all.
It wasn’t her place to pry, however. Heavens, they had only just met, and Rhiannon had a host of secrets of her ownto protect. Starting with who she was and why she was in attendance.
