“No doubt you’re right,” Gavin agreed, but his gaze lingered. “She is verylovely.”
Three peeresses and two Cabinet ministers came over to pay their respects to their host. Justin seized the opportunity to escape, for the noisy chatter was driving him mad. He would have preferred to be elsewhere, but he could hardly avoid a party taking place in his ownbackyard.
Avoiding the formal parterre where many of the guests were strolling, he made his way to the rhododendron garden, which had been carefully designed to look like wild woods. There was a risk that he would find some of Gavin’s fashionable friends fornicating beneath the silver birches, but with luck, they would all be more interested in champagne and gossip than indalliance.
Half an hour in the wilder sections of the park relaxed him to the point where he felt ready to return to the festivities. Not that anyone was likely to miss him, but he liked to keep an eye on the arrangements to ensure that everything ransmoothly.
As he walked through a grove of Scottish pines, he heard a feminine voice utter a soft butemphatic, “Drat!”
He turned toward the voice, and a few more steps brought the speaker into his view. He was surprised to see the Gilded Girl. But that was too flippant a nickname, for the sunlight that shafted through the pine needles made her honey hair and creamy gown glow as if she were Titania, the fairy queen. He halted unnoticed at the edge of the clearing, experiencing again that strange, unsteadyfeeling.
A vine had snagged the back hem of Miss Vangelder’s elegant bustled walking gown, and she was trying to free herself by poking with the tip of her lace parasol. Any other woman would have seemed ungraceful, but not the heiress. She looked playful, competent and altogetherenchanting.
In the wooden voice he used to conceal unseemly feelings, he said, “May I be ofassistance?”
The girl looked up with a startled glance, then smiled with relief. “You certainly can! Otherwise, my gown is doomed, and Mr. Worth will be terribly cross with me if he everfindsout.”
Justin knelt and began disentangling her hem. “Does it matter what a dressmakerthinks?”
“Mr. Worth is not a dressmaker, but an artiste. I’m told that I was singularly fortunate that he condescended to see me personally. After examining me like a prize turkey, he designed every ensemble right down to the last slipper and scarf.” She gave a gurgle of laughter. “I was informed in no uncertain terms that any substitutions would bedisastrous.”
The vine was remarkably tenacious. As Justin tried to loosen it without damaging the heavy ecru silk, he asked, “Do you always do what others wish youtodo?”
“Generally,” she said with wry self-understanding. “Life is easier whenIdo.”
Her skirt finally came free and he got to his feet. “I’m Justin Aubrey, bytheway.”
“I’m Sarah Vangelder, but most people call me Sunny.” She offered her hand, and a smile that melted hisbones.
She was tall, her eyes almost level with his. He had assumed that they would be blue, but the color was nearer aqua, as deep and changeable as the sea. He drew a shaken breath, then bowed over her hand. Straightening, he said, “You should not be here alone, MissVangelder.”
“I know,” she said blithely, “but I was afraid that if I didn’t take the initiative, I’d leave without having a chance to really see thegardens.”
“Are you rating them for possible future occupancy?” he said dryly. “I regret to inform you that my brother is no longer in themarriagemart.”
“I simply like gardens, Lord Justin,” she said crisply, her aqua eyes turning cool. “Are you alwayssorude?”
So the exquisite Miss Vangelder had thorns. Suppressing a smile, he said, “Always. I took a first in rudeness atOxford.”
Her expression instantly transformed from reproval to delight. “You have a sense ofhumor!”
“Don’t spread such a base rumor around. It would utterly ruin my reputation.” He offered his arm. “Let me escort you back tothefete.”
As she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow, she asked, “Could we take an indirect route? I particularly want to see the famous watergarden.”
He knew that he should return her before her chaperon became concerned. Yet when he looked into her glorious eyes, he found himself saying, “Very well, MissVangelder.”
As they started down the pine needle carpeted path, he was very aware of the light pressure of her hand on his arm and the luxuriant rustle of her petticoats. And her perfume, a delicate fragrance reminiscent ofviolets....
He took a deep, slow breath. “I assume you are related to AdmiralVangelder?”
“You’ve heard of mygrandfather?”
“It would be surprising if I hadn’t.” He held a branch aside so that she could pass without endangering her deliciously frivolous hat. “He was one of the great American successstories.”
“Yes, and something of a robber baton as well, though he was always a darling to me. I miss him.” She chuckled. “He liked people to think that he was called Admiral because of his magnificent yachts, but actually, he got the nickname because his first job was tending mules on the ErieCanal.”
“Really?” Justin said, amused by herartlessness.
