“Oh look, the Deville family are beckoning us,” Phillipa cooed, and her eyes were on Zach.
“They are calling me not you,” Mary snapped. As the Deville brothers had each married, her sister had moved on to the next as a future husband prospect. She was now left with Zach. Her sister could have him as far as Mary was concerned.
Pressing a finger into her side at the odd stabbing pain at the thought of Zach and Phillipa together, she walked away from her sister. Her father had wandered off to find somewhere to play cards, where he’d remain for the evening,lucky man, and her mother would soon be settled with her gossiping friends.
Maneuvering through guests, she reached the Deville party.
All tall and handsome, the brothers had been kind to her always. Even Zach, she conceded, when he was not arguing with her or throwing out insults like rose petals at a wedding. He could still be nice in an offhand way.
They wore clothes well, as did the women they had married. Mary felt like a black sheep in a field of fluffy white ones.
“Hello, Mary,” Lady Raine said. Elegant and stunningly beautiful, she had a sharp wit and equally sharp tongue. Mary loved her, as did the man she was wedded to. “I see your mother still has the same seamstress.”
“Dimity!”
“It’s all right, Beth, we all know she is correct,” Mary said to the stunning blonde married to the second eldest Deville, Nathan.
“But Mary is a beauty, and so it matters not what she wears,” the last woman in the group said. Freya had a soft Scottish burr and lovely thick black hair to go with her pretty face. In fact, the three women could only be termed exquisite.
“There is no need to make me feel better, Freya. I know what I am.” Mary then laughed to show she didn’t care, which she told herself she didn’t. She’d never wanted to be a beauty.
“I am not making you feel better. You are beautiful.” Her Scottish bur thickened.
“Exactly. I wish I could fill a bodice like you can,” Dimity said to the shocked gasps of Beth and Freya.
“You really shouldn’t talk like that, Dimity,” Mary said.
“You look tired, and why are you scowling?” Dimity leaned forward until her face was inches from Mary’s. “You appear angry and out of sorts.”
“My sister is Phillipa.”
“There is that,” Dimity said, still studying her.
“I also did not get enough sleep last night but am quite well, thank you.”
“You don’t seem all right,” Freya said, joining Dimity to inspect her. “I see you have smudges under your eyes.”
“I do not,” Mary protested. Did she?She’d had two late nights. Clearly they were starting to show.
“Hello, Mary, you look lovely as always,” Nathaniel Deville said. “Why are our ladies haranguing you?”
Mary watched as he moved to his wife and placed a hand on her back. She’d never wanted that. To be connected and reliant on another for your happiness, but perhaps it would be nice to seek and receive comfort sometimes in another.
“Hello, Nathan.” Mary dropped into a curtsey.
“We are not haranguing her, just commenting on the fact she is out of sorts,” Beth said, leaning into him.
This time it was Nathan who studied her.
“Do you have a problem you need us to fix for you, Mary?”
She swallowed down the sudden sting of tears at those words. Her father loved her, but he’d never say something like that. The truth was Nathan meant what he said. She was his wife’s friend and therefore his. He would protect her as would the others of his blood if she ever needed him to.
“No indeed. All is right in my world, though thank you for the offer. It’s very kind.”
He smiled. The Deville brothers were a handsome lot, and smiling only increased that.
“Very well, but you know where we are should you need us to slay a few dragons. Now, come, my love, I want to dance with the most beautiful woman in the room,” he said, leading Beth away.
