“What was all that noise and hugging about?” The Duchess of Yardley accompanied these words with a thump of her cane on the ground.
Lord Blake moved slightly, as did his wife, and he found her. Mary was studying Pegasus. His side view allowed him to see the long length of her pale neck as she tilted her head back. Zach felt a surge of need so fierce rush through him that it forced him back a step it shocked him so much.
This was Mary. He didn’t lust after her, and he wanted to put his hands around her neck and squeeze usually. He lusted after women like Madame Lucienne.
“Duchess. How lovely it is to have your gentle soothing presence with us here today,” Dimity said with total insincerity.
Having once been the duchess’s companion, she knew her better than most.
“Harrumph,” the elderly woman said. “You’ll take my arm, Raine!”
“As if I could resist such a polite request,” Gabe drawled, holding out his arm to her.
“Why are you all gathered here making a lot of noise?” the duchess demanded.
“We are a family who makes noise,” Gabe said, leading the duchess forward to where their hosts awaited them.
Zach followed after a final glance at Mary.
Did she look different today? Softer somehow. Her coat was a rose pink, and he saw pale peppermint skirts beneath. She was usually burdened down with flounces and rosettes, but the long jacket was unadorned. Her bonnet was matching, and Zach thought she looked sweet and disturbing, and he was only looking at her side profile.
She turned to talk to her father, and he nearly swallowed his tongue. The jacket was open and the dress beneath exposed. Much of her was exposed. The bodice cupped her breasts and dipped low enough that he saw the curve of each above the material. The skirts fell in a waterfall from a rose satin band.God, she was beautiful.When had that happened?
Zach glanced away before she saw him looking at her. His eyes met Mary’s sister’s.
Phillipa Blake did a little finger waggle at him, and her smile reminded Zach of Walter, just before he took the bone Gabe’s cook always put aside for him. Clearly his curt words to her the other evening had not changed anything. She still saw him as a husband candidate. He’d rather marry his brother Michael’s cat, Harriet.
Turning away after a curt nod, he refrained from looking at Mary and followed his family.
Moving into the ballroom after speaking with the Littletons, they wandered through the large terrace doors and outside. The air was bracing and erring on the side of frigid. Women wore pelisses and elaborate shawls. Some men wore long coats, and others braved the weather in jackets.
“Is that man eating fire?” Forrest asked.
It seemed the Littletons had gone all out this year. There was indeed a fire-eating man beside a juggler.
“The children would have loved this,” Gabe said.
“Perhaps we should take them to a circus?”
“Try Mr. Rolland’s Circus of Strange and Ridiculous Curiosities,” Devonshire Sinclair said from in front of them. He and his family were standing in a clump as they usually were.
“Yes, it’s quite wonderful. We have been visiting for many years,” his brother Cambridge said.
“Why are you still scowling?” Warwick Sinclair asked Zach. “It’s as though the winds have changed and this is your perpetual expression these days.”
“I am not scowling,” Zach said. “Lady Samantha.” He bowed to his friend’s wife.
Sweet natured and far too nice for a rogue like Warwick Sinclair, Samantha and he had been childhood friends and then had come to their senses and realized there was more to it than that.
“Hello, Zach. I have a friend who—”
“Tell us her name. We are compiling a list,” Beth said, interrupting Samantha. “We think it’s time he married.”
Zach glared at his sister-in-law.
“Sinclairs and Ravens are blocking our path. Why don’t you yell at them?” Gabe asked the duchess.
“The duke leant me his latest copy of Captain Broadbent and Lady Nauticus,” the Duchess of Yardley said. “I have to be nice to him.”
