What on earth was happening to him?
His heart pumped so fiercely it felt as if it had been half numb before. Even colors seemed brighter. Had his hearing sharpened? It was like the world had become alive and vivid, all because a debutante wallflower had given him a kiss.
“Sir Tristan?” Lady Felicia asked pointedly. “Would you prefer to walk in the garden with Miss Bridewell?”
Tristan forced himself to focus on the lady in front of him. “Forgive me, but…”
Everything changed when I touched her. My whole life seems to have reshaped itself in the last few hours.
How did he explain what he did not fully understand himself?
But Lady Felicia, as polite as she was, was no fool. Her brows winged up, her mouth tightened, and she finally let out a breath.
“Nathaniel has been so keen on the match,” she said in cool tone, “that he did not take time to truly consider your feelings or my own, it seems.”
“Collier cares for you and is eager to see you settled, I believe.” Tristan had no desire to speak ill of his friend.
“Yes. It is best that I am aware of your feelings now.” She glanced at where the duke and duchess and Hyacinth and her sister were examining the rose garden, focused on a few hardy varieties that still held a bloom or two. “I shall leave you to your pursuit, Sir Tristan.”
“Thank you, Lady Felicia.”
As the young noblewoman strode away, heading for her cousin, who Tristan would need to speak to too, he looked for Hyacinth again. She still stood arm in arm with her sister, pointing to the moon garden where a white-bloomed clematis vine had been trained along a trellis.
Pursuit.Was that what was needed? Was that what he intended to do with a young woman he’d danced with only once and who was one of his sister’s dearest friends?
The night breeze lifted a few tendrils of Hyacinth’s dark hair that tickled along her nape and shoulder. Even from this distance, the sinuous strands caught his eye and made his fingers itch with the urge to sweep them aside and discover the warmth and softness of her skin below.
Good grief, he was in deep and it had only just begun.
Yes, he decided then and there. Pursuit was indeed what he intended to do.
The effort tonot to look in Tristan’s direction took every bit of willpower Hyacinth possessed.
He was host of this gathering, and she knew he would need to mingle and speak with the other guests, however much she wished they could go back to his corner of the conservatory and have a few moments alone.
She’d told him that she didn’t regret kissing him, but did he see it now as simply a slip of impropriety?
As Marigold talked about the art on the walls in the Brooke’s dining room, Hyacinth snuck a look at Tristan. He stood speaking with a man she’d been introduced to before dinner—the Earl of Selwick. Tristan didn’t seem pleased to be speaking to the man, and she found herself wondering what troubled him. Hoping what had happened between them wasn’t the cause.
Now, in Oakhill’s garden, she was struggling not to look at himandto swallow around the lump in her throat. He’d escorted Lady Felicia out into the moonlit garden.
The design was far less elaborate than the Beckfords’ garden, but was somehow more appealing. The paths meandered, and features were spread out for comfort more than symmetry. A trellis here. A stone bench there.
Lily and Griffin and Marigold were discussing the meaning of certain flowers when Hyacinth saw Tristan striding deeper into the garden. Alone.
She swung around, looking for Lady Felicia, who now stood with her cousin, Lord Collier.
Where was Tristan going?
Reaching for Marigold’s hand, she drew her attention.
“What is it?”
“I’m going to wander for a bit,” Hyacinth told her, giving her a look that she hoped her sister understood. It was a look that said,Please don’t ask me to explain.
“Very well,” Marigold said, scanning over Hyacinth’s shoulder as if she might find the answer for her twin’s desire to wander. “Don’t let any handsome knights trounce on your toes.”
Hyacinth pressed her lips together to keep from smiling, but her blush, if Marigold could see it in the dim light, would have given her away.
