Waiting silently while she finished, he was pleased to listen and to observe her. He’d experienced an instant attraction days earlier but feared he would have to wait until the first assembly to see her again. He had even returned each day to the same stretch of street, to no avail. Yet here she was.
As soon as the last notes died out, he spoke.
“Good day, my lady. I am sorry to intrude.”
She whirled around to face him. The expressions flickering across her face were easy to decipher — alarm, confusion, and then recognition.
“How did you get in here?”
“I was invited,” Adam said. “I am pleased to meet you. I am Lord Diamond.”
Her eyes widened slightly, and then she offered a polite curtsy.
“I believe you have mistaken me, my lord.”
“On the contrary. In fact, I have kept my eyes open for you while strolling Great Pulteney Street ever since our last encounter.”
Before he could say more, footsteps and voices came behind him. He turned to see the woman who must be Lady Beasley and another of her daughters. They were alike as two peas, with brown hair, soft brown eyes, and round cheeks with pleasant smiles. Apparently, the eldest daughter with the violin took after her father, for she had lighter hair, different color eyes, and sculpted cheekbones.
“There you are, young Diamond,” Lady Beasley said.
He bowed to her. “It was rude of me to have left the drawing room, and my mother would take me to task, but I heard your daughter’s exemplary violin playing and followed it like a sheep to a shepherdess. I am enchanted.”
The two females looked at one another, and then the younger one laughed while her mother shook her head.
“You mean Mrs. Malcolm,” Lady Beasley said, gesturing with a wave of her hand. “She isn’t my daughter. She is the governess to my two younger daughters.”
The governess!He nearly winced at his mistake. Her bearing was not what he expected a governess to have. Moreover, on the day he’d seen her, she had appeared to be accompanied by a lady’s maid when, really, she was one of two household staff out for a stroll.
What a dunce!
“You are correct, my lord,” the daughter added. “Mrs. Malcolm plays heavenly. I love to listen, too.”
“Thisis my daughter, Lady Susanne,” Lady Beasley introduced her.
The young lady eyed him openly with her coffee-colored gaze.
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” he said. Adam did not let his disappointment show, but she seemed like a child compared to the governess and no wonder. Mrs. Malcolm was a married woman!
“Let us retire to the drawing room,” Lady Beasley said. “Tea will have been served by now.”
She preceded her daughter, but Adam hung back. Turning around, he faced the woman who still stood there, having watched and listened and been ignored by her employer. She had not been invited to tea at any rate.
Mrs. Malcolm remained composed with a certain sophic air about her. Adam would say she had a worldly quality, as if older than her years. Not that he knew her years.
“You are staring, my lord.” She said it as factual, not as a reprimand.
It was true.
“My apologies.” He was merely rearranging his preconception of her from a lady of the household to an employee. “Again, I am sorry I intruded and for mistaking you to be a...”
He trailed off, stopping himself from saying she was not a lady but simply a regular woman. That definitely was not coming out well.
“A member of the family,” he finished, watching her suck her cheeks in slightly, accentuating her cheekbones while appearing irritated.
“Your tea will be growing cold, my lord.” She raised her violin once again to her shoulder and turned her back on him.
Chapter Two
