He looked at her as if his gaze was absorbing her, but she couldn’t trust him again. “It’s too late to apologize.”
His gaze swept down her face. “All right. I deserve that. But, Susannah, you must not do anything impulsive in your search.”
“Impulsive?” she whispered earnestly. “What is impulsive, Race? Asking you to join me in my bed?”
“No, not that,” he confessed on a broken sigh.
“Then perhaps your storming into my bedroom was impulsive?”
“Very.”
She stepped closer to him, her gaze piercing his. “Let me make this clear to you, Race. My mother is sick. She wants the pearls returned to her. I was naïve, a fool to think I could get them from you legally. I should have known that with men like you, Mr. Winston, and Captain Spyglass, there would be no possibility of that, but I didn’t know. Hear me well on this. I will beg, borrow, or steal the pearls to get them to my mother.”
“Steal them, Susannah?” he challenged.
She paused. Had she said that?
Yes.
Had she meant it?
Yes.
Susannah took a deep breath. Her throat felt tight and dry, but she felt confident, strong. “The pearls were stolen from my grandmother, stolen from you. If that is the only way I can get possession of them, so be it. Now, stay out of my way, Race, you are hindering my efforts.”
Susannah turned and marched off the dance floor.
Sixteen
My Dearest Grandson Alexander,
Read this and know one of the reasons I was always so fond of Lord Chesterfield. “I will let you into one secret concerning myself. I desired to please, and I neglected none of the means. This, I can assure you, without any false modesty, is the truth. Call it vanity, if you please, and possibly it was so; but my great object was to make every man I met with like me and every woman love me. I often succeeded.”
Your loving Grandmother,
Lady Elder
Susannah had seen Race at every party she had attended for the past week. It wasn’t easy watching him dance, laugh, and converse with so many beautiful young ladies each evening when she wanted to be the only one he had eyes for. They had spoken politely to each other on several occasions, but he had not asked her to dance again, nor had he tried to seek her out for a private conversation. He had obviously taken her at her word when she told him she wanted him to leave her alone. She supposed he was doing exactly what she was doing, trying to figure out who had the pearls so he could get them back.
She still had the notes he had sent her in her jewelry case. Sometimes after staring at his house, she would take the notes out and read them and hold them against her heart before putting them away again. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt close to him when she held them.
After dressing for the day and finishing her chocolate and toast, Susannah hurried below stairs. As she expected, Mrs. Princeton was in the drawing room, sitting at the desk, with papers scattered all around her.
“Good morning, Mrs. Princeton. How are you on this lovely morning? You did notice the bright sunshine, didn’t you?”
Mrs. Princeton rose. “Indeed, Your Grace. And I am very well. I’m working on the mound of invitations that have arrived since yesterday afternoon. Even though it is nearing the end of the Season, the number of parties each evening has not declined. I have some of them opened and ready for you to look through, but I’m sure this will be the first one you’ll want to read.” She held out an envelope.
“Race?” Susannah whispered as she reached for it and then could have bitten her tongue for saying his name out loud.
“No, Your Grace,” Mrs. Princeton said kindly. “It’s from your mother.”
“Oh, even better,” Susannah said, trying to cover for herself.
Susannah took the envelope from her companion. She walked over to the window and stood in the sunshine, not wanting Mrs. Princeton to witness the flush of embarrassment that heated her cheeks. She was furious with herself for even thinking Race might have sent her one of his outrageous but cleverly informal notes.
She opened up the letter and read:
My loving daughter,
