Page 11 of An Enchantress for an Earl

“Let me escort you to your family – perhaps a turn about the room will warm you and put the colour back in your cheeks.”

She met his eyes again, and a series of lightning-fast emotions flickered across her face. He did not understand any of them. He offered his arm but, just as she was about to place her hand on it, they were interrupted by a cheerful voice.

“There you are, Violet!”

They both turned.

“Thorne – were you looking for me? I just stepped onto the terrace for a few minutes – it had become quite too warm and stuffy in here.”

“I was – Mother asked me to find you, for she is planning to leave early – I suspect for exactly that reason – the close air with this much of a crush is giving her a headache.”

“If that is so, then I will be happy to leave with her – I find that this evening has not filled me with any great desire to stay.”

Disappointment filled Arryn – he had only just found her, and now she was going to leave? He should not care, but he found that he did.

“Then let me do as I had intended, Lady Violet, and escort you to your mother, that I might at least greet her before she departs.”

Wildenhall regarded him with a raised eyebrow, which he ignored, and he offered Lady Violet his arm again. She settled her hand upon it, and they turned, following Wildenhall across the room as he led them to the Duchess. No words were spoken, yet he had the strangest feeling that she was grateful for the support of his arm, despite what she had said earlier.

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Violet stood quietly as Lord Merryfield made polite greetings to her mother, father, and sister, watching his devastatingly handsome face, and wondering what he thought of her strange eruption through the terrace doors.

Hopefully nothing untoward. She should have been relieved, but when he eventually bowed and took his leave of her, she found herself watching him walk away, filled with the strangest desire to call him back. Thorne’s voice close to her ear pulled her sharply from those thoughts.

“So, you find Merryfield far more interesting than you have admitted…”

“Whatever gives you that impression, my dear brother?”

“Oh… perhaps just that you, the ever steady one, seem flustered. And that your face was very pale, and now has flushed to a deep pink.”

“You are mistaken. I’m flushed because, embarrassingly enough, I almost collided with him as I came in through the terrace doors. There is nothing more to it than that.”

“Allow me to remain sceptical…”

Violet glared at him, and stepped up to her mother’s side.

“I am happy to leave, Mother, whenever you wish.”