“Lady Emily, your parents have held quite the event of the Season here tonight.” She was charming, with a voice so melodic that Emily expected she was a wonder to behold when she sang. Emily could not stop the envy building inside of her, for when she sang, she sounded like a donkey that had been struck on its rear, wailing at the sky. “Do pass on my admiration to them both. I cannot remember a finer night.”
“That is kind of you to say. I will tell them.” Emily assured her with a nod, before turning her eyes to the Marquess and his brother. The two were glaring at each other, without blinking.
“I have just met your siblings,” Miss Drew went on. “Lady Grace is really so beautiful. I fear what I would have been like growing up with her at my side. I feel I would have run round and hidden in the young lady’s shadow.”
“Yes, she is very beautiful.” Emily felt the truth of the words. She looked down at the glass, realizing things were being made audible that she had always known to be true.
I am the ugly soul in this family.
Yet as Miss Drew opened her lips to say more, Lord Tattershall talked over her, stopping it from happening.
“I am sure you two have many you wish to greet here tonight. They cannot all know of your betrothal yet.” He was eagerly trying to get them to part, that was plain to see.
“Have you not told them all yet?” Lord Hugh asked. “I would have thought you eager to disparage us both.”
Well, that was icy.Emily shifted on her feet, looking down at her plate of food for something to do.
“Hugh,” Miss Drew said in a warning tone.
“What? We cannot pretend like nothing has happened.” Lord Hugh shook his head.
Emily lifted her eyes to the Marquess, seeing the way he was staring at his brother, it was clear he was lost for words. She felt a discomforted pit in her stomach. Where she had created smiles, his own brother had left nothing but upset.
“This is not the time, Hugh.” Lord Tattershall warned.
“I see you are eager to avoid conversation at all. Very well, it is hardly as if you were ever a great delight in conversation, is it?” Lord Hugh belittled him.
This has to end. Now.Emily could not believe what she was witnessing, but she would not suffer it, and she was not going to let the man beside her suffer it either.
“Lord Tattershall, would you accompany me to a table so we can sit to eat our food?” She turned to him with her words, offering a small smile to show she was giving him a way out of this situation. “Even if others do not find your conversation delightful,” she paused, shooting a glance at Lord Hugh, “you must know others do.”
The Marquess’ eyebrows lifted on his forehead, clearly startled by her easy defense of him.
“Shall we?” she asked, gesturing to where there was a free table.
“I’d be glad to.” He picked up his own plate and followed her away from the couple. The further they moved, the more she could see his body began to relax. When they sat down in two free chairs at the table, she turned her body toward him.
“Forgive my words, for I do not truly know what I just witnessed, but I felt compelled to extricate you from the situation.” She hurried to explain herself, but he shook his head, as if trying to brush off her apology.
“I am grateful for it. In fact, I cannot tell you how much.” He looked away from her, across the room to where Lord Hugh and Miss Drew were talking quietly together, before he turned his gaze back toward Emily. “I do not really know how to say this, Lady Emily, but I suppose the best way is to be open about such things.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, picking up a bite of food as he focused on her.
“Miss Drew was the lady I thought I would marry someday.”
“I beg your pardon?” Emily asked, dropping the food back down to her plate.
Chapter Three
Why did I tell her that?
Aaron could not really explain it to himself. He stared at Lady Emily over his glass of punch for a minute, struggling to make sense of his own thoughts. The truth had just fallen from his lips.
The lady before him had somehow inspired trust in the space of one dance. He could not deny he liked her. She was witty, astute, and so humorous that the excuse to laugh was a great relief to him, but how had that all culminated into trust?
“You might have to say a little more, my Lord.” She leaned toward him conspiratorially. “The must be more to this tale.”
“A lot more.” He sighed and sat back in his chair, finding with Lady Emily’s large dark blue eyes on him, the whole tale came out. Her blue eyes were darker than Jane’s, but he liked that. They were the color of the sky at dusk. “Miss Drew practically grew up with my brother and me. Miss Drew and I were pushed together often in that time. It is not difficult to say that we were practically joined at the hip, so attached to one another that others thought we were already courting by the time we both made our debuts.”
