Olivia tilted her head from side to side. “Here and there, whenever I have been graced with willing and worthy opponents. My dearest friends and I used to play every summer, and I cannot remember why we ever stopped.” She chuckled, the richest and most provoking sound that Evan had ever heard. “Actually, that is not true. There was a terrible quarrel that almost broke our friendship apart, so we vowed never to play again.”
“What sort of quarrel?” Caroline gasped, hanging upon Olivia’s every word.
“There was some disagreement as to who was to be crowned the winner. We were only twelve, but my goodness were we competitive!” Olivia laughed again, even brighter than before. “I must ask them if they remember that incident when I see them again.”
Evan observed the two ladies wandering away from him as if they had forgotten he was to join them. He followed at a polite distance, admiring the passion with which Olivia spoke about her friends. She seemed to come alive when she mentioned them, her eyes brightening, her voice softening with an affection he could only begin to imagine. Of course, he cherished his aunt and cousins and had cherished his uncle, but he could not think of any friends as dear to him as Olivia’s clearly were to her.
“Do you see your friends often, dear Caro?” Olivia asked.
A shyness descended across Caroline. “I do not have too many.”
“No matter,” Olivia urged, with a warmth that worked like a spell upon Caroline, bringing back her smile. “You shall have me as a friend, and, by association, my friends will be yours. I believe they are to attend the party, and I know they will adore you.”
Caroline jumped excitedly. “Do you really think so?”
“Caro, I know so,” Olivia promised.
Watching the exchange, Evan knew he was seeing another glimpse of what existed beneath the complicated layers of Olivia Agarn. A part of him suspected this was the closest thing to the truth he had seen so far, and the realization concerned him. If she was sweet and generous and kind and able to make Caroline smile like that, winning over the favor of his entire family, how could he bring himself to behave so wretchedly that she would sever the engagement?
I do not like this,he mused, his chest tight with worry.I should have disappointed my aunt immediately instead of ever allowing this woman to come here.
But it was too late to turn back the clock. All he could do now was concentrate on the angry and disgusted sides of her that he had witnessed, coaxing them out until she did what he could not, setting them both free.
* * *
“You have a disconcertingly strong throw for a lady with such slender, graceful arms,” Evan remarked, staring at the nine pins that lay flat on the grass, knocked down in one fell swoop by Olivia’s latest bowl of the ball. “Are you certain you have not enticed the wind with your beauty, and asked it to blow the skittles down for you?”
Olivia glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “I must ask why you seem to be so fixated upon my beauty, My Lord, and not my strength. Do I have to implore the wind to blow down my skittles, merely because I am a woman? Why not compliment my skill instead—acknowledge it, at least, instead of attributing it to the wind, of which there is none?”
“Are you teaching me how to praise a lady’s attributes?” he teased in reply, hiding his surprise at her sharp remark.
She smiled. “I ought to teach you how to play skittles, for I do believe you are losing terribly.”
“I thought I was losing rather respectably, in truth,” he replied, struggling to hide the note of wounded pride in his voice. “I have not once accused you of deception, nor have I sought to gain additional points where I have not deserved them.”
She gave a slow nod. “I suppose you have not, though you did just accuse me of casting a spell upon the wind. Is it my bonnet, My Lord? Does it resemble a witch’s hat too much?”
“Your bonnet is very pretty. Why, if I were to pick a flower to represent you it would, indeed, be a daisy,” he replied, walking up to the line they had stamped into the grass with their feet.
She frowned. “A daisy?”
“Like those atop your bonnet.” Without thinking, he plucked one of the daisies from the brow of her bonnet and held it in front of her.
“Did you just desecrate my bonnet?”
He smiled, stirred by an impulse to place the delicate bloom behind her ear. He did not know if that was what a rake would do, but it was what he wanted to do. So he did, sliding the thin green stem behind her ear. His fingertips lingered there for a moment, adjusting the white petals so they would be sure to stay where they were placed.
It took him a second or two to realize that she was staring at him, unblinking, her lips parted in an exhale that did not come.
“It looks much prettier there,” he said, grateful that he had not fumbled as he withdrew his fingertips, though not before they lightly grazed the smooth, plump apple of her rosy cheek.
How can anyone’s skin be so soft, so perfect?he marveled in secret as he turned to make his last attempt at scraping back some points.
“As long as I defeat you, Caro, I shall be content,” he joked, conscious of a burn against the side of his face and neck, where Olivia must have been staring at him still.
Caroline scoffed. “It is not possible unless you knock down all nine. I apologize, cousin, but you are simply not capable of such a thing.”
“We shall see,” Evan insisted, feeling the weight of the varnished ball in his hand.
