Naturally, I was delighted. Utterly delighted, not to mention relieved.Deeplyrelieved.
Although...I had to admit, itwasrather a waste to have spent so long preparing my list of brilliant justifications for this afternoon’s actions and decisions, only to have no chance at all to deliverit.
As he lifted his glass to salute me across the room, the corners of his lips quirked upward into a wry grin. It was by far his most appealingexpression.
My lips began to curve inreturn...
Horrified, I slapped one hand to my mouth. Was I actuallysmiling backat him? And coming up with justifications toseek him out myselflater on, just when he’d finally given up on approachingme?
So much for all of my greatresolutions.
Even after everything that had happened four months ago, it seemed I couldn’t stop being a fool when it came to judging my ownstrength.
I yanked my gaze away from my ex-fiancé, breathing quickly. The room before me was a blur of color and movement, but somehow, my eyes couldn’t focus on any ofit.
“Oh come now,” Jonathan said cheerfully. “Don’t stop now! It’s better than theater, watching you two moon over eachother.”
“I am not—!” I cut myself off with a snarl as my wits caught up with me. Taking a deep breath, I blinked the room into clarity and said with great dignity, “I’m sure I don’t know what youmean.”
“We should sell tickets,” my brother told me. “It’s like watching an opera, but far better because there’s so much less tuneless shrieking involved. No, it’s all wordless emoting and high drama with you two, and—ow!”
“You deserved it,” I told him, as I pulled my arm free and he patted his elbowed side consolingly. “Amy would tell you so, too, if she werehere.”
“Ha! Amy would volunteer to be stage-manager, and you knowit.”
“God forbid,” I saiddevoutly.
He laughed. “And speaking of my wife...” His mischievous grin shifted into tenderness as Amy sailed toward us through the crowd, resplendent in glittering gold velvet with bright silver trimmings in the overdress that parted and fell around her magnificently rounded stomach. “Darling,” he said as she joined us. “You’ve missed the mostentertaining—”
“Jonathan!”
“Don’t tease your sister, darling,” Amy said calmly as she slipped into place between us. “Unless it involves any really interesting gossip, of course, in which case I want to hear all about itimmediately.”
“Amy!”
“Good evening, darling,” said my betrayer, smiling at me. “Have you spoken to Wrexhamyet?”
“Not in words, so far,” Jonathan told her cheerfully. “Only impressively longing glances. The air was positively sizzling between them when we firstarrived.”
“Oh!” Amy let out atskof disappointment. “And I missedit!”
“Don’t worry,” said my brother. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty more action by the end of the evening. Personally, I predict a storm of broken dishes over supper and an illicit embrace in a broom closet bybedtime.”
I set my teeth together. “Your husband,” I informed Amy, “has the most appallingly immature sense of humor. Can’t you do something about that before he gets mucholder?”
“It depends,” said Amy, her eyes sparkling. “Can I be the one to discover you two in the broom closet? Please? I promise to scream very loudly so that he’s utterly compromised and can’t possiblyescape.”
“Ohhh!” I gave up on my incurable family. “If anyone ends up in a broom closet,” I told them, “it’ll be the two of you, when I lose my temper and lock you inthere.”
“Mm.” Jonathan grinned down at his wife. “Soundsfun.”
“Shush,” she told him firmly. But there was an unmistakable smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth as she turned away from him. “Cassandra, I want to introduce you to somebody. A gentleman. I’m quite certain you’d enjoy sitting next to him atsupper.”
“I—what?” I blinked, caught off guard. “Are you matchmaking me with someone else now,too?”
My brother let out a low whistle that was too quiet for anyone outside our family group to hear the vulgarity. “Does he know that he’ll have one of the Boudiccate’s own officers of magic glaring daggers at him across thetable?”
“He’s a magician himself,” Amy told both of us. “A weather wizard, to beexact.”
