Page 136 of Ten Lords for the Holidays

But his eyes twinkled with mischief, and she had to bite the inside of her mouth to keep from smiling and encouraging him.

“Come.” He held out a hand and gently pulled her away from the avid onlookers surrounding her. “I should get you home.”

Holly felt her cheeks flame both in temper at his high-handedness and discomfort, since she’d purposely avoided him since their kiss on the balcony.

“That’s quite unnecessary, my lord. My grandmother will—“

“Your grandmother isn’t ready to leave yet, Lady Holly. Go along with the gentleman and let him see you home.”

Holly whipped her head around to see Lady Angela battling her way through the crowd.

She hadn’t even seen her arrive from the other side of the room.

“Now, go on. Off you go,” she demanded rather rudely, shoving Holly’s fur-lined, blue cloak at her.

How had she had time to grab her cloak?

And more importantly,whyhad she grabbed her cloak?

“Lady Angela, I cannot just leave.”

“Of course, you can. Off you go. I shall that insufferable Mr. Winchester to return with your grandmother.”

Not wanting to cause any more of a scene than she already had, Holly had little choice but to allow herself to be practically shoved out the door by Lady Angela.

She frantically searched the room for Grandmama, but still there was no sign of the dowager and within moments, Lord Stockton had her in the cool night air as he signalled to his driver to come forward.

She turned to scowl at him but then noticed that he hadn’t stopped to retrieve his own cloak and hat.

“My lord,” she frowned. “You do not have your things.”

“Hmm,” he looked down at himself as though only realising. “True.”

He looked at her then, a grin lighting his face.

“But I daren’t go back in and face your Lady Angela. I’d much rather collect them tomorrow.”

She couldn’t maintain her anger when he was being so irritatingly charming.

His carriage rolled to a stop in front of them, and the earl made short work of handing her into the conveyance before climbing in after her.

A quick rap on the ceiling signalled that they were ready to go.

And once again, Holly found herself quite alone with Lord Stockton. Alone and this time, away from the risk of prying eyes.

* * *

Evan couldn’t have said what made him leave the card room at the moment that he did.

All he knew was that one minute he was sitting there, nursing a brandy and replaying every moment of that kiss over and over again in his mind, and the next he had the sudden urge to find Lady Holly.

And when he’d walked back into the ballroom and seen her surrounded by people, his heart had damn well stopped dead in his chest.

He was by her side in seconds, his eyes searching desperately for any sign of injury or sickness.

To his relief, she seemed nothing more than embarrassed by the attention.

His relief, however, was short lived as he had looked down and seen that bloody Winchester quite literally sniffing around her skirts.

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