Page 8 of Earl for the Summer
Jilly was one of their brother-in-law’s chambermaids at Edgerton House.
“You’re becoming a terrible purveyor of gossip, Ivy.”
“I don’t think of it as gossip, since I don’t spread details except to those who might benefit from the information. I consider it the collecting facts.”
Daphne couldn’t deny the usefulness of having a sister with detective-like tendencies, especially when her chief concern was helping her friend determine which suitors were worthy of her attention and which were vile deceivers.
“Well, look who’s reappeared after a mysterious absence,” Ivy whispered.
Daphne followed the direction of her sister’s gaze and spotted one of the noblemen who’d managed to earn a bit of Selina’s interest before he’d quite strangely disappeared from society and ceased accepting invitations to the Season’s round of balls and soirees.
“Did you ever hear why he vanished?”
“I didn’t.” Ivy sounded chagrined. “He’s a true conundrum.”
Daphne narrowed her gaze as the earl made his way through the crush. His absence had wrought some changes, it seemed. His hair was a bit longer and tousled, his shoulders broader, and he walked with a confident, commanding air about him that she didn’t recall from her previous encounters with Julian Rourke, Earl of Windham.
Indeed, nothing about the handsome young nobleman had particularly caught her eye. After all, the Season was flush with eligible bachelors.
Yet now, for some reason, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
A fierce determination tightened his jaw. And for the first time, she noticed a faint scar that ran along his left cheek. The whitened line stood out against his sun-kissed skin. It made him appear slightly dangerous when, previously, he’d only ever been so amiable and jolly as to cause her to think him frivolous.
“Well, I mean to find out why,” Daphne said before setting her lemonade on a passing servant’s tray and striding off toward Lord Windham.
He was beelining toward Selina, but he kept getting caught as fellow noblemen greeted him.
Daphne glanced back, relieved to see that Selina hadn’t yet noted his arrival. Two fellow debutantes were chatting with her, and Lord Godfrey approached to capture all her attention.
Slipping quickly past a few gathered couples, Daphne planted herself in Lord Windham’s path.
It was worsethan Cassian expected.
He’d prepared himself to encounter a stifling crush of bodies. Even anticipated the necessity of making inane conversation about the weather and horse racing and the next social event on the Season’s calendar.
What he’d not anticipated was the number of noblemen who counted Julian as an acquaintance worth greeting. A few had already inquired about his fortnight absence from various balls and musicales.
Cassian made the excuse of illness but assured both men—Nelson and Knowles, according to the friendly banter between the two—that he was hale and well now. Then, when he’d disentangled himself from a few other gentlemen who assumed such intimacy they didn’t even offer their names, he fixed his gaze on the whole purpose of this hapless venture.
Julian had described Lady Selina Lytton with such detail that it was no difficulty to identify her among the eager debutantes dotted around Lord and Lady Ellburton’s ballroom.
Oddly, the Season’s diamond seemed a touch less at ease than the rest. She looked as if she felt out of place, which was precisely how Cassian had felt the moment he’d shaved off his beard, donned new Bond Street clothes, and crossed the Ellburtons’ threshold.
According to Julian, the lady was a bit shy, but Cassian had expected her to at least sparkle in company.
A small group of ladies burst into laughter on the right edge of the ballroom.
Cassian turned at the sound and promptly collided with a figure in his path. His hands shot out on instinct, steadying the petite blonde before him. Her skin, bare where his fingers grazed her upper arms, was soft and warm, and the contact shot an unfamiliar thrill up his spine.
He clenched his jaw at the feeling.
She glanced down at where he touched her, and he withdrew his hands at once, though her warmth seemed to linger on his fingertips.
“Forgive me,” he murmured, already cursing the misstep. Five minutes in, and he’d already committed a grave faux pas.
“You were gone, Lord Windham,” the young lady put to him with one tawny brow arched in challenge. “Lady Selina remarked on your absence.”
“Yes,” Cassian replied, smoothing his accent to match Julian’s clipped tones and attempting his easy charm. “I was ill. But never fear. I’ve fully recovered, and I’m flattered she noticed.”
