Page 2 of A Wallflower Never Forgets
The rain had begun pouring heavily. Another clap of thunder and flash of lightning made Scout veer towards an old stone fence. Melanie knew that stone fence. It stood almost five feet tall and was thicker than most fences. They would never make it. Scout would be injured—or worse, he might lose his life. Struggling to keep her panic in check, Melanie leaned down and whispered to Scout. But nothing slowed him.
Luckily, Jonathan and Gavin had been out searching for them and spied them from the ridge. Jonathan reached her first and galloping alongside her mount, he leaned over, wrapped his arm around her waist, and effortlessly lifted her in front of him as Gavin grabbed Scout’s reins, successfully slowing him to a stop.
The incident had scared her to death, but she tried not to cry. Instead, she wiped the tears away as she buried her head against Jonathan’s chest, elevating him to hero status in her thirteen-year-old mind.
“You’re all right, Kitten. Gavin has Scout. And I have you. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Jonathan had said, squeezing her tightly against him.
“You…you are my hero,” she recalled telling him.
“I will always protect you, Kitten,” he said.
Ever since that day, Melanie had dreamed about Jonathan. About one day, growing up into the kind of woman who could make a man like Jonathan fall in love with her.
How she hoped for the chance to have just one dance with him. A waltz. And tonight, he was here. They were at the same ball. She stared across the floor at him.
Please look my way, Jonathan.
She hadn’t seen him in two years. Would he notice her? Would he see that she was all grown up? Would he take one look at her in her pale blue gown and compliment her? Would he ask her to dance?
Please look my way, Jonathan, she repeated to herself, like a mantra.
She fumbled in her reticule and felt for her small pencil, making sure it was there so he could sign her dance card.
“Who is that woman with Jonathan?” Lydia whispered. “I think she just arrived.”
“I’m not sure,” Lilian whispered back. “But Jonathan certainly seems to know who she is.”
Melanie looked up and froze, her pencil still in her hand as she watched Jonathan make his way over to the raised dais where the orchestra was waiting to begin to play. On his arm was a tall and slender young woman with golden blonde hair wearing a gown of cream and gold that seemed to shimmer as she gracefully walked by his side. She looked to be a few years older than Melanie and very beautiful. Melanie suddenly felt like an awkward baby doe compared to the graceful gazelle who glided beside Jonathan.
“May I have your attention?” Jonathan asked from the podium. He turned to the blonde woman on his arm and smiled that charmingly crooked smile at her.
A hush fell over the crowded ballroom.
A cold dread shot through Melanie. No, no, no, no…
“Allow me to introduce my fiancée, Lady Diana Thurston, the daughter of the Earl of Biggerly.”
The orchestra performed a brief musical flourish, and all at once, people began congratulating the beaming couple. Jonathan and his fiancée made their rounds to the many well-wishers before making their way across the floor to where Melanie stood next to Lilian and Lydia and their husbands, who’d just returned from the billiard room.
Jonathan greeted his sisters and brothers-in-law, introducing his fiancée to them.
Then he turned to Melanie.
“Hello, Kitten,” he said, squeezing Melanie’s hand. “I trust you’re having a good time.”
“Yes, thank you, my lord,” Melanie said, barely getting the words out.
“Allow me to introduce you to my fiancée, Lady Diana Thurston,” he said with that same crooked smile Melanie had loved her entire life.
“Congratulations,” Melanie said in a reedy voice. She ventured a glance at Lady Diana Thurston and noticed the older woman wore a smile so stilted and stiff Melanie thought it would snap in two. But it was the look in Diana Thurston’s eyes that shocked Melanie. If looks could kill, Melanie would have dropped dead that second.
Melanie couldn’t fathom it but wouldn’t let her smile falter. That would show weakness in front of this woman even as she felt Diana’s icy blue eyes scrutinizing her from head to toe.
The strains of a waltz began. The waltz that Melanie had hoped she would dance with Jonathan.
“Darling, will you do me the great honor of dancing with me?” Jonathan asked, lifting the hand of his fiancée to his lips.
Diana fluttered her lashes and gave him a shy smile.
