Page 34 of Lady Mary's May Day Mischief
Charlton snorted. “I never saw you.”
“Of course you didn’t!”
“Now you make no sense, Fifi.”
“Ohhh! You stubborn man! I thought you were another man.”
“Who?” he demanded.
“That does not matter!”
But it had mattered a great deal, because Fifi always thought the man she sought was Northington.
“It matters to me,” Charlton said.
“Oh! You wore a mask that night. A rather large one! I remembered your hair and your mouth. But it was dark in that ballroom.”
“And in the card room too where you won my two hundred pounds!”
“Fairly!” she shouted. “I won that fairly. You are an incompetent card player.”
“I know that!” He sounded loathe to confess that.
“Oh, I must sit down,” she complained and clomped across the tiled floor. “Ahh. There.” She panted. “Better. Yes, that night I did not have a clear view of you.”
“We sat across from each other. I kissed you!”
“Yes! And I wear glasses for a reason, sir!”
“Really?” He snorted. “When?”
“Often!”
“You’re blind?”
Fifi grumbled. “Not entirely. But…yes!”
“How can you play cards if you can’t see?”
“Oh! I can count cards, calculate who has what and estimate my odds without donning my ugly spectacles!”
“Oh, Fifi. Sweetheart. I am so sorry.”
“I am, too, you terrible man.”
The sounds of Charlton’s steps across the floor were followed by a gasp by Fifi. “Charlton…”
“Darling,” he crooned.
And Mary buried her face in Blake’s chest to chuckle as the other couple rustled about.
“Fee, I love you.”
“Oh, Charlton. I’m so sorry. Say that again, would you?”
“You’re deaf as well as blind?” he asked on a laugh.
“No. I just need you to say it again.” Little sounds of kisses followed.
