Page 10 of Ravishing Camille
Pierce stood chatting with Victor. But as Camille turned to leave, Pierce met her gaze and arched a brow in question.
She threw him a grin but strode toward the door.
A quiver of concern trickled up her spine. Pierce could be a harsh judge. She’d watched him at it when he met others on the street. Once he had criticized a friend of hers, a young girl who’d come for a party at the London house. She’d not been in the house more than two hours when Pierce reprimanded her for demanding instant service from the staff. He’d been right to ask her to cease her demands, but tonight she worried that he could see things of people so clearly and quickly.
She wondered what his instant analysis would be of her beau.
“Hamilton!” She met him with a smile. He was giving over his Homburg hat, cape and walking stick.
Good man, he beamed at her with those large mud-colored eyes of his. “Kind of you to have me. And on a whim too.”
“I’m so glad you called to say you were here for a few days. My mother and father are pleased to welcome you.” She hooked her arm through his. She’d not been so friendly toward him before this, but well, tonight was the night for that. “I must warn you that we are quite a horde of people. My step-brother has arrived just this afternoon from Shanghai and it’s a reunion of huge proportions.”
“I don’t wish to intrude.”
“Not at all.” She patted his hand. “I shall introduce you to each but don’t feel as though you must remember everyone. We have children dining with us. It’s the custom. But the younger ones will go on to the nursery before we are called in to table.”
“I shall do my best to remember each one.”
She was sure he would. He could not be a successful manager of his father’s coal mining investments were he less than devoted to details.
In fact, Hamilton was quite simply perfection. His wide shoulders, his height, clipped red hair, trim beard, the line of his stance, all about him spoke of precision and strength. She’d known him for more than a year now. Met him at her friend’s house. Lady Brianna Price was the Earl of Bourke’s daughter, at twenty-five on the shelf, but appreciating every minute of her freedom. She and Brianna had a few things in common. One of them was an appreciation for Lord Hamilton Turnbowe. Another was a special enjoyment of his cousin, another jovial type, the Marquess of Dunvarnon.
The two women could not decide which man to favor more. And if Camille were honest, she could not say she would choose one before Brianna made her own choice. Cowardly of her, but she liked them both. Others too.
And if she had to marry, why not marry a man whom other women favored too? It meant one chose well, didn’t it?
If one had to choose at all, that is.
And she should.
The sooner the better.
* * *
Pierce sat back as the footman placed the dessert before him.
“Chocolat diplomat!” He chuckled that his step-mother remembered his favorite French treat.
“Why not?” Liv winked at him from the far end of the table.
“Do you have chocolate in Shanghai?” Liam, his eight-year-old half-brother who sat to his left, piped up.
“Indeed we do. It’s a favorite of the English ladies and the French.”
“Not the Chinese?” Liam stopped, fork and spoon mid-air, and frowned, confused that such a thing could ever occur.
“They have other favorites. Almonds and peaches.”
“Oh, well.” Liam nodded in agreement, his curly black hair dropping over his forehead. “Good choices.”
Pierce glanced down the dinner table and admired the comely multitude before him. He’d not been with such a crowd in a long time. His dining room in Albany Road in the Quarter could hold thirty and be cleared by his footmen to make room for a small orchestra and dancing. But he’d not invited many to his house in the past ten months. Only business associates. Certainly, he hadn’t forgotten how to mingle with friends, but he had forgotten how to enjoy himself.
He grinned. The sight of those who looked so much like him warmed him as little had this past year.
“You like the looks of us, I think!” Lily, his sister, addressed him from directly across the table, her glass of port aloft in a toast to him. She wore a pearl blue gown an exact match for her crystal blue eyes—and a characteristically impudent smile.
“I do! Each of you appears splendidly healthy.”
