Page 10 of Burning Secrets of a Lady's Pen
Dark, curly hair, impossibly tawny-colored eyes, and sideburns, even more impressive than Imelda remembered. She felt her heart wither in her chest as recognition struck her.
Corin.
And Lady Waddeson had saidnephew.
Oh, standing right there next to Charlotte, the resemblance was uncanny, but Imelda couldn’t breathe well enough to really process such a thing.
Her heart was a sluggish, loud beat that took over all sound around her, imposing itself over the conversation at hand as her heart thudded inside of her head like a sickening drum beat.
Unthinkingly, she took a step back, and then another, and almost a third—her only intention had been to tuck tail and run, but two hands stopped her from either side, dragging her back into the fray and right into the path of her approaching doom.
“—and this is my daughter, Lady Charlotte. And my nephew Lord Salthouse, Corin Langford.”
Imelda crashed back into reality just as Lady Waddeson finished with her introductions.
“I’m so glad that you came,” Lady Charlotte said happily, reaching forward to take Imelda’s hand. “And Mr. Merrit, I’m so glad that you could join us.” She smiled prettily, including Spencer in the conversation, and woodenly, Imelda found her eyes moving to him.
She wanted him to catch her gaze and realize that he needed to spirit her away. She wanted him to use some of that twin telepathy that they had used so much when they were younger to save one another from situations that they couldn’t deal with.
But Spencer wasn’t looking at her.
He was staring at Charlotte, his eyes focused, and the lackluster attention he had been giving the evening earlier gone. His ears were pink, his lips stretched into a pleased, charming smile as he nodded. “I’m pleased I could come.”
Lady Merrit’s cough was hardly discreet, nor was Lady Waddeson’s answering chuckle, but no one seemed to notice.
“I’m glad I came, too,” Imelda lied quickly, her brain fog slowly lifting. “And it’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Lord Salthouse.” She didn’t dare actually meet his gaze, she couldn’t, though her voice firmed somewhat to press the lack of acquaintance they had and the formal way with which she addressed him.
And in her heart, she hoped that he would at least honor this one thing. That he would pretend not to know her long enough for her to make her escape.
“The honor is all mine…Miss Merrit,” Corin answered with only a slight delay.
“Honors all around,” Lady Waddeson quipped dryly. “I’d say let us dispense with all of this formality, but, well,” she looked around in discouragement at the affair as if she were suddenly disappointed with the grandeur of it all.
“It’s your party, Lydia,” Lady Merrit laughed.
“Don’t remind me. I don’t know why I continue to throw these things, really.” Lady Waddeson waved a hand, a familiar tinkling proceeding the movement as she pulled Imelda’s aunt into her side, linking their arms. “Dinner is about to start, be a dear and help me make it through the last of these introductions and allow the young people to go on ahead. As long as you’re with me, I might yet manage to avoid strangling anyone.”
“Lydia!” Lady Merrit snorted, waving Spencer and Imelda off with no more than a cursory glance.
Apparently, her aunt thought well enough of their company not to think that they needed to be chaperoned.
Imelda could have screamed.
“Lady Charlotte,” she said quickly as the two older women departed to finish greeting everyone. “Maybe you’d like to—”
“I was just about to offer to escort her into dinner,” Spencer chimed in, ignoring the daggers that Imelda was trying to drill into his skull with her eyes.
Damn him and his ignoring her attempt at capturing his attention. If he would just look at her…
But he had eyes only for Lady Charlotte.
Lady Charlotte, who was smiling prettily and taking his offered arm with a nod. “That’s so kind of you, Mr. Merrit.”
And with them walking off Imelda was left facing the one person she had sought to avoid the hardest.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she said stiffly, sidestepping him as he took a half-step forward. “I just need to go and…”
Powder her nose.
